Infield prospects drawing praise at Orioles camp

SARASOTA, Fla. – The Orioles eventually will reach the stage of spring training when prospects are sent to the minor league side at Twin Lakes Park to get ready for their season. They received the necessary camp exposure. They got the full experience. The major league coaches became more familiar with them. Zero downside to it.

In a spontaneous contest to create the loudest buzz at the Ed Smith Stadium complex, the young infielders ganged up on the competition.

I keep hearing how much the coaches are impressed with the group. The message has been passed along by many people. The level of talent, the polish and the maturity blow them away.

It’s hard to live up to the hype, with so many high draft choices, but they’re doing exactly that – proving worthy of their rankings in the top 100 lists.

Jackson Holliday is only 19, a year removed from high school, and observers can’t stop talking about him. The way he takes ground balls, his swings, his calm demeanor. No moment has been too big.

Holliday signed autographs for fans yesterday and doubled in his first spring at-bat, motoring to second base as his helmet flew off and his blondish hair flowed.

“Jackson’s awesome,” said outfielder Colton Cowser, the Orioles’ top selection in the 2021 draft. “We’ve been hanging out. He’s come out with us and we’re getting to know him better. You can tell he was raised right, for sure. He’s a great kid and he’s got a great head on his shoulders.”

The hands at shortstop are every bit as good.

“If you throw him out there with Jorge Mateo, Joey Ortiz, Gunnar Henderson, the other great shortstops we have, you would have no idea he’s a 19-year-old kid. It looks the same, it looks the part,” said third base coach Tony Mansolino, who's also the infield instructor.

“Now, that being said, he’s going to make mistakes in games. Or maybe not. But it’s normal. But in terms of just the overall skill set in a 19-year-old kid, it’s very unusual.”

Holliday heads to the back fields each day with Henderson, baseball’s No. 1 prospect who’s projected to get most of his starts at third base. Ortiz, Jordan Westburg and Connor Norby join them, with the expectation that they’ll return to Triple-A Norfolk and wait their turns to debut. Slugging third baseman Coby Mayo reached Double-A Bowie last summer, bringing him within reach of the majors, as well.

When a player with that much power starts knocking on the door, he might bust it off its hinges.

The Orioles will be challenged to make it work while breaking camp with Jorge Mateo at shortstop and Ramón Urías and Adam Frazier sharing second base and moving around.

“I don’t think you can ever have enough depth,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “You don’t know what’s going to happen here in the next month. You want to have as much talent on your 40-man and in your major league camp as possible because there’s all sorts of things that can happen. But you hope that guys feel pushed and you want guys to push each other.

“We have a really talented infield group and it’s going to be fun watching them compete.”

Hyde can’t say how he’s going to rotate Henderson, Mateo, Frazier and Urías – and it isn’t because he’s keeping secrets from the media and fans.

“I’m not there yet,” he said, tapping the brakes without using his foot. “I’m trying to get these guys kind of settled in. You think about how in a perfect world where is everybody going to play, but right now let’s just try to get through healthy. Let’s break with all of them.”

The Orioles put Ortiz on the 40-man roster to keep him away from the Rule 5 draft. He kicked the crap out of his defense-first reputation by batting a combined .284/.349/.477 with 35 doubles, six triples, 19 home runs and 85 RBIs in 137 games between Bowie and Norfolk. The 2019 fourth-round pick registered a .346 average and .967 OPS in 115 plate appearances with the Tides.

Ortiz remains a plus fielder at short and he plays a solid second, as well, but he isn’t defined solely by his glove. It was important to Ortiz that he not be placed in that box.

He sprinted out of one yesterday on his RBI triple.

“To be able to play in this game, I feel like you’ve got to do both well,” he said. “So, having the glove-first title kind just put a little chip on my shoulder, show them I can hit, too, and I’m glad I’m being able to do that now.

“From the first year, I’ve gotten a lot stronger. Just kind of figuring out my swing was the main thing. I feel like I’ve always been strong enough to hit the ball over the fence, but figuring out how to get the ball in the air more consistently was a big focus point for me.”

So is climbing the final step and reaching the majors this year.

“I always have the mindset of being ready for the call,” he said. “Whenever that happens, it happens, but I’m just going to worry about where I am now and put in the work.”

He’s doing it with Triple-A teammates who keep attracting camp attention.

“It’s nice, especially for a comfortability standpoint,” Ortiz said. “You play with the guys you’ve already been going up with, so it isn’t anything new as far as having to meet new people and stuff like that.”

“I have not seen it all, by any means, but in what I’ve seen, it’s very unusual to have this type of group of middle infielders who are American-drafted,” Mansolino said. “Our Latin department is just getting up and going. In a traditional setting where the Latin program was already strong, had you been able to add that group to this group, this would be otherworldly.

“From just from an American draft standpoint, it’s fascinating. These kids are really talented and really good. Really polished.”

And it's really hard for people in camp to stop talking about them.