Rich Dubroff

Orioles move Cowser to Delmarva, Westburg to Bowie, Sedlock to Norfolk; Mateo starting at 2nd

The Orioles promoted outfielder Colton Cowser, who was the team’s first-round pick in last month’s Major League Baseball draft, from the Florida Complex League to Low-A Delmarva on Monday in a series of moves involving their prospects.

Cowser hit .500 (11-for-22) in seven games in the Florida Complex League. He had a home run and eight RBIs. Cowser will be joined at Delmarva by a number of recent draft choices:

Second baseman Connor Norby, who was the Orioles’ second-round choice; outfielders Reed Trimble (competitive balance pick), John Rhodes (3rd) Dontá Williams (4th); right-hander Carlos Tavera (5th); infielder Collin Burns (6th); catcher Connor Pavalony; outfielder Billy Cook (10th); infielder Jacob Teter (13th); right-handers Peter Van Loon (16th), Conor Grady (18th); two undrafted free agents, right-handers Daniel Federman and Preston Price; and last year’s fourth-round pick, third baseman Coby Mayo.

Promoted to High-A Aberdeen from Delmarva are: infielders TT Bowens, Jean Carmona, Ryne Ogren; outfielders Cristopher Cespedes and Lamar Sparks; and right-handers Noah Denoyer, Griffin McLarty and Adam Stauffer.

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Going from Aberdeen to Double-A Bowie are: infielder Jordan Westburg, who was chosen 30th overall in last year’s draft; right-hander Tyler Burch, acquired from Philadelphia in last month’s trade for Freddy Galvis; infielders Andrew Daschbach and J.D. Mundy; and right-handers Morgan McSweeney and Garrett Stallings, who was acquired in the trade from the Los Angeles Angels for Alex Cobb.

Right-hander Cody Sedlock, the top pick in the 2016 draft, and Blaine Knight, the third-round pick in 2018, are going from Bowie to Triple-A Norfolk.

Mateo at 2nd: Jorge Mateo, who was acquired from San Diego on waivers on August 5th, is starting at second base. It will be his seventh start at second. Mateo has started twice at shortstop, with the Orioles getting Richie Martin more work there.

Mateo, who is hitting .286 in nine games (10-for-35) with two RBIs, has made a good impression on the Orioles,

“We have a lot of really good people here, a lot of really good coaches, and I’m so happy to be here with those guys,” Mateo said. “That’s a real opportunity. I want to take advantage of it, and I’m so happy to take the opportunity the Orioles gave me.”

Mateo, who is one of the fastest players in baseball, said he is eager to play anywhere. Statcast has measured Mateo as the third-fastest player in baseball. He has stolen three bases and been thrown out once.

“That’s an advantage for me.” he said. “And for the fans to give me the support that they’ve been doing, and show it off.”

Mateo, who signed with the New York Yankees in 2012, also played in the Oakland organization before making his debut with the Padres in 2020.

“No, not frustrating, just be ready for the day when I have the opportunity to play, be ready every day,” Mateo said. “It was a happy time for me with this team.

“You never know when it’s your time. Every day is your time to come to the field to do everything you need to do to be better, better and better every day. You never know when your time is coming … That’s my mentality.”

Mateo is among a number of Orioles who lack plate discipline. He has struck out 48 times and walked just three times in his career. With the Orioles, Mateo has struck out 10 times without drawing a walk

“It’s difficult,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “It’s something we’ve talked a lot about this year because we don’t have a lineup full of guys that have a lot of walks in their career and came through the minor leagues showing good plate discipline, putting up numbers, but not walking much … when you get to the big leagues, when you have pitchers who have betters stuff, better command, if you’re not getting in hitters’ counts, it’s tough to hit.

“It’s been an emphasis of ours for the past three years now. You see some guys improving, gradually improving. [Ryan] Mountcastle is one we’ve talked a lot about. His plate awareness, his plate discipline has improved. It’s something that we need to collectively get better at with our hitters to be able to hit the premier pitching in this league.”

Injury update: Mountcastle, who has been the seven-day concussion injured list, appears to be getting closer to returning.

“He’s still in concussion protocol,” Hyde said. “Today he is doing all baseball activities. He’s going to take batting practice on the field. He’s going to do all his defensive work. Then he goes through his evaluations tomorrow, and I think if all things go well, it could be in the next day or two.”

Hunter Harvey, who is in Sarasota rehabbing the lat strain that put him on the 10-day injured list last month, could return “in the next week or so,” according to Hyde.

 

 

 

 

Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

View Comments

  • This is awesome, so if we bring no one up, have a great draft next yr, we can have the #1 ranked minor league system, or part of it could be all the teams that were ahead of us have brought up their outstanding youngens while we keep ours down, either way, it’s awesome, congrats Mikey & go O’s...

  • Os bringing in some exciting talent. Get that pipeline going! I like how they’re not letting guys stagnate but are aggressively moving them up. Prob winter trades, next years draft, international signings, Kjerstad hopefully back, great momentum happening in the minors..

  • I haven’t seen this much movement between levels in quite some time (early 2010s). Aberdeen was gangbusters until they sent about 7 players to Bowie. The jump from low a to hi a hits a lot of players hard. Furthermore, what is going on with Willy Yahn, he’s played at all levels except fcl.

  • Really surprise not one of international guys were promoted with this group heading to Delmarva like Maikol Hernandez.

  • Congradulations Elias, you have built the O's into the WORST Oriole team ever. The brothers are IDIOTS for keeping you around. As a GM you'd probably make a good washroom attendent.You have completely destroyed a great franchise you Rat B........D!

    • Norman...

      Your anger and frustration are terribly misplaced.

      This rabble of a Team is on one Peter Angelos.

      The very nature of the game is that it is not possible to turn an entire Organization around in short order. Orioles fans are going to just have to deal w this. Things ARE getting better.

      • IMHO a rebuild starts with a base. The base is not waiver wire (untradeable) or Rule 5 people. A rebuild has to start with MAJOR LEAGUE BALLPLAYERS, not with other teams castoffs. This fool of a GM says "We are not interested in any of the top fifty free agents". Is it any wonder why people are only watching 2/3 innings and figure that there has to be something better to watch? This is not only a bad team but a badly run team.

  • This is one BAD baseball team! This Phillips character has an average one point higher than Mendoza/Flaherty career average, yet he's like Rod Carew against the Orioles, same as everyone else, stiffs like Girchuck and Dalbec, makes me ILL! And to think, they held on to Fry!?!?!

  • This club sucks. From the owners, front office to the field players.
    If you doubt, just look at the number of posts. Everybody has left the building. Nobody cares anymore. Everybody is rooting for an 0 for August, September and October.

  • I would rather have have a last ranked minor league program & win at the ML level than what they are doing, We have no Delmarva, Bowie or Norfolk stuff in our home, but plenty of Orioles stuff, go O’s...

  • Strikeouts are not only a sign of a lack of "plate discipline." They may also indicate that a player has difficulty making contact with a pitched baseball.

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