Connor Norby was by no means out to make an announcement on the Orioles’ main league camp.
“I need to just handle my business and get better, and that’s all I need to do,” he mentioned earlier this spring. “I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I just want to get better.”
Norby’s time as a member of the Orioles’ spring coaching roster ended Tuesday night, when he, fellow infield prospects Jackson Holliday and Joey Ortiz and right-hander Kyle Dowdy had been despatched to minor league camp. That his exit got here alongside Ortiz is considerably becoming; each made midseason changes that led their 2022 efficiency to skyrocket about the identical time, and every is ranked amongst Baltimore’s prime 10 prospects and baseball’s prime 100 whereas positioned to reach within the majors sooner or later in 2023.
It was unlikely both would accomplish that straight out of camp, with the Orioles’ main league infield largely set and neither having a full month of expertise at Triple-A Norfolk. But that they each ended the yr there after how their seasons began speaks to their respective turnarounds.
Drafted forty first total in 2022, Norby struggled within the first half of his first full skilled season. The NCAA hits chief in his third yr at East Carolina, the 22-year-old hit .237 at High-A Aberdeen with a weighted runs created plus of 99, which means he was slightly below league common. But promoted to Double-A Bowie alongside Colton Cowser and Coby Mayo, he took off.
Having entered July with eight house runs and a .744 OPS, Norby hit 21 house runs with a .987 OPS over the following three months, ending the yr because the Orioles’ minor league house run champion.
“Mentally, I needed to just understand, like, you’re supposed to fail,” Norby mentioned. “I needed to learn that, hey, you’re gonna fail at times, and it’s OK. It’s OK to fail. You need to, honestly.”
Norby made bodily changes, too. He raised his fingers’ beginning place, he mentioned, and as a substitute of loading with them to start his swing, he turned his physique barely. He additionally grew to become extra selective, following the group’s practices of learning the pitches and zones he can have essentially the most success in opposition to.
The group’s preliminary strategy with these changes, Norby mentioned, was, “Try it for a week.” He was receptive to that strategy.
“Normal person, you look at a week, you’re like, it’s a long time, but in the season when you’re playing every night, a week’s nothing,” Norby mentioned. “I’ll try it for a week. What’s a week to me when you’ve got 24 others?”
The first week did the trick, with Norby saying the modifications “clicked kind of right away.” He recorded a number of hits in his first 4 video games of July, and in the midst of the month, he started a stretch during which he hit 21 house runs in 61 video games, together with 4 amongst his 9 video games at Triple-A to shut the season.
Ortiz’s season flipped on the identical level. He was a breakout member of Baltimore’s system in 2021, ultimately pairing offensive affect along with his stellar protection, earlier than a torn labrum in his left shoulder ended his season. Coming off surgical procedure, he spent 2022′s early months feeling out of sync. Through June, Ortiz had 4 house runs, a .206 batting common and a .596 OPS.
“Being out so long with the shoulder, it was kind of tough to get back into a baseball rhythm,” he mentioned. “I’ve never really been through a slump like that.”
But a change to his hand placement that helped with, as Ortiz put it, “making sure the bat was getting into the good path, good slot to hit the ball harder” had its desired impact. Paired with a rediscovery of his timing, he slashed .352/.416/.610, good for a 1.026 OPS, with 15 house runs from July on. His strikeout-to-walk ratio fell from 3.1 to 1.3.
In the offseason, the Orioles added the 24-year-old to their 40-man roster.
“It was great seeing your work finally come into fruition,” Ortiz mentioned.
With Cowser additionally on a tear at Bowie, Norby and Ortiz each credited the opposite members of the trio for serving to encourage their turnarounds.
“They never got out,” Norby mentioned. “I was fighting for my life trying to keep up with them.”
Said Ortiz: “Once they came up and I saw them hit, I was like, ‘I want to get in on that, too.’”
Tuesday’s roster strikes assured each will return to Norfolk to start out the season. Norby appeared in 14 huge league spring coaching video games, hitting .280 with seven strikeouts and no walks. Ortiz performed in solely six video games earlier than a floor ball to the top in drills put him into concussion protocol, although he had an .857 OPS when wholesome.
The restricted taking part in time wasn’t sufficient for them to completely present whether or not final yr’s changes carried into this season. Should Norby and Ortiz show they did, it received’t be lengthy earlier than they’re carrying Orioles uniforms once more.
“Not everything you change in a swing or anywhere, pitching, defense, whatever, it’s not always gonna be like that,” Norby mentioned. “You have to understand that as a player, and you’ve got to go through the hard times to get to the good ones.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com
