The Orioles’ 40-man roster boasts two full outfields worth of players who either are or have legitimate claims to be everyday major leaguers, with Heston Kjerstad and now Kyle Stowers biding time in Norfolk before they can rejoin a major league group that features Anthony Santander, Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins and Colton Cowser.
A level below at Double-A Bowie, there’s a group that very quickly could make that list even longer.
Dylan Beavers and Jud Fabian, a pair of first-day picks in 2022, have made significant leaps in their second full season to help ensure waves of hitting talent keep coming to Baltimore.
“It’s been pretty impressive,” Bowie manager Roberto Mercado said. “We’ve got some studs up there … but they just continue to work and get better every single day and bring value to themselves.”
After a year-plus of swing work that took different shapes as the season progressed, Beavers — the 2022 33rd overall pick — entered his second full season of professional baseball with a more focused mandate.
He found a swing and setup that he and the Orioles felt comfortable with. He worked in the winter to add strength and create a consistent swing path that allowed him to drive a wider variety of pitches to all fields, particularly on breaking balls and fastballs away early in the count.
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That offseason work has combined with a tweaked approach as well. Beavers has spent the first half of the season at Bowie taking more risk early in the count and trying to drive balls.
“In leverage counts, I think I’m trying more to damage, whereas last year I felt like I was just chasing a hit, trying to get on base any way I could,” Beavers said. “I still obviously want to get on base, but there’s a slight adjustment in the approach where, when I feel like I get in a good count, I’m going to take a risk and see if I can’t drive the ball.”
He’s getting on base plenty — his walk rate was up to 14% entering Wednesday — and his nine home runs in just 54 games were two shy of last year’s total. His .819 OPS led all Bowie hitters.
“As we know, it’s a physical game as you continue to move up, and Dylan’s got this big, strong frame and he’s continuing to fill it out, continuing to just become a stronger and stronger guy,” director of player development Anthony Villa said.
Bowie hitting coach Josh Bunselmeyer was impressed early in the season with the stronger swings he was seeing from Beavers, which translated to a higher quality of contact.
“I think he’s one of those guys who the sky is the limit for him talent-wise,” Bunselmeyer said. “You just know that, at some point, it all can click and he just goes off and is a big leaguer.”
Like Beavers, Fabian — a competitive balance pick in that 2022 draft — reached Bowie last year and had plenty to address following his first full season. Fabian’s contact rate plummeted once he got to Double-A last year, with a 37.5% strikeout rate and a 16.7% whiff rate, revealing meaningful holes in his swing where the high fastball is concerned.
He spent the winter asking whoever was pitching batting practice to him to throw it as hard as they could up in the strike zone, and Fabian challenged himself to make contact there. He has found that has translated into this season.
“In games [last year], I’d swing and miss at it,” he said. “Now I’m able to get on top of it and hit line drives to the middle of the field, or if it’s with two strikes, I’ll be able to foul it off and fight for another day. That’s where I’ve been able to see it pay off the most, hitting line drives on balls up, and with two strikes when they try to go above the zone I’m able to foul it off instead of swinging and missing.”
That’s helped Fabian cut his strikeout rate to 28.6% this year at Bowie — still higher than the Orioles like to see but low enough to let his other skills show. Given his inherent raw power, Fabian’s OPS had climbed from .713 at Double-A last year to .774 entering Wednesday. He’s putting the ball in play more and is slugging 61 points higher for Bowie in 2024 than he did last season.
Fabian is learning that he’s being pitched more inside than with elevated fastballs now that he’s addressed that deficiency. He enjoys the challenge of learning those lessons and adjusting along with the game. He feels “a lot more confident” in his assessment that he’s going to be able to hit for power, play Gold Glove defense and steal bases at the major league level.
“He’s continuing to work pretty diligently on some of that swing and miss that we saw last year when he got to Double-A,” Villa said. “The approach, he’s always continuing to refine. He does a really good job of drawing walks and controlling the strike zone, but the power is absolutely there. It’s a matter of continuing to hit enough, and we’re seeing that a little more out of Jud this year and believe that it’s going to continue to get better.”
