Gibbons on Diaz, Stowers and Neustrom

There are plenty of people inside the Orioles organization who are convinced that, if Yusniel Diaz could stay healthy and play in an uninterrupted stretch of games, he'd be a major league outfielder and a hitter capable of occupying a spot in the middle of the order.

Diaz also has some doubters, but the argument is moot if injuries keep dragging him down.

Viewed as the jewel of the 2018 Manny Machado trade with the Dodgers, Diaz left a May 9 game in Jacksonville with a right quadriceps strain and didn't return until June 15, and he was sidelined again in July with turf toe.

Sent to the Arizona Fall League to accumulate more at-bats, Diaz exited Wednesday's game with the Mesa Solar Sox due to discomfort in his left shoulder. He felt it on a swing and the shoulder gave out.

Losing the 2020 minor league season during the pandemic was a jolt to Diaz's development and delayed his arrival at Triple-A Norfolk, but he appeared in only 76 games with Double-A Bowie in 2019 due to hamstring and quadriceps injuries. He impressed last summer at the alternate camp site, made the 40-man roster and was sabotaged again by his body.

Diaz appeared in 54 games with Norfolk this summer and batted .157/.225/.251 with four doubles and four home runs. He turned 25 on Oct. 7 and has tumbled out of the top 10 in prospect rankings, which also speaks to the improved talent level via the draft and trades.

In six AFL games, Diaz has gone 5-for-24 with three doubles, a home run, nine RBIs, seven walks, eight strikeouts and six runs scored. He's played all three outfield spots.

"He got into a groove here," said Norfolk hitting coach Tim Gibbons, who is handling the same duties with Mesa. "He has some good teammates that he's really connected with and he's been having fun. I've been seeing Diaz smiling and enjoying going about his work, which has been awesome for him, so it's really a shame he had to come out of (Wednesday's) game.

"They call him 'Juice' for a reason. His batted-ball capabilities are off the charts. He can hit the ball and create exit velos with the best of them, so the raw power is there. He's done a better job even here of swing decisions and swinging at better pitches, which is something we've been working on all year. But really, it's the injuries, for me. I think that would be the story of his 2021, that he just got hit by the injury bug and has never really gotten into a rhythm where he's been fully healthy. Because when it's all there ... he hit a homer the first week we were here, he had a game where he had three or four walks. So yeah, he has done and is doing some great things.

"I think it's really just staying healthy and just allowing him time to settle into a rhythm, because the ability is there. There's no doubt about it. The juice and the exit velo capabilities are off the charts when it comes to Diaz."

The setbacks are allowing other outfielders to pass him. Diaz has to fight to remain on the grid.

Ryan McKenna made his major league debut this summer and is a better defender. Kyle Stowers and Robert Neustrom advanced to Triple-A, with the former leading the organization with 27 home runs and sharing Minor League Player of the Year honors with catcher Adley Rutschman. Colton Cowser, the fifth-overall pick in 2021, is ranked as the No. 5 prospect, per Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com.

Heston Kjerstad, the second overall selection in 2020, is No. 7 by MLBPipeline.com and No. 8 by Baseball America, and he still hasn't played a game since his diagnosis of myocarditis.

Stowers played at three levels this year and is threatening to infiltrate one of the outfield corners in Baltimore next summer opposite Austin Hays, with Cedric Mullins in center. Anthony Santander is eligible for arbitration again after being chosen as Most Valuable Oriole in 2020. McKenna is trying to stay away from the shuttle.

"Stowers is a beast," Gibbons said. "A guy who came up to Norfolk and didn't miss a beat from what he was doing in Bowie with (Ryan) Fuller and those guys. Another guy whose batted-ball capabilities are off the charts.

"One of my favorite moments of the year was when we were in Durham facing Shane Baz, who's one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. Baz got him with a 3-2, 98 mph fastball up and away. The next at-bat he gets (Stowers) 0-2 and he tries to blow 98 by him again in the same spot and Stowers hit an oppo home run in Durham. Super impressive. So he is a guy who's able to take all the information and the prep we're giving him and applying it in games. And not only that, he'll take one at-bat to the next. He knew he got beat by that 98 by Baz that first at-bat, tried to do the same pitch to him, Stowers shortened up his stride just a tick to get that head out and do some damage.

"What I was most impressed by Stowers was the ability to adjust at-bat to at-bat. He's got a great feel for the strike zone, and obviously the bat speed and power are legit."

The Orioles shut down Stowers after only three AFL games because of a minor injury to his lower back.

"Definitely more of a precaution," Gibbons said. "The fact that the season here is so short, it didn't make sense to have to ramp him back up and all. I think he feels good and is in good spirits. It's now just getting ready to be the best version of himself come 2022 spring training."

The Orioles selected Stowers in the second round in 2019 out of Stanford University. They grabbed Neustrom in the fifth round the previous year out of the University of Iowa and he combined this summer for a .344 on-base percentage, 31 doubles, three triples, 16 home runs and 83 RBIs in 126 games between Bowie and Norfolk.

"Fuller and the staff over at Bowie did a tremendous job with all of those guys," Gibbons said. "He was a guy who came in and really, like all the prep work we did and looking at advance reports of the pitcher, he was a guy who was all-in on it. Studied it, examined it and then was able to use it on the field to make great decisions."

Neustrom comes with his own story that's a favorite for Gibbons.

"We were facing Durham again at home and we were down by two in the last inning. It was a split doubleheader, so it was a seven-inning game and it was the bottom of the seventh. Phoenix Sanders was on the mound and (Neustrom) was looking at the iPad before he got up and noticed that 0-2, Phoenix Sanders throws a curveball 100 percent of the time in his last 250 pitches up to that point. Sure enough, Neustrom got up to that situation, 0-2 against Sanders, Sanders threw him a curveball and he hit it over the right-center field wall for a walk-off, three-run homer. So he's another guy that I think the power is absolutely legit. Controlling the strike zone was a big, low-hanging fruit for him, it's something that he continued to improve upon.

"He's a guy that I think can contribute in Baltimore for a long time, as well as with Stowers and Rutschman."