Arizona Fall League experience a real plus for several O's players - and the manager too

For eight players from the Orioles organization, the 2024 Arizona Fall League provided some nice high-level additional experience. Not only did they play on a Surprise Saguaros team that had the best record in the six-team league at 18-10, they played in the AFL championship game.

Salt River beat Surprise 3-2, but players got in extra work the last few weeks that could benefit them down the road.

The Fall League experience was also nice for Surprise manager Roberto Mercado, who managed the Orioles High-A Aberdeen teams in 2022 and 2023 and was skipper this past season at Double-A Bowie.

The Baysox were 62-75 this season. Aberdeen went 147-120 in his two seasons there, advancing to the playoffs in a 2022 season which ended with Mercado being named the O’s Cal Ripken Sr. Player Development Award winner.

A former head coach at New Britian High School in Connecticut, who has several years' experience also coaching in the Cape Cod League, Mercado managed an AFL team featuring prospects from the Orioles, Astros, Guardians, Royals and Rangers.

“It was amazing,” he said this week of the experience, finally now back home in Connecticut. “An opportunity to meet different players from different organizations as well as coaches. Deal with different directors of player development. It was great just to learn from different orgs and what their philosophies are and what they value. Our players were great. They came out every day, meshed well together and got their work in. It was fun to see.”

I asked Mercado if there was anything that surprised him (no pun intended!) about the league. Turns out he did some research on the league with some of his former O’s organization players.

“Not really. The only thing that was a surprise, I know it’s an offensive league, but the ball really flies in Arizona. We were seeing some exit velos that were different. The ball was flying. But other than that, it was what I expected. I talked to guys that had been in the Fall League – TT Bowens, Connor Pavolony, Peter Van Loon – those guys gave me some advice and I picked their brains on some stuff. And our staff was outstanding.”

In 19 games for Surprise, O’s minor league catcher Creed Willems hit a robust .338/.391/.500/.891. He is Baltimore’s No. 22 prospect via MLBPipeline.com and No. 25 on Baseball America.

His offense was solid in Arizona, but how was his catching? 

“I think he is improving tremendously,” said Mercado. “He got good work in this Fall on receiving. I think it was great for him catching different arms from different organizations. Game planning and figuring out how we would attack certain hitters. That experience is going to be huge for his development on the defensive side. Catching pitchers with various shapes that he is not use to seeing. Catching sides too beyond the games was beneficial for him.”

Scouts grade his arm with plus throwing grades. Is that a big league caliber arm?

“I think it is, yes,” Mercado said.

“He plays a little bit of first base too and played some first for us in the Fall League. I think Creed is an excellent catcher that will continue to grow and improve. I think that’s his home. The second option would be first base and in getting more reps he would be fine there as well,” he said.

Outfielder Douglas Hodo, who played in the regular season at three levels at Low-A Delmarva, Aberdeen and Bowie, with a .770 OPS and 51 steals, played in 21 Fall League games. He hit .228/.443/.421/.864 with nine steals and he had almost as many walks (19) as strikeouts (21).

“He came up to Double-A and kind of carried that over in the Fall League. He got on base a ton and think he led our team in on-base percentage. He was an on base machine and was stealing bags too. Great to see him perform at a high level. And it wasn’t just on base. He had six doubles and a plus .850 OPS. Played great defense in the outfield too, tracking down a lot of plays. Great showing for him,” he said.

On the pitching side, the O’s had five pitchers in the AFL. Zane Barnhart had a 1.69 ERA in seven games, Tyler Burch a 2.25 ERA in four games, Preston Johnson a 3.75 in five games, Juan Rojas a 7.50 in six games, all starts and Houston Roth a 13.50 ERA in six games.

“We had some arms that threw really well. Roth struggled a bit at the beginning. Little bit different in that most of our guys were Double-A guys and in the Fall League they use the big league ball. It took some adjustments. Seams are different. It took guys some time. But Houston Roth did a great job, especially in the back end of the season for us.

“Burch was special. He was 97 to 99 (mph), great to see. Preston Johnson, extremely efficient. He was working on some stuff. Rojas, being so young (at age 20) and having the chance to face some really good lineups. That was great exposure that is only going to benefit him in the future.”

A nice and positive Fall League experience for the O’s contingent which also included outfielder Jake Cunningham, who hit .391 in six games and the club’s strength coach was Chris Frosch, who was with Aberdeen in 2024.

Still to come: Soon I will have more with Mercado on his 2024 Bowie team and more with Willems on his season in this space.