Orioles’ Spring Breakout a big hit with fans

SARASOTA—Spring training is full of unexpected moments. Saturday night, they came in Spring Breakout.

Last year, Major League Baseball decided to introduce games between the top prospects of each club, and the Orioles’ prospects played the prospects of the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton. It was the most notable because baseball’s top position player prospect, Jackson Holliday, faced the game’s leading pitching prospect, Paul Skenes.

This year, there were no consensus top picks when the Orioles’ prospects faced those of the Yankee’. Due to scheduling, the Orioles played a Grapefruit League game at Bradenton against the Pirates earlier on Saturday, and it was the worst game of the spring with the Orioles losing, 15-5.

It was surprising to see such a large crowd for Spring Breakout at Ed Smith Stadium, 6,680, not far from capacity. None of the Yankees’ prospects were in MLB.com’s top 100, and the only one among the Orioles was 20-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo.

In the end, it was a marvelously entertaining evening with some of the players known to Orioles fans delivering memorable performances and some new names making their presence felt.

Enrique Bradfield Jr., the team’s top draft choice in 2023, ran wild on the bases. After the game, the 23-year-old outfielder revealed a close friend and youth ball teammate, 25-year-old Isaiah Hood, had been killed in a motorcycle accident earlier iin the week.

Vance Honeycutt, the Orioles’ No. 1 pick in 2024, who was 2-for-20 with 11 strikeouts at Single-A Delmarva last year, electrified the crowd with an inside-the-park home run.

An outfield of Bradfield, the 21-year-old Honeycutt and 24-year-old Jud Fabian provoked Anthony Villa, the team’s director of player development, to joke that if a ball dropped in the outfield, he’d force them into football drills.

The Orioles haven’t used many high draft picks on pitchers, and their starter, 18-year-old Venezuelan Keeler Morfe, who is listed at 5-foot-8 but is a few inches taller than that, was jittery in the first inning, allowing two runs, but following him, things tightened up.

Right-hander Patrick Reilly, 23, whom the team acquired from Pittsburgh last July in exchange for outfielder Billy Cook, threw two hitless innings, the only one of the Orioles’ nine pitchers to throw two. He struck out two and walked two.

Luis De Léon, 21, their 11th-ranked prospect who was impressive against the New York Yankees last Tuesday, had a spotless inning. Levi Wells, 23, Nestor German, 23, and Cameron Weston, 24, each threw a scoreless inning.

When Leandro Arias, a 20-year-old international infield prospect, hit a single that gave the Orioles a 5-4 win in the bottom of the ninth, Ed Smith Stadium was the loudest it had been all spring.

In Grapefruit Leage games, by the time the ninth rolls around, major leaguers are generally long gone, and everyone else is simply waiting for the games to end.

Spring Breakout is a fine idea but needs some tweaks. The major league teams shouldn’t be playing in a different location. It’s just fine if Spring Breakout follows a regularly scheduled game. Better yet, make it a standalone day when there are no Grapefruit or Cactus League games and give the prospects a day of their own.

Ed Smith Stadium was a marvelous venue for the game, far better than the ancient LECOM Park in Bradenton.

MLB needs to do a better job of promoting the game. There should be a media day the week of the game with the manager of the team, some team executives and key players. Instead, a 15-minute clubhouse availability was held, forcing writers to choose between covering the Grapefruit League game and the media session.

Spring Breakout has some qualities. In the Orioles’ case, this year’s was on the MLB Network, and fans got to see their team’s prospects play for the first time. Last year’s game wasn’t even on radio.

It helps promote minor league ball, and with Delmarva, Aberdeen and the newly renamed Chesapeake Baysox close by, fans can identify with the prospects who play there.

Next year’s breakout game won’t feature Basallo, who should be with the Orioles by then. Bradfield might be, too, but it should feature some of the top draft choices this coming July. I hope they’re as exciting as the ones we saw on Saturday night.

Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.