The Orioles are in New York for a three-game series that wraps up a long road trip. Three cities, one terrible piece of news regarding ace John Means and one significant update on catcher Adley Rutschman.

Rutschman is in Aberdeen tonight, where the high Single-A IronBirds open a six-game series against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws. The usual Monday off-day is followed by six more home games against the Brooklyn Cyclones.

It’s highly unlikely that Rutschman sticks around for a dozen games, but the Orioles aren’t laying out an exact plan. He’s going to dictate how quickly he moves through his injury rehab assignment.

DL Hall also is reporting to Aberdeen this afternoon, but he isn’t returning from a recent injury. The Orioles have him on a progression after he made only seven starts last summer with Double-A Bowie due to a stress reaction his left elbow.

Hall already proved that he made a full recovery by firing fastballs at 98-100 mph in Clearwater while retiring the Phillies in order with two strikeouts. He’ll get back to Double-A Bowie, eventually pitch at Triple-A Norfolk and, assuming he stays healthy, debut with the Orioles this summer.

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...

During my series of interviews with the four full-season Orioles minor league managers, I talked with 2021 high Single-A Aberdeen manager Kyle Moore and we discussed a few of his players from last season. Today we'll take a closer look at first baseman JD Mundy. In this recent entry, we discussed pitchers Garrett Stallings and Jake Prizina. Among the 28 Orioles on the farm last season who had 300 or more plate appearance, Mundy was an impressive first in OPS at .926. Adley Rutschman was second...

The fall instructional league camp is entering its fourth day down in Sarasota, Fla., more activity at the Ed Smith Stadium complex before pitchers and catchers report to spring training on Feb. 15. Here are a few more participants who caught my eye when the Orioles shared their list with the media: * They loaded up their camp roster with 17 of the 2021 draft picks, and they included outfielder/first baseman Billy Cook, a 10th-rounder out of Pepperdine University. Cook, 22, led the West Coast...

ABERDEEN - On the surface, one could see the high Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds' record at 54-51 and feel like they've had a decent year, posting a winning record on the farm. But it you look deeper at all the players the club has moved up to Double-A Bowie this year - players that have the Baysox in a playoff hunt where Aberdeen is not - it tells you the IronBirds players and staff have done a real nice job during the 2021 season. Their season-opening rotation of Grayson Rodriguez, Garrett...

After the Orioles traded him to the Los Angeles Angels for four minor league pitchers on Dec. 4, 2019, Dylan Bundy got a fresh start with a new club. The Orioles were the only team he had known. They drafted him No. 4 overall in 2011 and brought him to the big leagues. After pledging to throw his slider more, Bundy had a strong 2020 season, going 6-3 with a 3.29 ERA for the Angels. He finished ninth in the American League Cy Young voting. But the results have not been there this year, with the...

ABERDEEN - For a player who was not even drafted last year, first baseman JD Mundy is having some first season of professional baseball. After a college career that took him to Virginia Tech for two years and then to Radford for two more, the Roanoke, Va., native leads the Orioles organization on the farm in homers, slugging and OPS. The player taken 1/1 in the 2019 draft, Double-A Bowie catcher Adley Rutschman, is second to Mundy in homers and OPS this season. So, yeah, pretty good for the...

ABERDEEN - To say the trio of Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and JD Mundy helped the low Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds put up strong offensive numbers would be a bit of an understatement. And now that the trio is together again at high Single-A Aberdeen, they hope to begin bashing baseballs at the higher level as well. At the start of June, Westburg and Mundy were promoted to Aberdeen, and as of Sunday, Henderson has joined them with the IronBirds. At the beginning of the minor league season,...

On the first night of Major League Baseball's new "sticky stuff" rules, with baseball pledging to enforce the rules about pitchers using foreign substances and threatening transgressors with ejections and suspensions, there were no offenders reported that I could tell. As of around midnight, I had not seen any reports from any games of someone ejected. Didn't we hear that most of the pitchers were bending the rules or, to say it another way, cheating? Many suggested they were, but last...

A win, finally a win for the Orioles to provide a sense of both excitement and relief around Birdland. The clutch hits finally came and lefty starter Bruce Zimmermann used them to pick up the win. Back on May 16, when the Orioles last won before last night, Zimmermann was also the winning pitcher. That victory came out of the bullpen. This one he got as a starter as he allowed two runs and six hits over 5 1/3 innings with two walks and a career-high seven strikeouts. He is now 3-3 with a 4.96...

We are not even a month into the minor league season and the Orioles moved four more players Sunday with promotions. More could be coming sooner rather than later. Moving up from low Single-A Delmarva to high Single-A Aberdeen are shortstop/third baseman Jordan Westburg and first baseman J.D. Mundy. Westburg, 22, went 4-for-6 with six RBIs in his final two games with the Shorebirds. He batted .366/.484/.592 in 20 games with five doubles, a triple, three homers, 24 RBIs and an OPS of 1.075. He...

The Dylan Bundy trade has been looking pretty good recently for the Orioles. It was a trade from Dec. 4, 2019 with the Los Angeles Angels and the Orioles got four right-handers in return. They added Kyle Bradish, Kyle Brnovich, Zach Peek and Isaac Mattson. Mattson has already made it to Baltimore and Bradish got one step closer Saturday with his promotion from Double-A Bowie to Triple-A Norfolk. That was a quick promotion but the 24-year-old Bradish had thrown 13 2/3 scoreless innings on seven...

O's fans had been waiting for the Orioles to break out on offense. And now they have scored 10, six and seven runs the last three games. But as Trey Mancini said after the game Tuesday, they are not synching up right now. When they get pitching, the hitting comes up short and when they get hitting, the pitching is not there. The O's have scored 13 runs in this series against Tampa Bay. But they have given up eight homers and lost the two games by 13-6 and by 9-7 last night. Even with lefty...

Birdland has likely noticed and no doubt enjoyed some great starts by both individual players and teams on the Orioles farm. Through Sunday's games, three of the O's four full-season affiliates are playing .667 ball or better. The four teams have a combined record of 29-18 (.617) and the Orioles rank seventh among major league organizations in minor league win percentage. Among several players off to great starts are two of the club's best young prospects. Pitcher Grayson Rodriguez is 1-0...

On the same day that teams are allowed to begin signing undrafted players, cleared to make some noise following the 48-hour quiet period, the Orioles have reached agreements with two of their selections from last week. Both are high school players chosen at the backend of the abbreviated draft. Both are over-slot. Right-hander Carter Baumler, a fifth-rounder from Dowling Catholic High School in Iowa, has agreed to terms on a $1.5 million contract, as first reported by Prospects 365's Mason...