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By On the Orioles farm, a case could be made that no player showed a better speed-power combination in 2021 than outfielder Zach Watson. He was the only player on the O's farm to both hit 20 or more homers and steal 20 or more bases. And he did that during the combined 105 games he played for high Single-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie.
Watson, 24, was the Orioles' third-round pick (No. 79 overall) in 2019 out of LSU. He batted .248/.294/.468/.762 between the IronBirds and Baysox last season with 17 doubles, four triples, 21 homers, 24 steals, 63 runs and 66 RBIs.
Watson produced power like a middle-of-the-order hitter last season, but instead is a speedy center fielder listed at 6-feet and 160 lbs.
Not currently ranked among the club's top 30 prospects, he does get a 70 grade for his speed from FanGraphs.com, which rated him as the O's No. 34 before the '21 season. Watson's 21 homers on the farm rated behind only Kyle Stowers (27), Adley Rutschman (23) and Patrick Dorrian (22), and his steals total trailed only Adam Hall and Mason Janvrin, each with 26. Watson hit nine homers for Aberdeen and 12 for Bowie, and his OPS for the season rated 12th-best among O's farmhands with 300 or more plate appearances.
Ryan Fuller, recently promoted from Bowie hitting coach to co-hitting coach with the Orioles, got a lot of time to work with Watson last season in the Double-A ranks.
"He's so exciting," said Fuller recently. "I mean, for a little guy he's got a lot of thump. And to be able to see him play center field, you see the athleticism come out immediately. And then you see it in the box, too. The big thing for him is maintaining that damage that he produced this past year, utilizing his speed on the basepaths and on defense.
"Then it will just be swing decision-based, cutting down on the chasing. Really zoning in on, 'Here's the zone I can do damage on. If they don't throw it in that zone, I don't have to go fishing for anything else. I can be a little more patient and wait for them to throw it in my slug zones and when they do, I'll do damage.' For him, it's mostly swing decision-based - improving that - because he already does a really nice job on making loud contact."
Watson walked 22 times and fanned 122 last season, and could both add to his OBP with more walks and produce even more damage by cutting down on the strikeouts. His walk rate was 5.0 with a 27.9 strikeout rate for 2021.
But when I talked with Watson late last year, he was proud of the 20-20 achievement.
"It's awesome," Watson said during an interview at Prince George's Stadium. "All the hard work that I've put in. Using my speed on the base paths and trying to get everything that I can, trying to take that extra base. And the power really showed up this year."
Watson was 21 when selected by the Orioles in that 2019 draft after a junior year at LSU where he batted .310/.377/.476 with 17 doubles, seven homers, 41 RBIs, 52 runs and 11 steals in 12 tries. Heading into that draft, he was rated a plus defender in center field, getting strong grades on defense and with that 70-grade speed.
Fuller said the Orioles and Watson need to make sure that he uses his speed as a key element in his offense.
"Absolutely," he said. "We're never telling a guy, 'Hey hit it on the ground, we hope they make an error or you beat it out.' But within the ranges, we feel in terms of ball flight, Zach Watson, his ball flight could be a little bit lower. We call it penetrating ball flight. If he lives a little bit lower, we're going to live in those gaps. He hits line drives into those gaps, he has the ability to turn a single into a double, a double into a triple.
"So the meat and potatoes of hitting the ball hard on a line in the air are still the same, but within those ranges, we can tell a guy, 'You can live a little higher, you can live a little lower.' But it's really hard contact on a line and that is the thing for Zach - to stay through the gaps and utilize his speed once he hits the ball hard on a line in the air."
