Orioles outfielder Kyle Stowers spent 2022 'establishing a floor as a player,' and is using his major league time to build from there
Stowers' impressive Triple-A time this year saw him strike out less and hit for more power, setting himself up for a major league role like the one he's ending the Orioles season with.
Kyle Stowers spent a few weeks after his August major league promotion seeming like a forgotten man, shuffling in and out of the Orioles lineup. Same can be said for his standing on the Orioles farm, where a new batch of breakouts means the player who performed step-for-step in line with Adley Rutschman in 2021 and was markedly better in 2022 isn’t mentioned in the same breath as the players who are counted among the next wave of Orioles prospects to make their mark.
To Stowers himself, this year served an important purpose — one that’s evident when examining his performance and hearing those involved with the organization talk about it. And for a player with a prototypical modern skill-set — a ton of power, a good eye, and some swing-and-miss issues — the goal he executed this summer is one that will make that more viable at the highest level.
“I think in Triple-A this year, I did a lot better job of establishing a floor as a player,” Stowers said. “I think last year, I had a very high ceiling, but the lows were pretty good. In Triple-A this year, I kind of minimized those lows and I think we talk a lot about expected metrics, definitely my expected metrics were a lot better at Triple-A which is to say I think I ran into some tough luck during the year. I think I have the ability to hit for average and power.”
If his luck was lacking, the actual outcomes don’t seem too unfortunate. He had an .884 OPS with 19 home runs in 334 Triple-A plate appearances, cutting his strikeout rate in Norfolk to 25.6% from his three-level 2021 rate of 32.3%. He whiffed moderately less, with a 15.1% swinging strike rate this year against a 15.9% rate last year, and increased his slugging percentage from .514 to .527. At face value, it’s at the very least an illustration that he was able to sustain at the highest level of the minors. If the outcomes didn’t match the quality of contact and he was owed better results for his hard contact, then he pulled off the relatively rare feat of making more contact and maintaining his power.
“I just think that what I need to cut down on is obviously some of the swing and miss,” Stowers said. “I was able to do that from Double-A to Triple-A, last year to this year. I believe in my ability that that will continue to improve throughout my career, and something that I’ll improve in the big leagues as well, which helped me not only be able to drive the ball some power but also hit for some average as well.”
This year’s improvement came as he tried to adjust his approach to be able to cope with the backwards pitching a middle-of-the-order bat gets from Triple-A pitchers.
“I had the realization, being a power hitter or being able to drive the ball, having some success in Triple-A and hitting in the middle of the lineup in Triple-A, I didn’t get pitched to,” Stowers said. “Guys threw me the kitchen sink so even if I was off a certain pitch, I was still getting mixed around. For me, it was just about being adjustable to the most amount of pitches rather than feeling like I’m trying to get after a fastball every pitch, every count. I’d say that’s where I was able to improve, that I was able to hit more types of pitches this year.”
His profile will always have some volatility to it, but Stowers is showing that what got him to the big leagues is working while he’s here. It’s taken some time to get there, though. Stowers was called up on Aug. 19 and started just 11 of the Orioles’ next 22 games. He had a .637 OPS as he was in and out of the lineup. But Stowers has started more frequently of late, and has an .892 OPS in his last 12 games (nine starts), having only not appeared in one of the Orioles’ games in that span.
Much like his late-season cameo at Norfolk last year gave him plenty to absorb about how to better prepare for the competition he’d face the following season, this month-plus in the big leagues is doing the same for him. He’s striking out 30.9% of the time in the majors entering Wednesday, and swinging and missing at 33.5% of pitches he’s seen. Still, he’s hit 48.3% of the balls he’s put in play hard, and is likely to end his rookie campaign with at least a league-average offensive output as he looks to improve in the future.
So while the next wave of Orioles prospects prepares for a year in which they could make their major league debuts, Stowers will remain a year ahead of them — and use the experience gained since the middle of August to keep himself in the Orioles’ major league fold.
“I think everyone likes to believe that their career is a linear progression, and you use the minor leagues, you conquer the minor leagues and get called up and conquer the big leagues and have a great career,” Stowers said. “Obviously, that’s not how it goes for everyone, and my experience was fantastic. Sure, it was a new role for me, not playing every single day, but I was just happy to be a part of a team that was winning, that was in a playoff push up until Friday night. I mean, we only played five games where we were out of contention, so when I was here, every game mattered a ton, and playing meaningful games, I think, was huge for me.”