When asked yesterday about his Orioles having higher expectations for this season, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said his own words are one reason for that.

The Orioles take on the season ahead is not one to temper, but rather take on the expectations of a fan base expecting their team to make a run at the playoffs. After all, winning and playing in October is the obvious goal. And this team is ready to take on the challenge of both higher expectations and the fact that no one considers them a pushover anymore.

“Part of that is based on stuff I’ve been saying,” Elias said. “Because I’m excited about the future of the team and the fact that I believe that our rebuild is behind us and we’ve got an incredible chance now to be a very, very competitive team for years. I think we are all excited about that.

“So, the front office and the manager, when we talk to media, we feed those expectations. But we also live in the reality of our business. We approach things very carefully. We have a lot of smart and experienced people in our front office working on our plan. And that includes growing the team over the next few years, managing our payroll, trying to get into contracts that make sense for the long haul.

“So, we have to navigate all those factors too. And a team like the Orioles in particular has to be careful about. A lot goes into it. The bottom line is we want to win, and everything we’ve done since, going back to 2018, has been about getting us to that point. And we’re going to continue applying our know-how to take the next step.”

Coby Mayo celebrated his 21^st birthday yesterday, which was a nice reminder that another Orioles prospect played at the Double-A level this summer before his legal drinking age.

Also a necessary reminder when evaluating Mayo’s season.

Back spasms forced Mayo onto the injured list and cost him about a month after he appeared in only three games with the Bowie Baysox. Reports that he was day-to-day proved inaccurate.

He was facing older and unfamiliar pitchers in a new setting who learned that challenging him with fastballs was a bad idea. That’s 100 percent true.

Drafted in the fourth round in 2020 and given an over-slot $1.75 million bonus, Mayo batted a combined .247/.326/.456 with 20 doubles, two triples, 19 home runs, 69 RBIs, 40 walks and 114 strikeouts in 439 plate appearances after beginning the season at High-A Aberdeen. MLBPipeline.com ranks him as the No. 7 prospect in the organization.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Jordan Lyles is still listed as the Orioles' starter tonight. Anthony Santander is in left field, Cedric Mullins is in center and Austin Hays is in right. Rougned Odor is the second baseman.

A little over an hour before the trade deadline arrives and the Orioles haven’t made another move.

Terrin Vavra is the designated hitter. Adley Rutschman is catching.

The Orioles are 52-51 to match last year’s win total, and they’re 2 ½ games out of the last wild card spot.

Santander extended his hitting streak to 12 games last night.

BOWIE, Md. – It had to be a pretty neat moment for high Single-A Aberdeen manager Roberto Mercado and some of his top players. He was about to tell three of his best players and three O’s top 10 prospects on Sunday that they were going to be promoted to Double-A Bowie. And outfielder Colton Cowser and infielders Coby Mayo and Connor Norby were going together to join the Baysox of the Eastern League.

“Berto, he kind of called us in and you kind of had a feeling like something was up,” Norby said yesterday during an interview at Bowie’s Prince George’s Stadium. “And then he was like, ‘You know, when is your off-day?’ We were like Monday is usually that day. He said, ‘Monday is not your off-day. You guys have to get to Bowie.’ We all got excited and started hugging everybody. It was a really cool moment. But I don’t think you can top Buck (Britton) with Adley (Rutschman), but every call-up is special.”

No, that may have been an all-timer when Rutschman got the call to go from Triple-A to join the Orioles and his skipper delivered that news.

But this was still pretty cool for the then-Aberdeen trio, which had also moved up together as part of a larger group from the Rookie-level Florida Complex League to low Single-A Delmarva late last year. And they started this season together with Aberdeen, helping to lead the IronBirds to a first-half division championship going 43-23 in the South Atlantic League.

“We all got called up together,” said Cowser. “We were in Berto’s office in Aberdeen and he said we didn’t have quite the off-day on Monday. We had to get moving down here and it was really exciting.”

The Orioles knew that it was time.

The individual performances and the calendar dictated that outfielder Colton Cowser and infielders Coby Mayo and Connor Norby should rise to the next level of the farm system. Putting them together at Double-A Bowie. And in the same lineup last night, occupying the top three spots.

Three of the top 10 prospects in the organization, according to MLBPipeline.com.

Cowser, the fifth-overall selection in last year’s draft, homered in his first at-bat and went 3-for-3 with a walk. Norby, batting leadoff, singled and walked.

“We’re looking forward to seeing what these guys are going to do in Bowie,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias.

Minors Monday brought another round of prospect promotions this afternoon.

The Orioles have moved outfielder Colton Cowser and infielders Coby Mayo and Connor Norby from high Single-A Aberdeen to Double-A Bowie.

Sixteen of the organization’s top 17 prospects per MLBPipeline.com are playing at the Double-A level or higher. Outfielder Heston Kjerstad is the exception at Single-A Delmarva.

Cowser, the Orioles’ first-round selection last year out of Sam Houston State University, is batting .258/.385/.411 with 19 doubles, two triples, four home runs, 22 RBIs and 16 stolen bases in 17 attempts with the IronBirds.

Mayo, taken in the fourth round in 2020 out of Stoneman-Douglass High in Parkland, Fla., is batting .250/.326/.479 with 14 doubles, a triple, 13 home runs and 42 RBIs. He doesn’t turn 21 until December.

The Orioles high Single-A Aberdeen affiliate continues to roll with a record of 33-16 (.673) which is the best mark in the South Atlantic League and the second-best among 30 high Single-A teams throughout the minors.

The IronBirds have a roster dotted with some big names and one that features two of the O’s top 10 rated prospects in outfielder Colton Cowser and infielder Coby Mayo.

Lesser known with players more unheralded and mostly unranked is the Aberdeen pitching staff that has produced a team ERA of 3.76 to rank fourth in the league. In May when Aberdeen was 17-7, its pitchers ERA of 3.21 ranked first in the league.

I recently talked with Aberdeen pitching coach Forrest Herrman about some of his “length” pitchers - those that are getting the most innings whether that comes as a starter or out of the bullpen. This group has done a strong job all year for Aberdeen.

Herrmann also is new to the Orioles, in his first year with the organization. He was the Seattle Mariners pitching strategist for their entire organization in 2019 and was pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds at Single-A Daytona Beach in 2021. He has his own youthful look going and could easily be mistaken for a pitcher on the team and not a coach. But he’s also got plenty he brings to the organization and he has past ties to both Driveline Baseball and to the P3 Premier Pitching Performance center in Missouri where he spent some time working with current O’s pitcher John Means.

OAKLAND – While we are awaiting first pitch between the Orioles and Athletics tonight for Oakland’s home opener to start the road trip, here are a few minor league notes around Birdland.

The Triple-A Norfolk Tides are off to an 8-4 start, their best mark after 12 games during their time as a Baltimore affiliate since 2007.

Norfolk has scored 76 runs in the 12 games and has a run differential of plus-27, which is third-best in the International League that features 20 teams. The Tides lost via a 1-0 walk-off in Game 2 of Sunday’s doubleheader at Scranton to snap a five-game winning streak.

Right-hander Kyle Bradish was the winning pitcher in Norfolk’s Game 1 5-1 win, when he allowed just two hits and one run over five innings. Nick Vespi and Cole Uvila each threw a scoreless inning to complete the combined two-hitter.

Bradish is 1-0 with an ERA of 1.00 in two starts to begin his season. He is doing his part to get noticed for a call-up to the Orioles roster. Over nine innings, he’s allowed four hits and the one run with two walks, nine strikeouts and a WHIP of 0.67.