Getty Coby Mayo, the No. 3 prospect for the Baltimore Orioles.
With the first half of the season coming to a close, Mike Elias and the Baltimore Orioles are looking ahead. That could mean a call-up for the team’s third-ranked prospect, Coby Mayo.
Baltimore’s General Manager alluded to the 22-year-old’s MLB debut in an interview with reporters on July 13. Elias said the third baseman is “very close,” to joining the Orioles.
“He’s in an exceptionally good spot,” Elias said, according to MLB.com’s Jake Rill. “We talk about him all the time. He’s very close. He’s going to help us this year. It’s just about the right moment and the right opportunity and the right runway for something like that to happen, and there’s moving parts…“The fact I’m talking about him at a press conference right now — he’s right there. We’re thinking about it, we’re working on it. I’m sure it’s coming very soon.”
Mayo’s slugging .297/.380/.606 with 19 home runs and 56 RBIs in Triple-A with the Norfolk Tides. With one game to go before the All-Star break, Baltimore is 57-38 and are tied with the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East.
Orioles Lose First AL East Series in 2024
A second-consecutive loss to the Yankees on July 13 means the Orioles have lost their first division series since April of 2023.
It’s also a sixth-straight loss for Baltimore, who are at risk of losing their division lead in the final game of the series.
The Orioles have been outscored 31 runs to 3 in that span. Team skipper Brandon Hyde thinks the offense will return to form. He just doesn’t know when.
“In any situation it’s tough to be down four runs right away, but we scored a lot of runs this year but we haven’t of late,” Hyde said postgame on July 13. “We still feel really good about our offense. At some point here we’re going to come out of it.”
Hyde thinks his batters are pressing at the plate, putting too much pressure on themselves.
“At this point it’s pressing,” Hyde said. “You see them trying to get the job done and maybe not as relaxed as normal. They’re trying to be the guy to get the big hit for us, and every single one of them down in the lineup, and it’s just not happening right now.”
Baltimore’s issues are largely centered in situations where they have runners in scoring position. According to Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner, the Orioles are batting .162 in such situations in July.
This month, the Orioles are hitting .159 (13-for-82) with runners in scoring position.
Small sample, yes, but a sharp drop-off from their .263 average with runners in scoring position from the season’s start through the end of June
“This month, the Orioles are hitting .159 (13-for-82) with runners in scoring position,” Kostka tweeted on July 12. “Small sample, yes, but a sharp drop-off from their .263 average with runners in scoring position from the season’s start through the end of June.”
High leverage situations are getting the best of a young Baltimore team.
Gunnar Henderson in a Home Run Drought
In a string of games where the bats are struggling, are the Orioles finding out they’ve become home run dependent? To take it a step further, are they Gunnar Henderson dependent?
The team is 19-7 (.730) when Henderson hits a home run this season, and 38-31 (.550) when he doesn’t.
Henderson is without a home run in the series against the Yankees, the previous series against the Chicago Cubs, and has just one in his last 15 games.
In that same span, he’s struck out 16 times in 63 at-bats (25%). Eight games is his longest stretch without a home run all season.
Henderson is batting .288/.375/.581 with 27 home runs and 61 RBIs in 2024. In a stretch where pitching has been inconsistent, the Orioles’ best bats are going cold.
Baltimore will hope time off for the All-Star break provides the recalibration they need at the plate.
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Orioles GM Mike Elias Hints at Call-Up for No. 3 Prospect