The Minor League Baseball season is back in full gear for all four Baltimore Orioles affiliates.
It’s time for weekly recaps on the players who shined during this past week of baseball on the farm. For each affiliate, we will highlight one position player and one pitcher who stood out above the rest.
Covering the Triple-A Norfolk Tides this season will be Stephen Heckman, with Justin Sutphin taking on the High-A Aberdeen IronBirds and Zack Bucklew handling both the Double-A Chesapeake Baysox and Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds.
With that being known, let’s see which names started the 2025 season off hot.
Triple-A Norfolk: Vimael Machín – INF, Brandon Young – RHP
Hovering right around the .500 mark to start the season, the Norfolk Tides are giving up four or more runs a game in their losses while the offense sleep walks. On the other hand, they are only allowing three runs or less in their wins while the offense scores at least three runs in their victories.
To open the season, the Tides’ best hitter has been Vimael Machín, a 10th-round pick by the Chicago Cubs in 2015. Signed by the Orioles this offseason as a free agent, the 31-year-old infielder has collected 12 hits across his first eight games.
Currently Machín is slashing .429/.500/.607/.1.107 with a home run, six RBIs and four walks. The veteran lefty has an incredible .478 BABIP, and his patience at the plate is identified with a career-high 4.6 pitchers per plate appearance.
Whether he can sustain that pace is something we will be watching closely, but at this time, Machín is the catalyst for the offense and one reason the Tides have won four games this young season.
One of the biggest highlights of the young season has been the emergence of right-handed pitcher Brandon Young.
In two starts this season, the O’s No. 19 prospect is 1-0 across 11.1 innings of work, allowing just two runs, neither of them earned. He has struck out 11 batters to just two walks while holding opponents to a .171 average with a 0.79 WHIP.
Posting one quality start so far, two areas aiding Young’s strong start are the opposition having a .233 BABIP and batters seeing only 3.7 pitches per plate appearance, leading to a career-low of 14 pitches per inning.
Securing two of the Tides’ four victories, Young looks to be the top piece of the rotation while awaiting his opportunity to hit the bigs.
Norfolk will enjoy an off day Monday before welcoming the Gwinnett Stripers to town.
Double-A Chesapeake: Enrique Bradfield Jr. – OF, Peter Van Loon – RHP
It’s fitting that the first prospect highlighted on the Baysox is O’s No. 3 prospect, Enrique Bradfield Jr.
EBJ had a fantastic three-game start to the season, slashing .375/.500/.500 with a 1.000 OPS and collecting three hits, including a double, an RBI and two walks.
The pitcher to highlight this week was honestly tough to choose. Big shout out to Preston Johnson, but I decided to go with right-hander Peter Van Loon, who tossed three shutout innings, striking out four, walking three and receiving the win in Saturday’s game.
Van Loon looked back to his 2022 ways when he posted a 3.25 ERA with the IronBirds. It was a great sign for the 2025 season.
High-A Aberdeen: Griff O’Ferrall – INF, Michael Forret – RHP
The Aberdeen IronBirds began their 2025 campaign on the road in South Carolina against the Hub City Spartanburgers, the new Single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.
The Spartansburgers’ debut series came with a win against the hometown IronBirds. However, a couple of high-profile Baby Birds came to play in this first half-series of the South Atlantic League season.
Offensively, the player of this series has to go to infielder Griff O’Ferrall, who came into the season following a strong showing in spring training. The O’s No. 7 prospect kicked the year off with a 4-for-14 effort, which included a double, triple and three RBIs.
Hitting atop the IronBird order, O’Ferrall immediately is showcasing the ability we saw in college to be able to hit the ball to all fields, reaching base safely in all three games.
On the rubber, right-hander Michael Forret picked up right where he left off last year to take the first pitcher of the week honors.
Totaling 4.2 innings in his first start, the O’s No. 8 prospect surpassed the 100-inning mark with the IronBirds for a total of 104.1. This just under five-inning start saw no runs allowed for Forret, accompanied by five strikeouts.
This week’s clean outing will lower his career Single-A ERA to 3.88. This is also his sixth outing dating back to last year consisting of four or more innings with zero runs allowed.
Low-A Delmarva: Steven Ondina – INF, Jacob Cravey – RHP
The 2024 undrafted free agent showed out to start the 2025 season.
Steven Ondina from Arizona State slashed .600/.750/.600 with a 1.350 OPS, collecting three hits and walking three times. Talk about being an on-base machine in your first series of 2025.
Talking about making an impact in the first series, right-hander Jacob Cravey did just that.
After struggling with 5.27 ERA in 2024, Cravey’s first appearance of 2025 was 3.2 innings of two-hit, no-run baseball. Cravey also struck out five in his first appearance, a great start for the former Samford product.
Which prospects stood out most to you to begin this season? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, X, Bluesky and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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