ORGANIZATION REPORTS
BALTIMORE ORIOLES
The opening of the Orioles’ instructional camp enabled prospects to get more work beyond their homes during the pandemic. But it also allowed team officials to gauge the development of international players who signed last year.
Such players were denied games in the Dominican Summer League this year because of the cancellation of the minor league season.
Righthander Luis Sanchez kept grabbing the attention of Chris Holt, the organization’s director of pitching who was elevated to big league pitching coach this offseason. Holt provided detailed reports to senior director of international scouting Koby Perez.
Sanchez displayed impressive velocity, especially for a 17-year-old.
“Holty told me Sanchez is touching mid 90s,” Perez said. “(Holt) thinks there’s going to be more in there because there’s a lot of mechanical work being done with him, so this is just like raw talent, him throwing that hard. We think he can get even better.”
The Orioles signed Sanchez in January 2019 as one of seven prospects coming out of the Dominican Republic. He received a $200,000 bonus.
“You think about a guy with that type of velocity as a 17-year-old high school kid, he would probably be pretty interesting on people’s draft boards,” Perez said.
The TrackMan results further motivated the Orioles to sign Sanchez. His fastball has a high spin rate, along with the riding life up in the zone that is so important today.
“We were very excited to get him as late as we did,” Perez said, “and we think the future is real bright for him.”
The Orioles will make another attempt to assign him to the DSL in 2021.
In the meantime, an impressive collection of international players was able to work out in Sarasota, Fla., and push their development.
“Right now they’re 17 and 18, and there are 24-year-olds there, so they’re five, six years younger than the majority of camp,” Perez said. “But we thought it would be a really good environment for them to learn how to be professionals.”
—ROCH KUBATKO
BOSTON RED SOX
Though it did not come to pass, 23-year-old righthander Thad Ward entered 2020 as a darkhorse candidate to contribute to the big league pitching staff.
The 2018 fifth-rounder was coming off a standout first full season spent at two Class A levels. He went 8-5, 2.14 in 25 starts,
with 11.2 strikeouts and 4.1 walks per nine innings and seemed likely to open 2020 at Double-A Portland.
Instead, Ward never left Fort Myers, Fla., the city where the Red Sox were holding spring training and where Ward lives. He was not among the pitchers invited to the alternate training site in Pawtucket, R.I.
But that didn’t stop his pursuit of development.
“Obviously I was very disappointed and fairly frustrated that I wasn’t selected to go to the alternate site,” Ward said. “I was definitely disappointed but not discouraged. I kind of used it as a motivator.
“They didn’t necessarily think I was ready to be there yet, so next year I’m
