The Ward trade with Seattle brought three right-handers \u2014 Alex Hoppe, Brock Moore, and Harrison Kreiling \u2014 who don\u2019t crack the Orioles\u2019 top 30. Hoppe, who has MLB experience, could join the Orioles\u2019 bullpen right away.<\/p>\n
Despite speculation that the Orioles might package some of their soon-to-be Rule 5-eligible minor leaguers to acquire major league help, the O\u2019s ultimately didn\u2019t trade away a single prospect aside from unranked righty Joe Glassey, a High-A relief pitcher. He went to the Nationals for Christian Franklin, a 26-year-old outfielder who will either join Triple-A Norfolk or report directly to the Orioles.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re going to be seeing some new names in these minor league box scores as the slew of new O\u2019s prospects report to their affiliates this week. In the meantime, let\u2019s check on how the holdovers have been doing.<\/p>\n
Last week: 1-5 vs. Worcester Red SoxComing week: at Buffalo Bisons (Blue Jays)Second-half record: 9-22, last place (12.5 GB) in International League EastOverall season record: 37-69<\/p>\n
Things aren\u2019t getting much better for the sad-sack Tides, who lost five straight after winning the series opener. They\u2019ve got the worst record in the International League in the second half after doing the same in the first half, and their roster has very few players capable of providing immediate major league help.<\/p>\n
The guys that you might\u2019ve hoped would supplement the O\u2019s roster by now have been underwhelming. Enrique Bradfield Jr. has just a .651 OPS for Norfolk after a 4-for-24 week. Catcher Creed Willems has a .771 OPS, which probably won\u2019t be enough to get him called up considering his questionable defense behind the plate. The previously hot Heston Kjerstad collapsed to a 1-for-21 performance.<\/p>\n
The lineup has recently gotten some reinforcements, at least, with the return of outfielder Reed Trimble and infielder Payton Eeles from injury. Trimble, returning from right hamstring discomfort, hit two homers this week but otherwise reached base just twice. Injuries have limited him to seven games at Triple-A this year. Eeles, who had been red hot for Norfolk before being sidelined at the end of May, returned with a 3-for-13 week.<\/p>\n
The Tides have some newly promoted pitchers from Double-A on staff, lefty Luis De Le\u00f3n and righty Juaron Watts-Brown, but for some reason not Joseph Dzierwa, whom the O\u2019s declined to move up. De Le\u00f3n pitched reasonably well in his Triple-A debut, allowing just one earned run in a 5.1-inning start, but Watts-Brown struggled badly with control, walking nine batters in 8.1 innings in two long relief outings.<\/p>\n
Among the more experienced Triple-A pitchers, Trey Gibson gave up two runs in 4.2 innings and Nestor German allowed three runs (two earned) in five. They\u2019ll soon be joined in the rotation by Michael Forret, who was teammates with both of them last year in High-A and Double-A.<\/p>\n
Double-A Chesapeake Baysox<\/p>\n
Last week: 3-3 at Altoona Curve (Pirates)Coming week: vs. Harrisburg Senators (Nationals)Second-half record: 18-14, second place (4.5) in Eastern League SouthwestOverall season record: 47-53<\/p>\n
The Baysox brought the lumber in this series, scoring nine or more runs in four of their games (including one loss). They led the Eastern League with 44 runs this week. One key contributor was the newly promoted Victor Figueroa, part of last year\u2019s Ryan O\u2019Hearn\/Ram\u00f3n Laureano trade with San Diego, who continued to rake in his first week at Double-A. The 22-year-old first baseman went 8-for-24 with eight RBIs and a home run, his organization-leading 24th of the season. Figueroa\u2019s prospect status is limited by his free-swinging ways \u2014 with a nearly 35% strikeout rate this year \u2014 but if he can continue his success in Double-A, he\u2019s worth keeping an eye on.<\/p>\n
Two other Baysox had eight or more hits: Aron Estrada, who boosted his season OPS to .803, and Griff O\u2019Ferrall, who is still only at .620. Estrada, like Figueroa, had a homer and eight RBIs. And how about Brandon Butterworth? Another guy from that Padres trade, he just keeps hitting, reaching base 11 times this week. Since coming back from injury July 7, Butterworth is slashing a ridiculous .304\/.400\/.638 with five homers and 18 games. Also making his introduction to Double-A this week was top shortstop prospect Wehiwa Aloy. He had a 3-for-5 showing on Saturday but otherwise went 2-for-18.<\/p>\n
Things are getting interesting in Chesapeake\u2019s rotation, where lefty Caden Hunter authored one of the most dominant outings you\u2019ll ever see \u2014 and in his Double-A debut, no less. He pitched seven phenomenal innings of scoreless, one-hit ball, racking up 10 strikeouts. Wowza! The 22-year-old has already laid waste to both Low-A and High-A in his first professional season, and he\u2019s arrived at the next level with a bang.<\/p>\n
