Jomar Reyes suffers hamate bone injury, Tanner Scott to pitch in AFL

Orioles 18-year-old infield prospect Jomar Reyes will have surgery tomorrow to repair a broken hamate bone in his left hand. He got hurt in the next-to-last game of the instructional league workouts in Florida.

Ranked as the organization's No. 10 prospect at the end of last year by Baseball America, the native of the Dominican Republic was signed to a $350,000 bonus in January 2014.

Orioles director of player development Brian Graham said Reyes was injured while batting.

"He hit a ball and felt the pain in his wrist, which is very normal with the hamate bone in the hand," Graham said. "The pain ends up going to your wrist. He went for a scan and it revealed the hamate fracture. So he'll have the surgery and he'll be fine in four or five weeks. A lot of good hitters have had that surgery unfortunately."

A third baseman, Reyes was recently ranked as the 13th-best prospect this year in the South Atlantic League by Baseball America. Last year, he was rated No. 18 prospect in the Gulf Coast League.

He played in 89 games this season, 84 for Single-A Delmarva, batting .277 with 29 doubles, four triples, five homers and 48 RBIs. Reyes had a .336 OBP and .437 slugging percentage. He hit .347 with an OPS of 1.043 against left-handed pitching.

Reyes missed six weeks in the middle of this summer due to a sprained right thumb and ended the year missing a few games after suffering a mild concussion.

In other news, the Orioles are sending 21-year-old left-hander Tanner Scott to the Arizona Fall League. He becomes the club's fourth pitcher there, joining Jason Garcia, Donnie Hart and Jon Keller. Other O's playing for Peoria in the AFL are catcher Chance Sisco, infielder Adrian Marin and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski.

Scott is a reliever with a fastball-slider combination. This year, between short-season Single-A Aberdeen and Delmarva, he went 4-3 with an ERA of 3.83. Over 42 1/3 innings, he walked 22, fanned 60 and allowed an average against of .229.

A sixth-round pick out of Howard (Texas) Junior College in 2014, Scott pitches in the low to mid-90s, sometimes sitting with even more velocity than that with a fastball that touched 100 a few times and 101 mph on one pitch during instructional league.

Graham said Garcia will make some starts during AFL play, but he is not being converted to a starting pitcher. Each team must designate one hurler to pitch as a starter and Garcia is that guy for the Orioles. He will work two or three innings in his outings, but remains a bullpen pitcher for the 2016 season.