ORGANIZATION REPORTS
BALTIMORE ORIOLES
As the Orioles keep filtering young pitchers onto the major league roster, Kyle Bradish is waiting his turn and is unfazed by the lack of attention.
The Orioles recognize the 24-year-old righthander’s talents and potential. They aren’t ignoring him in favor of more highly rated prospects.
The hype is most intense for first-rounders Grayson Rodriguez and D.L. Hall, the system’s top two pitching prospects. Lefthander Zac Lowther made his major league debut in April.
Righthander Michael Baumann also is on the clock for a rotation that debuted Keegan Akin, Dean Kremer and Bruce Zimmermann in 2020.
The 6-foot-4, 190-pound Bradish impressed the Orioles with his past results in the Angels organization prior to the Dylan Bundy trade. His work at the Bowie alternate training site helped him emerge as one of the top pitchers, and he continued to shine at minor league spring training.
Bradish, a 2018 fourth-rounder from New Mexico State, went 6-7, 4.28 with 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings at High-A Inland Empire in 2019. After the season he was traded to the Angels as part of the return for Bundy.
The Orioles assigned Bradish to Double-A Bowie this year.
“Bradish in particular is somebody that I have liked dating back to the 2018 draft,” Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said after the trade. “He went straight to the (High-A) Cal League, which is a nasty place to pitch, and pitched (101) innings and struck out 120 hitters.”
Elias gives Bradish extra credit for coming so far, so fast from the small Western Athletic Conference.
The compliments increased for Bradish after the Orioles placed him on their alternate site roster in early August. Multiple people in the organization singled him out as a standout performer, based largely on the quality of his low-90s cutting, riding fastball that touches 96 mph.
—ROCH KUBATKO
BOSTON RED SOX
On May 4, nearly 15 months into his tenure with the Red Sox, Jeter Downs finally played an official game for his third organization, in the process becoming the first shortstop in the history of the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox.
“It’s been a fun journey—a weird one,” the 22-year-old said.
A breakthrough campaign in the Dodgers’ system in 2019—following a trade from the Reds in December 2018—helped bring Downs to Boston. In 2019, the righthanded hitter adjusted his approach to drive the ball in the air with greater frequency to right-center field.
In 119 games at High-A and Double-A, Downs hit .276/.362/.526 with 24 home runs, 35 doubles and 24 stolen bases. His advanced pitch-recognition and feel for the strike zone, combined with tremendous bat speed that bought extra time for his swing decisions, made him one of the best prospects in the Dodgers system—and a target for the Red Sox in the Mookie Betts deal.
Inclusion in a blockbuster trade naturally
