Trades ‘always a real possibility’ for Norfolk Tides prospects. ‘It’s baseball. It’s a business.’

Connor Norby is a baseball realist.

The Norfolk Tides second baseman has had sustained success in his young career, and he knows he’s likely to play in the major leagues sooner rather than later. He’s just not sure it will be with the Tides’ parent Baltimore Orioles.

Norby, a second-round draft pick out of East Carolina in 2021, can tell by the ongoing resurgence in Baltimore that the Orioles might eventually run out of room for him and some of his fellow elite prospects, which could lead to some of them being traded.

“It’s part of anyone’s career,” Norby, 23, said. “It doesn’t matter what org you’re in; it’s always a real possibility for anyone. But you’d be blind to not know that we’re in a position with our big league team and us that it’s a very realistic possibility for any one of us. It’s not something you can focus on.”

After going 1 for 3 with a double in Norfolk’s 3-2 win over Worcester on Thursday afternoon, Norby is batting .286 with seven home runs and 38 RBIs through 62 games. He leads the Tides with 19 doubles.

None of that makes Norby or most other Norfolk players immune to being dealt before Major League Baseball’s trade deadline on Aug. 1.

On Thursday, Norfolk got six strong innings from right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (3-0) and homers from Heston Kjerstad and Robbie Glendinning to improve to 45-20 and inch closer to an International League first-half title.

It was business as usual for a prospect-laden team that has dominated the league all season. Though some of them could continue their careers elsewhere in exchange for major league pieces, Tides manager Buck Britton urges his players to control what they can control and focus on the task at hand.

“Their job is to go out there and play hard every time they’re on the field,” Britton said, “and our job as people who develop is to make sure that we try our best to turn them into the best baseball players they can be so that they impact the major league roster — whether it’s (as) a player for us, whether it’s a trade. Obviously, we don’t make those calls.”

The second-place Orioles, who have seen many of their top prospects reach the game’s highest level, are paying veteran second baseman Adam Frazier a reported $8 million on a one-year deal struck in January.

Frazier, 31, entered Thursday hitting .236 with eight homers and 31 RBIs, committing just two errors through 59 games at second base and six more games in the outfield.

Norby, similarly, has dabbled at other positions. In addition to 45 games at second, he’s appeared 12 times in left or right field and once at shortstop. It’s all an effort to make himself a more attractive major league piece.

“You kind of feel stuck a little bit at times,” Norby said. “But it shows that they’re willing to move guys quick, and that’s what you want to be a part of.

“I think I’m a second baseman, but I do enjoy playing the outfield. And it’s something I’ve worked on a lot this year.”

Britton, a former minor league utilityman who played every position but catcher and center field in his career, urges his players to diversify their skill sets.

“Because of where we’re at, we want to be able to give the major league manager options when he’s filling out a lineup card,” Britton said. “So if Norby gets an opportunity up there, to have that versatility would be important for him to get his bat in the lineup.”

Whether that major league manager is Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde or someone else remains to be seen.

Norby said he learned from ECU coach Cliff Godwin to “be where you are at that given day and that moment,” which helps keep thoughts of a potential trade out of his mind. Norby, a Minnesota native who lives in Kernersville, North Carolina, said he and Godwin text each other about every other week.

“He’s like a second father to me,” Norby said, adding that he’s confident the Pirates will one day play in their first College World Series after falling just short again this season. “I’m like the son he kind of wishes he never had, pretty much.”

Britton, who at 37 might be more like an uncle figure, hopes to see Norby and some of his teammates help their current parent club.

“You do get attached to players and you want them to play for the Orioles,” Britton said. “But we just want to do what we can to make them the best versions of themselves so that they do get an opportunity to play in the big leagues. Hopefully, it’s for us and it impacts us directly or it impacts us via a claim or something.”

Norby, the 2021 American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, received a $1.7 million signing bonus to forego his senior year of college. He did it, he said, because he knew the Orioles would give him a fair shot to move up the minor league ladder if he performed.

If he’s hit a wall at the top, then so be it.

“It’s baseball,” Norby said. “It’s a business at the end of the day, but it’s not something you can worry about. Do I think it’s going to happen? Yeah, I mean, sure. For me, I have no idea. For any of us? We have no clue. But you can’t focus on it.”