A new trend on O’s farm

Orioles aggressively assign top prospects to higher levels to begin minor league season

| When the Orioles’ minor league affiliates opened their respective seasons Thursday, the assignments of some of their most promising prospects signaled an urgency in player development not recently seen on this scale from the organization.

At Double-A Bowie, the outfield will be manned by Cedric Mullins, who is skipping High-A Frederick entirely, along with 2015 first-round draft pick DJ Stewart, who spent just half a season there. And below them in Frederick, three top draft picks from 2016 — pitchers Cody Sedlock and Keegan Akin, plus outfielder Austin Hays — are going straight to High-A, bypassing Low-A Delmarva.

All the assignments put the players involved on a fast track toward cracking the major league roster, and the team seems to be subscribing to the theory that pushing them is the way to go.

“It’s still minor league baseball,” Frederick manager Keith Bodie said at the team’s media day Tuesday. “Talent-wise, they’re levelappropriate. So I don’t know if they’re going to be challenged as much as they are at a stage in their development where they need to continue to progress. They all have things that they need to develop — with pitchers, it’s about fastball command, throwing your secondary pitches for strikes. At any level of baseball, that’s a challenge. It’s nothing new, it’s nothing they can’t do.

“Minor league baseball is minor league baseball. I don’t think there’s very much difference, especially when you’re a polished player. A-ball, from Short-A to Low-A to High-A, I don’t think there’s any difference. There’s really no difference. I think one of the biggest jumps is from here to the next level, Double-A and I think the next biggest jump is anywhere in the minor leagues to the big leagues. But this level, to the next level, is the biggest jump in the minor leagues, in my opinion.”

While such aggressive placements are starting to become commonplace around the game, moving some more advanced prospects away from the year-to-year, level-to-level development that has long held as the norm, the Orioles have been much more cautious in recent years for all but their most precocious talents.

Before the draft signing deadline was moved into July instead of August, a given year’s draftees often couldn’t get much professional experience in their draft year. But after a handful of short-season games the year he was selected, Manny Machado went to Delmarva and then quickly up to Frederick. High school draft picks and international signees almost always start their first full season in Delmarva, even if some, such as 2011 first-round pick Dylan Bundy, leave quickly.

As far as college players, as all those being moved quickly this spring are, there’s still little precedent. Kevin Gausman signed early enough to make it to Frederick in 2012, the year he was drafted, and started in Bowie the following year. The most recent college pitcher to skip a full season at Delmarva before this crew was 2014 fifth-round pick David Hess.

As for Hays, the Orioles don’t have much track record with college hitters selected as high as he was in last year’s third round.

“Everybody’s goal is to get to the highest level as fast as possible, so being here is great,” he said.