During my interview in this space recently with Orioles Double-A Bowie (now Chesapeake) manager Roberto Mercado, he spent some time talking about his work in the Arizona Fall League and the O’s players he managed there.

But he also spent some time talking about his 2024 season with Double-A Bowie and some of the notable players he managed there this year. We’ll feature this in two parts and check in on a few players today and more in a few days.

Right-handed pitcher Alex Pham, age 25, was not added to the O’s 40-man roster and was available to any team in the recent Rule 5 draft.

Pham, a 19^th-round draft pick from the University of San Francisco, had a solid year for Bowie and he spent all of the 2024 season with the Baysox, making 27 starts.

Pham, who pitched to an ERA of 2.57 in 2023 between High-A Aberdeen and Bowie, went 7-4 with a 4.24 ERA for the Baysox this season. Over 119 innings he allowed 97 hits, had a 1.24 WHIP with a .221 average against and .669 OPS against. He walked 3.78 per nine and fanned 10.44.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Orioles current longest-running minor league affiliation is with their Double-A team since 1993, the Bowie Baysox. And as of this morning, the team has a new name, the Chesapeake Baysox.

The team found during the 2024 season, that it welcomed fans from 378 zip codes and all 23 counties across the state of Maryland and from 43 states nationwide.

To better reflect its regional drawing power, the Bowie-based team now becomes the Chesapeake Baysox. The club will remain at Prince George’s Stadium where it holds a long-term lease to continue as home base.

Today’s announcement, at The Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Annapolis, was made by Attain Sports CEO Greg Baroni. The announcement was attended by Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and director of minor league operations Kent Qualls.

Attain Sports, which purchased the Baysox in January of 2022, also just recently bought a controlling interest in the O’s High-A Aberdeen IronBirds club with the Ripken family maintaining an ownership stake. Attain also owns the Frederick Keys of the MLB Draft League, the Spire City Ghost Hounds of the Atlantic League and Loudoun of the United Soccer League.