Top Orioles prospect Coby Mayo will see his initial taste of the majors draw to a close after just seven games and 20 plate appearances. Baltimore announced Thursday that Mayo has been optioned back to Triple-A Norfolk. Infielder Livan Soto was recalled from Norfolk in his place.
Mayo, regarded as one of the top prospects not just in Baltimore’s system but in all of baseball, was called up shortly after third baseman Jordan Westburg suffered a fractured hand when he was hit by a pitch. Expectations were high, considering his prominent placement on national prospect rankings and his gaudy .301/.375/.586 batting line through 341 Triple-A plate appearances during just his age-22 season. However, like fellow top prospect Jackson Holliday before him, Mayo stumbled out of the gate with a strikeout-laden showing and was sent back to Triple-A in fairly short order. He went just 1-for-17 with three walks and 10 strikeouts in those 20 trips to the plate.
There’s no sense in making any long-term judgment on Mayo based on a tough week in his first glimpse of the majors. Many detractors were quick to write Holliday off after similar early struggles, and he’s returned from Norfolk with a .255/.314/.596 line and five home runs in 51 plate appearances. Twenty ugly plate appearances don’t say anything about Mayo’s long-term future other than that he might yet need a bit more work in the upper minors before he gets his next big league audition.
In sending Mayo back to Norfolk, the O’s seem to be committing to Ramon Urias as the primary third baseman in Westburg’s absence — although Soto could also see some run at the hot corner. The Orioles could also retain Mayo’s prospect/rookie status for the 2025 season as well, which would put them in position to potentially land a draft pick if he finishes well enough in ’25 Rookie of the Year voting. So long as Mayo finishes with fewer than 130 at-bats and fewer than 45 days on the active roster, he’ll still be eligible for that benefit. If that were a primary concern for them, they likely wouldn’t have brought Mayo to the big leagues in the first place, but retaining that possibility is now surely seen as an ancillary benefit of today’s move.
Urias, 30, seems likeliest to garner additional playing time. He drew sensational defensive marks at third base just two seasons ago, but both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have soured on his glovework at the position. At the plate, Urias has turned in a .236/.306/.372 slash at the plate this season, sitting about 5% worse than league-average overall (by measure of wRC+).
As for Soto, he’s hit extremely well in a small sample of 74 plate appearances, batting .358/.397/.507 dating back to 2022. It should be emphasized that his line is propped up by a gargantuan .451 average on balls in play that he won’t sustain, and Soto has a much more modest track record in Triple-A, where he’s hit .267/.364/.386 in 709 plate appearances as a utilityman.
How long does he have to be in the minors to maintain rookie eligibility for 2025?
45 days on the active roster not counting September roster expansion. Or 130 at bats regardless of days on the roster.
There should be no reason that Coby does not retain his rookie eligibility. You must stay under 45 days on the active MLB roster or stay under 130 plate appearances. My concern is that the Orioles don’t blow that opportunity for Jackson Holliday!!
I have a feeling Jackson Holliday wont have rookie eligibility for next year and that is probably the correct move. Holliday can help the Orioles win now and him losing rookie eligibility only means he cant win ROY next year as the Orioles will retain 6 more years of control after this season on Holliday.
I don’t understand why the Orioles would prefer a draft pick gamble over an extra year of Holliday. Sure, they get a draft pick if he’s ROY, but they lose him to FA a year earlier. If he’s that good at year one, do you really want him playing for someone else in year six?
That’s not true. The service time issue only applies if the player wasn’t on the active roster for 172 days which is considered a full year. So Henderson was on the Opening Day roster last year and gets credit for a full year which he would have anyway. In 2022 Adley Rutschman came up in May and finished 2nd in ROY voting. He got credit for the full season not an additional year to the time he accumulated.,So if Holliday starts next year on the roster and stays there the full year he will get credit for one year whether he wins ROY or not. This was put into the CBA so teams don’t have incentive to play games with service time
In Hollidays case he won’t win rookie of the year so there really is no risk of losing that year of team control.
In Rutschmans case him winning rookie of the year meant he got credit for a full year of service time. If he hadn’t I am pretty sure the Orioles would have got an extra year of team control. This stuff is complicating for sure.
Rookie eligibility is something a rebuilding team should worry about not the Orioles.
You play to win the game.
The Os need to focus on Defense and shouldn’t sacrifice defense for the hope of offense. Never forget Trumbo’s horrible 47-home run season
Eh, if you hit 47 home runs is kind of makes up for defensive shortcomings
The point is that it didn’t. Trumbo had the lowest WAR of any 47-HR season be abuse his defense was so bad.
