Why did the Orioles promote Jud Fabian to Aberdeen so quickly?

A dominant two weeks with the Shorebirds was enough to promote Fabian to Aberdeen, but the why is almost as impressive as the performance.

There isn’t a lot of past data to draw from with this the second year of the July MLB draft without a short-season level to populate for new draftees, but that doesn’t make the Orioles’ aggression in moving one of their 2022 picks — outfielder Jud Fabian — out of Delmarva and into a playoff run with Aberdeen any less striking.

Fabian, who was promoted last week to Aberdeen but only got a handful of games in with the Ironbirds before missing the weekend, was moved quickly for a reason. Anyone following along knew why — he had a 1.322 OPS in 10 games there with 12 of his 17 hits going for extra-bases and eight walks against nine strikeouts.

But to hear hitting coach Brink Ambler describe those two weeks with the Shorebirds puts a perspective on the dominance that makes it fair to wonder how, exactly, the Orioles ended up with such a player with their fourth pick in July’s draft.