Orioles’ recent success trickles down to Tides
The Baltimore Orioles were last relevant in the American League East in 2016, when they finished second and lost a wild-card game to the Toronto Blue Jays.
They’ve finished either fourth or fifth in the five-team division and more than 11 games south of .500 in all but one of the five seasons since. The lone exception was the COVID-truncated 2020 season, when Baltimore went 25-35 to finish 15 games behind the division champion Tampa Bay Rays.
The Orioles lost 115 games in 2018, 108 the next season and 110 last year as they continued a massive rebuild following a mid-2010s run of contention.
Baltimore’s recent 10-game winning streak, which ended with Friday’s 5-4 loss to the Rays, pulled the team to 45-45 entering Saturday.
For a long-struggling organization in search of any sign of positivity, the air of success has flowed downward. Few within it are willing to say the turnaround is imminent, but it’s starting to seem within reach.
“It’s closer,” farm director Matt Blood, in town to see the Norfolk Tides, said this week. “It’s definitely closer, and you can see the major league team playing well and you can see the players here in Triple-A are starting to accumulate some of the young talent. That’s something that should bode well for us going forward.”
The Tides, who entered Saturday night’s game against Worcester at 43-45 and four games out of a four-way tie for first in the International League East, boast a roster full of the organization’s top prospects. All of them, including outfielder Kyle Stowers, infielder Gunnar Henderson and left-hander DL Hall, hope to be long-term contributors in the big leagues.
Some, like Stowers and infielder Rylan Bannon, have already put in time with the Orioles and seen the shift in culture from the top.
“Those guys are up there having fun,” said Bannon, a 26-year-old Illinois native who appeared in four May games with Baltimore. “They’re winning a lot of ballgames right now. You could definitely see the window closing a little bit. That’s what they keep telling us: We’re getting closer to our goal, which is winning some games in the big leagues. It’s awesome to see what they’re doing up there.”
First-year Norfolk manager Buck Britton has weathered the entirety of the Orioles’ rebuild from within. A minor league player until 2016, Britton has managed in the organization since 2018, from low Class A Delmarva to Double-A Bowie to his current post.
The older brother of injured New York Yankees left-hander and former Tides teammate Zack Britton, Britton recalls the genesis of the organization’s uphill climb with admiration for the job fourth-year Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde has done.
“There were some tough days,” Britton said. “You’d get to this point in the season, and the [major league] team was pretty much out of everything contention-wise. I’m just happy for Hyde that he’s got a team that’s competitive. He’s been through a lot, and he’s done a really nice job of continuing just to help those guys grow up there.”
The Tides have already helped the parent club this season, sending catching uber-prospect Adley Rutschman and infielder Tyler Nevin north for the long haul.
For Norfolk players still hoping to make the final leap, doing so is made increasingly difficult by the Orioles’ recent success. But that doesn’t change their approach.
“Honestly, you can’t really think about it like that,” Tides outfielder Robert Neustrom said. “In this industry, you’re competing with yourself. You have to be aware of what’s around you. You have to be aware of what’s in front of you. But you’re competing with yourself. It’s up to you to show up to the ballpark every day and get the work you put in. No one else is going to do it for you.”
Part of Blood’s job is to visit each affiliate and evaluate players and staff. Prospects lurk at every level, where Blood is seeing the fruits of successful drafts and other acquisitions start to blossom.
In 2021, Baseball America ranked Baltimore’s minor league system as the game’s best, which doesn’t mean the battle is won.
“Internally, I think we’re still pretty much of the same mindset of working towards the future and building from within,” said Blood, who’s been with the organization since late in 2019. “But there’s definitely excitement around winning and energy, and I think that brings with it good vibes. It’s just nice to see that we’re moving in the right direction.”
Bannon, a former Big East Player of the Year with Xavier who joined the Orioles in the 2018 trade that sent Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers, came back to Norfolk from the big leagues to hone his approach at the plate.
He said that with the Orioles winning and the Tides contending, the vibe in the organization has shifted.
“I think we’re just having more fun,” Bannon said. “We’re not as stiff. We’re coming to the park and we’re having fun. Everybody’s a little bit lighter than what we used to be, I feel like.
“There’s a lot of intent with what we’re doing. We’re training really hard. Practice isn’t easy anymore, and that’s kind of like their whole goal. That’s what they keep preaching to us: If you’re not training hard and challenging yourself, you’re not getting much better.”
David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com
Today’s game
Worcester (Murphy 2-0) at Norfolk (Hall 2-4), 4:05 p.m. (Junior Tides Game Night)
Inside: Recap of Friday night’s game, Page 4