Awful defense can-and did-easily cancel out offense.
“because…”
What do you have against trumbo? Are you an angels fan and wished he hit 47 in Anaheim?
Yeah, he was atrocious other than the homers and they couldn’t DH him that much because they had Pedro Alvarez.
Trumbo was worth ~2.0 WAR in 2016. That’s still an everyday player.
Just last year Schwarber hit 47 home runs and was worth less than 1.0 WAR.
Trumbo reminded me of Jim Fuller in the outfield!
I said that for more than a decade. The O’s had some of baseball’s worst pitching and speed. They were more focused on fans watching homers. Thus, they went out and got Chris Davis, Mark Trumbo, Nelson Cruz, etc. They finally have allowed a bit of a balance, though they need to focus more on pitching.
Cruz finished 3rd in MVP voting in 2014 so he was a good 1 year addition. Davis was fine until he signed that ridiculous contract. The Orioles ( Dan Duquette) traded for Mark Trumbo after the 2015 season basically to replace Davis at 1B. The Orioles had Mancini and Christian Walker in the system so Trumbo was brought in as a bridge. Then for some reason Mr. Angelos, bless his soul, decided to give Davis a 161 million dollar contract. Not to worry Trumbo would DH. Then the Orioles agreed to terms with RF Dexter Fowler on a 3 year deal to lead off and play RF. Fowler was supposed to fly to Sarasota to take his physical but he changed planes and wound up in Mesa at the Cubs Spring training facility. The Orioles now had some extra money and wasted it on Alvarez who isn’t even a good fielding DH. Forcing Trumbo to RF. If they had stuck to their original plan Trumbo would have played 1B and left after the season as a free agent. And Chris Davis would be someone else’s problem
Not saying those guys didn’t perform. My point was that the O’s, who were awful most of those years, never addressed the areas where they needed help.
Birds don’t like Mayo, for now. Maybe because the Mayo was poor quality.
Look for Mayo to be traded to Milwaukee in a deal for closer Devin Williams in the off season.
OMG with the M standing for
Muted
Do you contribute anything to the conversation?
I don’t think so.
Muted.
Bautista, Williams, and Cano will be absolutely unstoppable, but I don’t think Milwaukee is selling Devin yet.
Bautista should be back to start next season.
O’s will need starting pitching though.
Even with Burnes, Bradish, Grayson, Eflin, and Means (If he stays healthy)?
Burnes is a free agent.
Bradish had surgery so not expecting him for most of next year if at all.
Means is a free agent and had surgery as well.
As it is next year looks like Grayson, Eflin, Johnson, Kramer.
Really need a front line ace with that group.
Johnson? Rogers, perhaps? They traded Seth Johnson. If they don’t shop (which would be a mistake – I would finally agree this is the offseason to open the checkbook) then expect Suarez or Wells to slot into that rotation with Eflin, Rodriguez, Kremer, and Rogers.
Johnson?
Yes, I meant Rogers mixed him up.
And Grayson seems to have the occasional uh-oh arm issue.
Nope.
Isn’t 2025 Williams’ walk year?
@Jswag,
Colby Jack Mayo will be yuge in the state of Wisconsin. Bigly!
I think they want to him up for the ROY bid next year. If he is super hot you keep him up as the championship bid is more important than an extra pick but if he struggles it makes no sense to let him learn on the job.
So basically they tried if he hit the ground running like cowser and if not you send him down quickly.
Totally fine with this. They let him get his 1st MLB hit yesterday before making the move, which is great. He still needs a lot of work on the field too. His throws were all over the place.
Agreed, I think that little bit of a taste is becoming their modus operandi. Part of the seasoning process. Earn the call, take the lumps, go back down with a focus not on beating AAA but on mastering the weaknesses identified by the first dose.
Could well just be early nervousness.
Bring up Ketchup instead.
I don’t get it
Please explain your reasoning here; it’s not evident.
Looks like Coby Mayo just couldn’t cut the mustard in the big leagues… time to sandwich himself back into Triple-A for some extra seasoning!
Bravo! Excellent writing skills sir! Or madame, I don’t know lol
@Warden of the North(acoss13)
I’m a grumpy old man…
Nah you’re not grumpy. I deal with grumpy old guys and gals at work all day lol
Mickeythemute just loves muting people…he muted me in a post about the pirates. All because I used a few words with capital letters. The guys a troll.