Hunter was good enough even to overshadow the Orioles\u2019 breakout pitching prospect, fellow lefty Joseph Dzierwa, who was plenty effective himself. Dzierwa tossed five innings with just an unearned run of damage, limiting Altoona to two hits. A Baysox rotation of Dzierwa, Hunter, and the newly acquired Anthony Eyanson could be a sight to behold. Not to be forgotten is Patrick Reilly, back from last year\u2019s Tommy John surgery, who\u2019s still shaking off the rust. He struck out eight batters in four innings but was torched for six runs and eight hits.<\/p>\n
Last week: 1-4 vs. Wilmington Blue Rocks (Nationals)Coming week: at Jersey Shore BlueClaws (Phillies)Second-half record: 18-16, third place (2.5 GB) in South Atlantic League NorthOverall season record: 59-39<\/p>\n
This is a less intimidating offense for the Keys of late, with Figueroa and Aloy now up at Double-A and an injured Ike Irish out for the season. They\u2019ll soon get a boost from the arrival of Enddy Azocar, who had an .885 OPS for the Red Sox High-A affiliate Greenville before yesterday\u2019s trade. In the meantime, no Keys batter had more than four hits this week, but six guys hit home runs.<\/p>\n
Two starting pitchers, Christian Rodriguez and Stephen Still, made their High-A debuts this week. The lefty Still struck out 11 batters in 5.1 strong innings, while the righty Rodriguez struggled a bit, allowing eight baserunners and four runs in five frames. And two new acquisitions, Kyson Witherspoon and Brock Moore, are likely to join Frederick\u2019s pitching staff as well. Witherspoon, Boston\u2019s first-round pick last season, is an intriguing arm with a five-pitch mix who needs to hone his command.<\/p>\n
Before Witherspoon shows up, the Orioles\u2019 highest ranked pitcher at this level is righty JT Quinn, who worked 5.2 innings with six strikeouts and no walks this week. Quinn is averaging 3.7 strikeouts for every walk, which is nice. Right-hander Yeiber Cartaya, who started the season with a 1.42 ERA in 10 games, has fallen on hard times with a 6.51 mark in eight appearances since.<\/p>\n
Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds<\/p>\n
Last week: 1-5 vs. Hickory Crawdads (Rangers)Coming week: at Fredericksburg NationalsSecond-half record: 13-23, fifth place (7.5 GB) in Carolina League NorthOverall season record: 36-66<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re wondering why the Shorebirds lost five out of six games, just know this: they gave up 59 runs this week. Yes, 59. In six games. They coughed up double digits in four of their losses, and punctuated their terrible series by surrendering nine runs in the top of the ninth in Sunday\u2019s finale. Woof. But don\u2019t blame it all on the pitching staff; a whopping 14 of those runs were unearned, because Delmarva\u2019s defense is also terrible.<\/p>\n
For the most part, the lousy performances came from non-prospects, but unfortunately the worst was suffered by Esteban Mejia, who entered the season as Delmarva\u2019s best pitching prospect. The right-hander\u2019s outing this week was nothing short of nightmarish. He faced six batters. All six reached base (five hits and a walk). All six scored. Mejia has an incomprehensible 9.35 ERA and 12.3 BB\/9 in 16 starts this year. It\u2019s only getting worse.<\/p>\n
The Shorebirds offense was nothing to write home about, either, beyond Jaiden Lo Re\u2019s team-leading six hits and six RBIs. We could see Jhomnardo Reyes join this squad. He spent most of the season with the FCL Twins but moved up to Low-A before the trade.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s player of the week poll resulted in yet another first-time winner, Heston Kjerstad, who won an overwhelming 72% of the vote. In 12 weeks of polls, we\u2019ve had 11 different winners, with Ike Irish the only one to do so twice. Kjerstad is joined by one-time winners Aron Estrada, Victor Figueroa, Payton Eeles, Braylin Tavera, Caden Hunter, Wehiwa Aloy, Jaiden Lo Re, Joseph Dzierwa, and Luis De Le\u00f3n.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a head-to-head poll between two Baysox this time. Could we have another first-timer this week, or our second repeat champ?<\/p>\n
Vote for your Orioles minor league player of the week (8\/4)<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Here’s how the candidates did this week:<\/p>\n Brandon Butterworth (Chesapeake): 1.049 OPS, 4 XBH, 7 RBI<\/p>\n Caden Hunter (Chesapeake): 7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 10 K<\/p>\n Closes in 6 days \u2022 14 total votesView results<\/p>\n Brandon ButterworthCaden HunterRec 0CommentsThin Stroke Comment Icon BubbleReply<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every Tuesday on Camden Chat, we check in on the latest goings-on in the Orioles\u2019 minor league system.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,3433,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":["post-769773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimore-orioles-prospects","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-orioles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117037357275914705","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"PaulFolk\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/yoshi.jpg\"\/)
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