Several minor league notes and one writer's bold free agent prediction

A few notes to pass along while wondering if the Orioles will be busy next week at the Winter Meetings:

* Three members of the Orioles minor league staff will not be returning for next season. Rookie-level Gulf Coast League manager Matt Merullo and short-season Single-A Aberdeen hitting coach Calvin Pickering did not have their contracts renewed. Also, Single-A Frederick hitting coach Paco Figueroa is leaving the Orioles. He has taken a position as one of the two minor league hitting coordinators for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

A former major league catcher, Merullo was with the Orioles for three years. He managed Aberdeen in 2013-14, going 67-80. The GCL Orioles featured several promising young players this past season and went 34-25. A former Oriole, Pickering was in his first season as a coach with the organization. Figueroa, who played in the O's minors for five years, was a coach for the Birds the last three seasons.

* He was one of the best pitchers on the Orioles' farm last season, but we don't know if he will be back in 2016 just yet. Right-hander Terry Doyle remains a minor league free agent at the moment.

Doyle, who turned 30 on Nov. 2, went 16-2 with a 2.16 ERA last season between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk. He helped both clubs reach the playoffs, going 12-1 with a 1.97 ERA with the Baysox and 4-1 with a 2.57 ERA with the Tides.

There is interest by the Orioles in re-signing Doyle, and he told me the Orioles are one of a few teams he has talked with. He'd like to come back and remains in contact with the club. Stay tuned.

* Many fans probably don't even know his name yet, but young Dominican shortstop Irving Ortega has been noticed by the O's brass. Ortega is 19 and from Santo Domingo. The Orioles signed him for just $60,000 in October 2014.

In 54 games last summer for one of the club's Rookie-level Dominican Summer League teams, Ortega hit .280 with a .370 OBP along with 10 doubles and five triples in 200 at-bats. The 6-foot-2, 165-lb. Ortega went 0-for-8 in four games with the GCL Orioles.

"He's athletic and is a good size kid for a shortstop," Orioles director of player development Brian Graham said. "He's just a young kid, but shows you athleticism with a solid-average arm and is aggressive offensively. He has a real desire to play. He loves to be out there practicing and playing. He's a fun kid to watch."

Like most young kids, Ortega chases some pitches out of the strike zone and needs to work on pitch recognition. But defensively, he's solid right now and he is expected to be able to stay at shortstop.

FanGraphs' O's top 10: FanGraphs.com has come out with its Orioles top 10 prospects list. They rank Dylan Bundy first, followed by Hunter Harvey, Jomar Reyes, Mychal Givens, Chris Lee, Chance Sisco, David Hess, DJ Stewart, Dariel Alvarez and Trey Mancini. Baseball America will release its list of the O's top 10 prospects on its Web site on Dec. 14. The top 10 might appear in the magazine on newsstands before that.

* Do you think the Orioles can sign free agent outfielder Jason Heyward? Not many do. But one writer made a bold prediction that the Orioles might land Heyward.

Anthony Castrovince, writing for Sports on Earth, said he realizes the Orioles don't set the market, but they still could be in on Heyward.

He writes: "If this club has $20 million or $30 million to work with in the open market, a deal with Heyward - very likely backloaded (the O's currently have zero dollars committed to the payroll for 2019 and beyond) - is actually feasible.

"I bring all this up because we know the O's value defense as much as, if not more than, any other team in the big leagues. They also have a glaring need to improve their team-wide on-base percentage. ... Ultimately, I still believe that if the Orioles are going to land one of the premier corner outfielders available in the open market, it will be Alex Gordon. But don't totally dismiss them as a dark horse in the Heyward sweepstakes."

The O's and Heyward. Now that one would rock the Winter Meetings, with the shock waves felt all the way back to Baltimore.