Anyway during the trade deadline the Os were wanting to trade mayo for the pirate closer bednar. Of course cheerios cherrington turned it down. I was hoping the trade went through. But now bednar sucks, the bucvos have lost 10 straight, bednar has blown 3 leads. Bad news for the pirates good news for the orioles. I hope maybe the deal can be made in the off-season
Muted again
@Bucco
Oh oh, Grammar Police is coming for you again. Better Hyde.
Lol Mac. This nut roll needs to get a life
The gap between AAA and MLB is bigger than ever. They’ll need time to adjust, we’re seeing guys destroy the minors just to get humbled in the majors all over the league.
Notice Norby is at AAA for the Marlins. Learning to play 3B. Which is a little surprising considering the Marlins aren’t very good and would seem to be a place where Norby could play regularly. Not like he’s hurting their playoff chances.
@geo
You’re absolutely right, lol.
Hard to hurt a 0% chance at the playoffs. He could chuck the ball behind him into the stands over the visitors dugout every play and not hurt the Sad Fish chances to make the post season this year.
Since 2021 Urias has been quite the trooper.
Splitting time with guys like Franco, Gutierrez, Nevin then Gunnar then Westburg. Still here.
Looks/Sounds like he’s moving up to first fiddle. Happy for him. He deserves a shot at steady/consistent playing time.
Yes, Jeff;
Urias is the best defensive 3B in MLB along with Ke’Bryan Hayes of the Pirates. But Ramon is a better hitter.
I hope he gets to a quality team in 2025 that will play him at 3B fairly steady. Hard to get in a groove hitting when you start getting your timing down and they sit you.
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Mayo was way over his head both on D and O. Who knows how that works out. But I also noticed that Jackson has some ,major issues playing 2B. The O’s pitching didn’t have to be top drawer with the D they had in 2023,
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And I thought at the deadline (and wrote here ) that a veteran ML pitcher would prosper with the O’s due to the D behind him. But with all the young guys they’re playing that are going through learning curves, I don’t feel that way anymore.
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They got 2 relief pitchers the Phillies couldn’t straighten out, and the Phils have excellent pitching coaches. Earlier they also brought in Kimbrel from the Phils and he’s up in the air. They seem to have this idea they can fix all pitchers – maybe, if they had 2023’s D….but they don’t. As for Rodgers – he said all the right things about going to a team with great analytics. But Mel Stottlemyre Jr. has been an exceptional pitching coach with the Marlins and has developed well over a dozen high-quality pitchers over the past 4-5 yards. Rodgers got a pass on his first start with thje O’s as he arrived 2 hours before game time. But he worked with the coaching staff and pitchers a bit before his last start, and the bottem line is that once he has the batter at 2 strikes he has no pitchers to put said batter away. The point of all this:
1. They brought in Drew French from the Braves to be their pitching coach this year. I’m getting sick of seeing him walk out to the mound multiple times a game unless the pitcher is Burnes or Eflin. It’s as if all the other pitchers can’t work though issues on their own or with the Catcher. Mr. French may be a superb pitching coach, but it seems they’re putting too much on him.
2. They’ll have trouble if they have to play Cleveland in the playoffs – as long as most of the Guardians current roster players are relatively healthy. Good pitching stops good hitting…..and the Guardians play strong D.
Samuel
Mayo, Holliday and even Gunnar. Agree, they all play “young” in the field..can’t have that down the home stretch.
And, yes, the unity vibe among pitchers is lacking. Interesting you see it when French makes a mound visit. I’m wondering if something is up with Adley. Looks like he’s playing with lack of high energy?
Speaking of high energy, Guards remind me of Orioles last season. I like their chances.
A vet pitcher at deadline indeed. I liked Bassitt followed by the guy from the Cubs. Neither one of them moved nor did Gomber. Who’s left? A guy like Rogers, I guess. Oof.
Holliday, Celebrate. And just when you thought he was in to the groove
Post Trade deadline some experts say Orioles will regret not trading for Tarik Skubal.
Prospects come and go, but Championship flags fly forever.
The gist of it is: The Orioles do not have the starting rotation to win the World Series this year or next year.
Burnes and Skubal would have made them the favorites to win the World Series
The price would have been steep: Holladay, Coby Mayo, Sam Bassallo
McDermitt and Povich etc..
Mike Elias has shown great skill in building up the farm system.
Future drafts would have replenished the Orioles farm system.
If the Orioles do not win a World Series Championship this year or in the next few years, then Mike Elias and the Orioles may regret their failure to trade for Skubal.
A few of the top former GMs and MLB talent experts have stated
this position that is similar to my position on this issue.
Hey mickeythetroll MUTE YOURSELF