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Every night — or morning, depending on what time the game ends — Orioles manager Brandon Hyde reads over the box score and game reports from Triple-A Norfolk.
He’s keep tabs on Jackson Holliday, Connor Norby, Heston Kjerstad, Kyle Stowers and Coby Mayo, five of the Orioles top prospects who didn’t make the team despite strong showings during spring training. They are all expected up in the majors at some point this season, and Hyde wants to know what his future players are up to.
Last night’s Tides game might keep Hyde tied down for a bit longer than usual.
Holliday, Norby, Kjerstad, Stowers and Mayo combined to go 20-for-32 in the Tides 26-11 win against the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate of the White Sox. Fourteen of those hits were for extra bases, including three home runs from Stowers alone. Their performance broke several Tides’ records, including most runs, hits (29) and home runs (8) in a single game.
On the season, Kjerstad is hitting .583 (14 for 24) with four home runs and 18 RBIs in five games. Stowers, meanwhile, is hitting .400 (10 for 25) with five homers and 14 RBIs. Holliday, a son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday, is hitting .400 (10 for 25) with two homers and eight RBIs for the Tides, who are off to a 4-1 start.
So, uh, why aren’t they in Baltimore yet?
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The Orioles major league team is also stacked, and they are still winning despite not clicking on offense yet. At some point, though, it will become even more difficult to deny these five a spot in the majors.
Holliday, the top prospect in baseball, was sent down to get more experience against left-handed hitting and at second base, a position he has played only 29 times in his professional career. In his first game of the season, he hit a home run off a left-handed pitcher. He faced just one left-handed hitter on Wednesday and against showed he can handle it, smacking a double off Knights’ reliever Bailey Horn, one of Holliday’s four hits on Wednesday.
He does have two errors — although only one came when he was playing second.
The most likely path for any of these five to get to the majors is as an injury performance, but poor performance may also boost them. Ramon Urías (0-for-14 so far this season) and Tony Kemp (0-for-5) have both struggled to start the season and are the two candidates to be designated for assignment or traded to make room for Holliday.
Of the five, Stowers has spent the most time with the Tides. He first arrived to Norfolk in 2021 and debuted in Baltimore a year later, playing in 34 games then and 14 at the start of last season. He was sent back to Triple-A — a place he has now played 122 games at — despite hitting .256 with seven home runs during spring training.
“It’s been tough for us to get him an extended look at the major league level despite how well he hit this spring and it was as well or better than all thees guys,” general manager Mike Elias said of the decision to send Stowers back down. “It became clear that different player profiles were going to be better fits for this first homestand or this first month whatever it ends up being. He is going to get an extended chance. When he does, he’s going to take huge advantage of it.”
The Orioles are currently carrying four outfielders — Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, Anthony Santander and Colton Cowser — with Jorge Mateo and Ryan O’Hearn also capable of filling in. If Stowers gets promoted, it would likely mean someone like Cowser, who is 4-for-8 so far and a strong defender at all three spots, would have to be optioned, or an injury would have to occur to one of the starters.
Stowers is also in competition with Kjerstad, who went 5-for-7 with 10 RBIs Wednesday and was a part of the Orioles playoff roster last year. So is Connor Norby, who came up as a second baseman but has played exclusively as a corner outfielder this season.
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Danielle Allentuck covers the Orioles for The Baltimore Banner. She previously reported on the Rockies for the Denver Gazette and general sports assignments for The New York Times as part of its fellowship program. A Maryland native, Danielle grew up in Montgomery County and graduated from Ithaca College.
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