Meet May's Orioles minor league All-Stars, as chosen by me

Considering just how much bad luck has befallen the Orioles and their top prospects on the health front this year, it’s fair to say through two months of the minor league season that it hasn’t been nearly the year on the farm that last summer was.

It’s not that it’s bad, per se, it’s more that a combination of untimely health issues and some less-than-inspiring performances have thinned the pool of Orioles prospects whose seasons are capturing attention and imaginations.

There are some, though, and many of them are featured in this recurring feature on the newsletter: the monthly organizational All-Stars.

Here’s the criteria from last time:

Adjusting for age or level as a tiebreaker seems complicated, so I went with the raw numbers for the most part, with a few criteria: mainly, a player had to appear in over half his team’s games, and was only eligible in the position he played most in this season.

These types of exercises can get onerous to consume, so let’s put a 100-word cap on each player capsule and really try to get what’s important covered and move on. That seemed like a good rule going into it, and as a postscript felt a bit light, but maybe we’ll adjust going forward.

A month on, no adjustments needed yet. So, after last week’s events bumped this from Friday’s schedule, here are the standout performers on the Orioles’ farm for May.

Catcher: Jacob Nottingham

Nottingham continued his big start to the season, hitting five home runs in 14 games with a 1.061 OPS and as many walks as strikeouts (11). I’d like badly to make the joke about bringing up the wrong catcher, but even one person thinking it’s a serious comment would be too many, and the discourse on the Orioles’ current catcher’s learning curve is not one I’m willing to engage on.

First base: TT Bowens

Bowens narrowly edged out teammate Jacob Teter at first base thanks to another solid month, with an .889 OPS thanks to eight extra-base hits and 14 walks in 20 May games. Among qualifiers through the first two months of the season, Bowens is fifth in the Orioles system in wRC+ (135), fourth in walk rate (17.4%), and tops in line drive rate (29.3%). Being a first base prospect is tough business, but Bowens certainly is showing he’s worth paying attention to.

Second base: Jordan Westburg

With one more game at second base than shortstop this year, Westburg is the winner here on a technicality — though an .866 May OPS with 13 extra-base hits did plenty to warrant inclusion here, not to mention erase a relatively quiet start. Westburg’s contact trends are intriguing. So far this year, he’s hitting more line drives and fewer ground balls than last year, as well as puling the ball more often. That’s naturally where his power will come from, so it’s encouraging to see him tapping into that as he’s back in Bowie this summer.

Shortstop: Richie Martin

Bowie having four shortstops means no one has played shortstop enough for it to be their top position this year. No matter: let’s again highlight Martin and his strong season. The former Rule 5 pick, no longer on the Orioles’ roster, had an .875 OPS with eight extra-base hits and 11 steals in May. As noted in the piece below from a week ago, there’s some real hard contact trends emerging for Martin that could mean he’s a different player than the one who struggled with the Orioles since 2019.

Third base: Gunnar Henderson

No regular on the Orioles farm matched Henderson’s 1.079 OPS in May, with his 13 extra-base hits tied with Westburg for most in the system in that span. Most notable, though, were the 19 walks against 16 strikeouts. Henderson’s start to the season has been nothing short of superlative, and the fact that he’s doing it at such a high level relative to his age is rightfully resetting expectations for his potential. Baseball America bumped him up to No. 37 in its most recent top-100, and that’s just the start of his climb.

Outfield: Shayne Fontana

The Orioles love their college hitters in the draft, but the 23rd-round pick from Lynn University doesn’t often get mentioned in that conversation. His production before he went on the injured list last week might change that. Fontana had a 1.003 OPS with 15 walks against 14 strikeouts and four extra-base hits in May. The high-minors outfield mix is a crowded one, but that kind of strike zone discipline can get help one break through that noise.

Outfield: Isaac Bellony

Bellony was one of the first signings announced when the Orioles’ old front office dove back into the international market in 2018, and is also leading the way production-wise as that first group moves into full-season ball at Delmarva. He had a cycle on Sunday to help cap a month in which the 20-year-old switch-hitter had an .845 OPS. When you see the Shorebirds, there are plenty of players for whom it appears there’s a lot of growing left to do. Not Bellony. He looks as strong as they come, and the production matches that.

Outfield: Kyle Stowers

That same piece highlighting Martin’s exit velocity trends had similarly positive indicators for Stoweres, who has come on of late in a big way. He finished May with seven home runs in the month to help him to an .849 OPS. His first home run of the month came on May 15, and he had a 1.241 OPS from then on once he broke that duck. Stowers will need some help to break the Orioles lineup any time soon, but he’s doing his part and seems to be trying to make keeping him in Norfolk for an extended period of time untenable.

Utility: Kelvin Gutierrez

It’s hard to be in the big leagues.

Pitcher: Grayson Rodriguez

Baseball’s best pitching prospect struck out 48 against 11 walks with a 0.97 WHIP and a 2.25 ERA in 32 innings as the Orioles had him presumably completing the last steps of his minor league development with the Tides. What a great month in Triple-A. Can’t ask a guy to do more than that. Anyway, Rodriguez left his June 2 start with an injury and may not pitch again this season.

Pitcher: Carlos Tavera

Last year’s fifth-round pick is the team’s highest-selected pitcher under Mike Elias, and at this rate will be among its fastest-moving, too. Tavera struck out 26 while walking just five in 18 1/3 innings over four May starts, giving him a 0.60 WHIP and a 0.49 ERA in the month. He does it with a lively fastball that gets into the mid-90s and an impressive modern-day pitch mix.

Pitcher: Connor Gillispie

Another relatively high draft selection for a pitcher by the Orioles’ standards, the 2019 ninth-rounder Gillispie had quite a May last year as well before a spell where he faced difficulties keeping the ball in the park, hence his return to Aberdeen this season. He was good this May, too, with a 1.64 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP with 26 strikeouts in 22 innings. It’s not overpowering stuff, but Gillispie has three pitches he needs to locate to be effective. More often than not this month, he was.

Pitcher: Alex Pham

Pham got a late start to the season, but has been steadily building up and impressing while doing it. With a fastball in the 92-94 mph range and a tight breaking ball, Pham has struck out 24 with a 1.65 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP in 16 1/3 innings between Delmarva and Aberdeen. He has the same swinging strike rate, coincidentally, as Rodriguez and Gillispie (14.5%), and is emerging as an early pitcher to watch from the 2021 draft class.

Pitcher: Rico Garcia

This was a tough spot to fill, as evidenced by the 28-year-old former big leaguer Garcia getting the nod as he climbs the rehab ladder on his return from Tommy John surgery. In eight appearances over three levels, he had 22 strikeouts with a 1.84 ERA and a 0.886 WHIP in 14 2/3 May innings. He’s up to three innings at Norfolk, so might end up being a length option for the Orioles’ bullpen before long.  

Note: This was sent out to only free subscribers earlier this morning, so for the paid subscribers, please pardon the tardiness.