BALTIMORE—After the Norfolk Tides completed their season on Labor Day, DJ Stewart wasn’t chosen as one of the additions to the Orioles’ roster. Though Norfolk manager Ron Johnson told Stewart to stay ready, the Orioles’ No. 1 pick in 2015 thought his season was done.
Stewart, 24, spent much of spring training with the Orioles. His addition to the roster at some point this season was expected, but a hamstring injury sidelined him in late May. His July and August numbers weren’t very good, and Stewart ended up with a .235 average, 12 home runs and 55 RBIs.
“For me, it was kind of the tale of two seasons,” Stewart said. “It started off relatively hot, kind of carried over from the last year in Bowie. To me, I think, this is not making excuses at all, after I got injured a little bit, now that I’ve had time, that week, to think about it, I feel like when I got back, I was trying to get back to where I was, hitting before I got hurt instead of just playing.
“Early in the season, I was just playing the game, having fun and getting hits. When I got back, it was kind of like putting too much pressure on myself, trying to do too much, trying to get three hits in one at-bat. Nobody can do that. It was a mental thing. I let it snowball on me a little bit. To have that week off it’s like a new start, honestly. For me, get these last couple of weeks into the season, and see what happens.”
Stewart didn’t play Tuesday, though manager Buck Showalter said he expected him to start on Wednesday.
“[Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Dan Duquette] and I have been talking about it for a while,” Showalter said of Stewart’s addition. “Late August, September, we kept waiting for him to kind of get it going again and have him come up on a positive note. I think some of the pressure of that probably weighed on him, too. You see guys go up and you know the opportunity might be there. I just look at it as a guy who has the opportunity to have a future in our plans. Let’s take a chance. Why not?”
Stewart had to be added to the team’s 40-man roster over the winter, and the Orioles get what in essence is a free look.
“We want to take advantage of a rare opportunity to see him,” Showalter said. “He had a good year last year, he was well on his way to a good year this year, just didn’t quite finish it off … Hopefully, he can end on a good note here and go into next year with positive feelings about where he’s heading.”
In his several days at home in Florida, Stewart began thinking about his January wedding.
“I was focused on that, but then I shifted gears back to baseball,” he said. And he thought about what he had to do better in 2019. He wants fans to know more about him.
“That I can play,” Stewart said.” Everyone who hasn’t really seen me play, they kind of just see statistics and stuff like that. When they watch me play, they’ll enjoy what I can bring to the team and how I can go about the game and how I can play. I think it’s something I can contribute to the team.”
There are things that don’t show up in the stat line that Stewart is proud of.
“It doesn’t show that I’m in there, grinding every single at-bat,” Stewart said. “I make the pitcher work every single at-bat. I may swing at a few bad pitches, but I’ll also make the adjustment each pitch instead of taking the entire at-bat to process that. Once you see my entire game, it gives you a little bit more idea of who I am.”
Stewart could compete for a spot next spring with John Andreoli and Joey Rickard, who are already on the Orioles, and with Austin Hays and Anthony Santander, who aren’t.
“The effort, the baseball player part of DJ is really good,” Showalter said “You’re going to like the way he plays, the way he competes. Sometimes that can be rewarded, too. He’s got a good eye at the plate, he’s got some pop … I’d be surprised if he doesn’t hold his own here. He’s a talented kid. I really like the way he approaches things from an effort standpoint.”
Despite Stewart’s struggles at Norfolk, he’s in Baltimore, playing for Buck Showalter instead of Ron Johnson.
“No one wants to be in Triple-A,” Stewart said. “R.J’s cool and all that, but it’s a little bit cooler up here.”
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If your doing this which should of been done 2 weeks ago where is Ryan Mountcastle? I would argue he deserves to be called up before DJ.
DJ Stewart has to be put on the 40-man roster this winter. Mountcastle does not. The Orioles are still deciding on a position for Mountcastle, deqalt.
I'm thinking DJ being called up now instead of 9/1 is a result of this weekend's "AJ sits for young player audition" fiasco. Rickard was decent and Andreoli not so. So the "audition" results are in and result--call up Stewart. The O's have had so called hot shots play the OF and hit .190 so maybe a .235 minor league hitter will hit .290. Ya never know. Either way JUST PLAY HIM!
I agree on the reason for what appears to be an odd delay in calling him up. I’m guessing Stewart ends up as another fourth outfielder (how many do they need?), but I’d be happy to be proved wrong.
Orial and fareastern, I can't argue with your logic here.
Why not? He’s just another in the never ending parade of “wanna be’s” that the O’s have collected. Like they say... “ya never know til ya try”. I’m not holding my breath though. Oh, and after the high praise heaped on Mullins making him out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, he’s come back to earth and joined the rest of the strike out kings of the league. It’s the Coolbaugh influence!
Some of the way all this is being handled with Jones is the manager and GM know their gone. Hard to move a team in a direction when the leaders know the end is near for them.
What I like about Stewart is that he gets on base at a decent clip (.351 career OBP in the minors), which is something the O's could always use. Even in his off year this season, when he had a .329 OBP at Norfolk, that would still be the highest of any current Oriole besides Villar and Mullins.
Stewart might not amount to much, but he's exactly the type of player the Orioles should be auditioning, not the likes of Rickard and Andreoli.
Come on, Paul. You know that’s not actually true. .329 OBP would be one of the highest on the team if that directly translated from AAA — but it doesn’t. .329 in AAA translates to what at MLB levels — .280? Maybe?
DJ has been quite unimpressive at AAA. We’ll see what he can do at MLB — next year. These few weeks won’t be enough to show us much of anything.
I am surprised they are giving him a chance at this point. As noted he has a good on base percentage which is much needed by the Orioles. He is surprisingly quick for his size too leading Norfolk in steals. The injuries he had in the second half certainly had to play a factor in his poor showing in the second half. Hopefully he can develop into a serviceable fourth outfielder.
I think they’re hoping for more than that, Grand Strand.