Talk about making a nice first impression. And a second one too. On Aug. 2, the Orioles traded closer Jorge López to the Minnesota Twins for a package of four pitching prospects, the headliner of which was lefty Cade Povich.
The 22-year-old Povich was assigned to high Single-A Aberdeen. In his first IronBirds outing, he pitched six scoreless innings on one hit. In his second he threw six scoreless again, this time on three hits.
When he took the mound for Aberdeen for the first time on Aug. 6 at Ripken Stadium against Wilmington, he struck out the first five batters he faced and had a no-hitter going through 5 2/3 innings. He finished with eight strikeouts and no walks.
He went from being a bit stunned in hearing he was traded to showing his new organization they may have gotten a good one.
“It was a bit shocking,” Povich told me recently about hearing about the deal. “You think you will be one of those guys with one team your whole career and you hear that when you are younger. Kind of crazy then to be part of a trade. Once everything calms down you have to look at the bigger picture. Someone wanted you enough to trade for you and it was for a good closer, so pretty big deal.”