ORGANIZATION REPORTS

BALTIMORE ORIOLES

Righthander Michael Baumann arrived late to Double-A Bowie’s party this summer, but he joined in the playoff push.

The 24-year-old Baumann has continued to climb the prospect ranking in the Orioles’ system since they drafted him in the third round in 2017 out of Jacksonville. He joined 2018 first-rounder Grayson Rodriguez as the organization’s co-minor league pitcher of the year after posting a combined 2.98 ERA with 142 strikeouts in 24 games between high Class A Frederick and Bowie.

Baumann’s personal summer highlight was a July 16 no-hitter, but he impressed across the board, with only one run allowed and 32 strikeouts in his first 27 innings after the promotion.

“I think the biggest thing was just with my consistency,” he said. “Cleaning some stuff up with my delivery and also polishing up some secondary pitches and command.”

Pitching in the Eastern League enabled Baumann to gain experience in a pennant race. The Baysox eventually lost in the EL finals.

“It was a blast going into that situation,” he said. “The rotation and the bullpen were all pitching well, and I’m a firm believer that winning’s contagious, and they set the bar high. I think we were all just going out there and trying to ride the momentum.”

The Orioles chose Baumann as their minor league pitcher of the month for July and he was twice named the Eastern League pitcher of the week. Baumann was named the Carolina League pitcher of the week for the period of April 29-May 5 and was selected as a midseason all-star in that league.

First-year Bowie manager Buck Britton referred to Baumann as “a big piece” of the second-half surge.

“For him to keep up where he left off in Frederick is pretty impressive for a guy making the jump,” Britton said. “From A ball to Double-A is a pretty big jump, especially from the pitching side. He did a nice job and he helped solidify that rotation.”

—ROCH KUBATKO

BOSTON RED SOX

To the Red Sox, the hiring of Dave Dombrowski represented what chairman Tom Werner called “the right man for the time” in August 2015, bringing aboard a president of baseball operations with the stomach to make massive investments (in dollars and prospects) to supplement a tremendous young core.

But by this September, circumstances had changed. The once-inexpensive core had become expensive and with diminishing years of control remaining. The Red Sox face a future not of addition and retention but hard choices about which players to keep and which to deal.

Against that backdrop, Dombrowski—with just over a year left on his contract—was fired, leading to the hire of Chaim Bloom, formerly the Rays’ senior vice president of baseball operations, as the team’s new chief baseball officer.

For Red Sox owners, the idea of sustainability suggested a need to improve farm system depth, particularly with the pitching staff. Bloom’s involvement in all aspects