Will some prospects have a chance to play at three levels in 2022?

There were a few players on the Orioles farm that played at three levels last season. They got promoted twice, in other words, and that was impressive. Could we see more of that in terms of promotions coming in 2022?

"I think last year was a unique situation," O's director of player development Matt Blood said this week from Sarasota. "We didn't have as much information to go off of (with no minors games in 2020). I think this year will be a little more normal in regard to those type of things. We have some more recent updated information to use for those placements.

"The players will dictate that. Their maturity and performance. I can't predict it. It's not something that happens very often, but I wouldn't say it's impossible. We ultimately want players where it is appropriate for them to be challenged and encourage their growth."

The Orioles stated going into last season that some players would be initially placed conservatively on the farm and then would move up coming off a year with no games. They obviously don't have that same situation now as last year.

For instance, their co-Minor League Player of the Year, outfielder Kyle Stowers, began the 2021 season at high Single-A Aberdeen and played 36 games before moving to Double-A Bowie for 66 and ending with Triple-A Norfolk for 22 games. One of the organization's top prospects, 20-year-old infielder Gunnar Henderson, started at low Single-A Delmarva and played 35 games before moving to Aberdeen for 65, and ended the season with Bowie for five games in the regular season and a few more in the playoffs.

Infielder Jordan Westburg played at three levels last season and so did pitchers Blaine Knight and Félix Bautista. First baseman JD Mundy was going to get three levels' worth of at-bats before getting hurt before he could play a game at Bowie after starting with Delmarva and moving to Aberdeen.

Blood believes players must be challenged in the minor leagues and that plays into promotions. If players struggle and have to work through them, they experience struggles that all players will on the big league level. It can certainly be productive and some quality learning for a young players.

Westburg struggled each time he moved up last season and then quickly moved past the struggles. He hit .285/.389/.479/.868 with 27 doubles, five triples, 15 homers, 74 runs and 79 RBIs for the season between the Shorebirds, IronBirds and Baysox.

But in his first nine games after moving up to Aberdeen, he was batting just .206. After his first six with Bowie, he was hitting .136.

"I mean, 120 games brings a lot of learning lessons and a lot of failures," Westburg said during the Double-A Northeast playoffs in September at Prince George's Stadium. "But I think that this year has taught me more than anything to not perceive failures as me losing. Moreso, looking at them as learning lessons and ways I can grow and better myself. I think I'm just more professional in every sense than I was this time last year."

Blood believes the players can learn as much from the struggles as the success.

"Absolutely. That is what the minor leagues is for," he said. "To put players in environments where they will be challenged and they're going to experience struggles, so that they can learn to make those adjustments and push through challenges. Sort of rise to the level of competition and move up again so they can face those challenges even more. Because when they get to the major leagues it's a tough game and we want to prepare them for what they will face there day to day."

The Orioles have over 40 minor league players (all of course non-40-man roster guys) taking part in some pre-spring training drills and workouts now in Florida. Players officially report for minor league camp on Feb. 28 for pitchers and catchers and March 8 for position players. Players on 40-man rosters cannot take part in minor league spring training.

Opening day for Triple-A Norfolk is at home April 5 versus Charlotte and the regular season ends Sept. 28. Bowie opens April 8 at home versus Richmond and ends the season on Sept. 18. Aberdeen opens at Jersey Shore on April 8 and ends its year Sept. 11. And Delmarva opens at home versus Fredericksburg on April 8 and wraps it up Sept. 11. The minor league teams will play outside organizations in spring games starting around mid-March. The Orioles have not yet released any information on whether minors camp is open to the public.

Blood and the O's front office no doubt have a good sense of what the minor league rosters could look like for the full-season clubs for opening day, but we are weeks away from more public information being released on that. Will there be some spring training camp competitions and will spring game performance be a big factor in setting those rosters?

"I think it's a little dangerous to rely too much on spring training performance. We've got either a season or seasons, or a career of performance, to really anchor our decisions. That is really where we rely most heavily. But spring training can give us a clue or nudge here or there if needed," Blood said.