Stowers continues extra-base hit surge
Henderson, Westburg continue rise, but Elias likely won’t rush them
As infielders in Baltimore struggle to find consistency at the plate, prospects at two of those positions — namely Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg — at Triple-A Norfolk are continuing to perform. But as has been the case throughout the Orioles’ rebuild, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias isn’t likely to rush a prospect along just because the major league production is underwhelming.
Henderson hit for the cycle last week and Westburg had three doubles in five games. They were far from the only prospects to put up strong performances in the minors last week.
The minor league’s weekly routine was altered for July Fourth, with the usual Monday off day changed to Tuesday. With night games Monday for the affiliates, all stats for this recap are through Sunday’s games.
Each week, The Baltimore Sun breaksdownfiveofthetopperformers in the Orioles’ prospect ranks andhandsoutsomesuperlativesfor those who didn’t make that cut.
1. OF Kyle Stowers
After Stowers’ brief cameo with the Orioles while in Toronto, the 24-year-old has returned to Norfolk and hasn’t stopped hitting. Last week, Stowers hit two homers and three doubles as part of his seven hits in six games, bringing his OPS for the week to 1.162. Should there be any trade activity for Baltimore this month, Stowers is a likely replacement. He’s hitting .262 with a .911 OPS for the Tides this year.
2. INF César Prieto
Between Wednesday and Thursday last week, no one in the organization had bigger performances than Prieto.
The utility infielder for Double-A Bowie combined for eight RBIs in those two games and finished his week with a 1.167 OPS and nine RBIs in six games, including one homer and three doubles.
Prieto, 23, defected from Cuba in May 2021 while with the
Cuban National Team in Florida for an Olympic qualifying tournament.
He earned a $650,000 signing bonus with Baltimore, the fourth largest Elias and senior director of international scouting Koby Perez have given out.
3. RHP Xavier Moore
In two relief appearances last week at High-A Aberdeen, Moore faced 10 batters. The 23-year-old right-hander struck out eight of them. A 16th-round pick for the Texas Rangers in 2017, Moore blew away his competition across three innings last week, continuing a strong season.
In 20 ⅔ innings, Moore has allowed four earned runs and has struck out 37 batters — he’s averaging 16.1 strikeouts per nine innings.