It was yet another big week of Minor League Baseball, and we saw a few key things happen down on the Orioles’ farm.
First, we saw prospects in new places with multiple moves made inside the organization. Then, we saw new prospects to the O’s organization be added to their affiliates and make huge impacts in their first games.
Let’s not waste any more time and get right into our O’s Prospects of the Week for the first full week in the month of August.
Triple-A Norfolk: Samuel Basallo – C/1B / Tyler Wells – RHP
Returning to the Player of the Week was easy when you played four games and drove in 12 runs. It seems Samuel Basallo is finding new ways to wow everyone each week.
This week, the young phenom would go 7-for-18 (.389) with three doubles, two home runs and 12 RBIs, scoring four runs as well.
For the season, Basallo is now slashing .279/.384/.612/.996 with 23 home runs and 66 RBIs and has scored 49 times in 73 games. What is really impressive is that out of Basallo’s 72 hits, 40 of them have gone for extra bases (17 doubles, 23 home runs).
Although not a prospect, Tyler Wells is well on his way back, and this week proved just how far he has come.
Pitching twice for the Tides, Wells totaled 6.1 innings across two starts. He allowed four hits, walked three batters and struck out nine without allowing a run in either appearance. Even more impressive is that Wells threw 101 pitches, with 72 of them going for strikes.
As Wells continues to rehab back from UCL surgery, he has made three appearances during his rehab. He has totaled 8.1 innings of work between Double-A and Triple-A, giving up no runs, allowing four total hits, three walks, one hit batter and 10 strikeouts.
Opponents are hitting .138 against Wells, as he has accumulated a 0.84 WHIP and is holding opposing teams to a .211 BABIP.
Double-A Chesapeake: Adam Retzbach – C / Trey Gibson – RHP
Adam Retzbach, in five games, slashed .375/.450/.625 with a 1.075 OPS for Chesapeake this week. The former 14th-round pick had six hits, including a double and home run, knocked in three RBIs and walked two times.
Retzbach has put together a bounce-back season with the Baysox. He has posted a career-high .739 OPS in 92 games this season, along with 66 hits, 16 doubles, a team-high 11 home runs and has knocked in 42 RBIs.
It’s nothing but career-highs for Retzbach, something nice to see for the 24-year-old who could see a promotion in the near future.
On the pitching side of things, Trey Gibson is back on his grind and continues to dominate on the mound, tossing a six-inning shutout performance, giving up five hits and striking out nine.
Gibson has been a top pitching prospect on the farm this season. The 23-year-old righty has posted a 3.07 ERA in 91 innings of work this season between High-A and Double-A and has 135 strikeouts to just 32 walks. He is holding batters to an astonishing .183 batting average in his 18 starts.
Gibson’s overall performance has earned him yet another promotion, this time to Triple-A Norfolk. Congratulations, Trey!
High-A Aberdeen: Vance Honeycutt – OF / Luis De León – LHP
In his first game action since the middle of July, outfielder Vance Honeycutt wasted no time to get back on track.
In 22 at-bats, Honeycutt hit safely nine times, including a hit in each game, three multi-hit games and one being a three-hit affair. He totaled a home run, a triple and two doubles, as well as stealing four bases.
This was a great week to see from Honeycutt, who had struggled a bit before his ankle injury.
On the mound, we saw absolute domination from 22-year-old Luis De León on Saturday.
In six innings, the 22-year-old allowed just three hits to no runs, paired with a whopping 12 strikeouts. This was his longest outing of the year, as well as his season-high in strikeouts by a good margin.
In July, the lefty totaled just one more strikeout (13) in four starts than he did on Saturday alone. His August now has seen 11 innings with 18 strikeouts and no runs allowed.
Low-A Delmarva: Nate George – OF / Chase Allsup – RHP
Nate George has done it yet again. The Orioles’ No. 5 prospect had one amazing week with the Shorebirds, slashing .353/.476/.529 with a 1.005 OPS in five games.
George collected six hits, including a double and a triple, knocked in an RBI, walked four times and stole three bases.
George is the best hitter in the O’s system right now. The former 16th-round pick is batting an incredible .352 average in 244 at-bats this year between rookie ball and Delmarva and has also been a speedster, stealing 38 bases with a .935 OPS this season.
George just got the call-up to Aberdeen after Sunday, and it is very well-earned. Congratulations, Nate!
Chase Allsup was a strikeout machine on the mound, collecting 10 strikeouts over four innings of work in his start against Fayetteville. This was Allsup’s second double-digit strikeout performance this season, and both times were against Fayetteville.
In 81.1 innings of work, Allsup has a 6.09 ERA this season, and batters are hitting .256 on him. He has given up 55 earned runs, walked 58 batters and struck out 82 this year.
It’s not been the ideal season for Allsup, but there’s still some time to turn it around before the end of the year.
What do you think of our selections this week? 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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