A day after Adley Rutschman’s debut introduced an electrical energy to Camden Yards, Orioles supervisor Brandon Hyde stated it reminded him of the power he noticed at Wrigley Field as an assistant coach when the Chicago Cubs first referred to as up eventual Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player Kris Bryant. It wasn’t the primary time a participant who might play a key function in Baltimore’s future has drawn a comparability to Bryant.
In November 2019, Geraldo Cabrera, the Orioles’ Latin American supervisor, and Rafael Belén, one of many group’s scouts centered on the area, attended a event in Puerto Rico via the International Prospect League. With a crew of Florida amateurs within the discipline, they had been advised to maintain an eye fixed out for any participant who is perhaps price focusing on within the following summer season’s draft.
They noticed a participant with a formidable construct and energy potential regardless of a swing present process some tweaks. They noticed a participant with a robust arm with the flexibility to stay at third base. They noticed a participant who Baltimore finally took within the 2020 draft’s fourth spherical, one who’s tied for the Orioles’ system lead in dwelling runs and now ranks as a top-five prospect within the system.
They noticed Coby Mayo.
“Best player at the event,” Cabrera wrote then in a scouting report. “This kid has a tremendous body and ceiling. Looks like big leaguer Kris Bryant. Plus raw power. … I love this guy.”
Belén added that he was a “can’t-miss prospect.”
“When they’re so high on a guy like that,” Orioles senior director of worldwide scouting Koby Perez stated, “if it would be an international guy, like, I’m on the next flight down, you know what I mean?”
Instead, Perez despatched an e-mail to Brad Ciolek, who oversees the novice draft for the Orioles, to let him know the way impressed Cabrera and Belén had been with Mayo. Baltimore was already conscious and scouting him, however including the enter of the worldwide scouts was “like an extra feather in our cap,” stated Ciolek, Baltimore’s director of draft operations.
That event in Puerto Rico was a part of an wide-ranging effort that introduced Mayo to the Orioles. The 20-year-old is now in High-A, coming into Wednesday as one in every of solely three minor leaguers that age or youthful with double-digit dwelling runs.
“The evaluation process for him,” Ciolek stated, “touched every corner of our organization.”
‘Big goal in mind’
Mayo, then a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, attended the Puerto Rico event as a result of his eventual agent advised it might be a superb place to indicate off his reworked stance and swing.
After serving as Rutschman’s signing scout out of the Northwest, Brandon Verley turned the Orioles’ Florida-based scout, with Mayo on a brief listing of highschool gamers he inherited that additionally included outfielders Zac Veen, who went ninth general within the 2020 draft, and Dylan Crews, a projected high decide in 2023 after attending LSU. Mayo had discovered success regardless of points of his offensive strategy that Verley stated “weren’t conventional.” His stance was imbalanced, with the right-handed hitter beginning his swing leaning closely on his again aspect. In bettering that, he additionally made tweaks to his preliminary hand load and stride.
“This whole new stance was getting comfortable, and it was kind of just to go show people, like, I can still hit with anything,” Mayo stated of enjoying in Puerto Rico. “People from the Orioles had been there and noticed me there, which is perhaps a cause why I’m right here as we speak.
“You never know who’s watching.”
The Orioles watched Mayo recurrently in his senior season, which was reduce quick due to the coronavirus pandemic. Evaluations of his on-field efficiency shifted to Zoom calls to scout his off-field make-up.
Ciolek recalled how proud Mayo was of his swing changes, with video proven to members of Baltimore’s participant growth employees main them to imagine Mayo was a participant who may very well be profitable of their program. The crew’s analysts, too, believed his bat pace and energy numbers matched these of a participant they need to goal. Verley remembered the strongest impression Mayo left with him was a declaration made repeatedly over cellphone and Zoom calls.
“His goal was, ‘I want to be a big leaguer as soon as I can, and I’m going to do everything in my power to get myself there as fast as I can,’” Verley stated. “He made a remark like, ‘I want to be there at 21.’
“He’s that driven and he was that focused as a high school kid about what he wanted to do and what he wanted to accomplish.”
Two years later, Mayo nonetheless feels that means.
“The earlier you get to the big leagues is more of an opportunity,” Mayo stated. “At a young age, it’s a better experience. You come out of college at 21, then you’ve got to start this process. But I think if you can get there by 21, you’re years ahead of everybody. That’d be the big goal in mind, but it comes with a lot of hard work and competing at the highest level you can.”
‘The right direction’
Verley stated he knew of groups that noticed Mayo as a sixth- or seventh-round expertise, citing considerations about his earlier swing. But because the 2020 draft and its 5 rounds started, Ciolek was involved that one other crew would possibly goal him increased than Baltimore was prepared to.
They used their first 4 picks on faculty place gamers, creating sufficient monetary flexibility for themselves to shut the draft with Mayo and Iowa highschool pitcher Carter Baumler, who pitched three scoreless innings for Low-A Delmarva on Wednesday in his skilled debut coming off Tommy John surgical procedure. The Orioles signed Mayo for an above-slot $1.75 million, getting him to forego his dedication the University of Florida, his dream faculty.
“We were in on not only his ability to perform with him doing some things mechanically undesirable, but just the way that he talked about his process and worked at it and what his peers and his coaches around him said about him,” Verley stated. “It just gave us the comfort or the ammo or the belief that, ‘Listen, this kid’s gonna continue to make adjustments and get to where he needs to get to.’”
Mayo missed the beginning of 2021 with a knee damage, then shined within the Florida Complex League and for Delmarva with 9 dwelling runs and a batting line of .319/.426/.555, good for a .981 OPS. Ciolek stated early discussions with Mayo, listed at 6-foot-5 and 215 kilos, included his want to show his capacity to stay at third base.
“He’s answered those doubters to this point, because he moves exceptionally well for a bigger kid and he’s gotten a lot stronger,” Ciolek stated. “Coby checked all those boxes for us. … The ceiling is immensely high for him.”
He entered the season ranked tenth among the many group’s prospects, based on Baseball America. Several retailers positioned him increased, together with ESPN, which had him among the many sport’s high 100 prospects.
In a latest replace, Baseball America lifted Mayo as much as No. 5 in Baltimore. With Rutschman within the majors, he received’t be the Orioles’ high prospect for much longer. Mayo is a possible eventual successor.
Rutschman’s first sport of the season got here in a rehab task with Aberdeen. Mayo considerably stole his highlight, homering twice.
“He’s got extremely quick hands,” Rutschman stated that evening. “Two bombs, I think that speaks for itself right there. But obviously a very impressive young player.”
Mayo credit how a lot he’s grown prior to now 12 months to the flexibility to get day by day at-bats as knowledgeable, one thing that wouldn’t essentially have been the case had he gone to school. He famous the Orioles’ want for gamers to problem themselves to enhance.
“Thinking back to a year from now, injured, it’s like night and day,” Mayo stated. It actually is. Like, the individual I’m now, I feel within the final 12 months, the at-bats I’ve gotten, over 300 at-bats within the professional ball degree via FCL and Low-A and High-A, I feel it’s been superior to see the enhancements, and I feel there’s much more.
“In a year, you can come back and talk to me, and there’s gonna be even more improvements.”
Reminded {that a} 12 months from now he’ll be 21 — the age he advised Verley he needed to be within the majors — Mayo chuckled.
“If I keep working and keep developing and getting better at the things I need to get better at,” Mayo stated, “if those things happen, the right people will lead me in the right direction.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com