The Orioles kept the prospect conveyor belt moving Sunday, and the latest wave of promotions pushed some of their most interesting young talent one step closer to Baltimore.
After the loss to the Braves, the club announced a string of moves that sent players up the ladder from Low-A to High-A, High-A to Double-A, and Double-A to Triple-A. The headliners were the kind that get attention fast: Luis De Leon, Juaron Watts-Brown, Wehiwa Aloy, Caden Hunter and Victor Figueroa all changed levels.
De Leon was the biggest name in the group, jumping from Double-A to Triple-A. Some prospect ranking services view him as the Orioles’ top pitching prospect, and the organization had been hopeful entering the season that he could move quickly enough to put a big-league debut in play this year. He reached Double-A only at the tail end of an excellent 2025 season, but his early-season stumble made it look as if the climb might have hit a wall.
That picture has changed over the last two months. De Leon has settled back into form and looked like the pitcher Baltimore expected, posting a 1.80 ERA, a 0.93 WHIP and a 2.98 with 49 strikeouts in 40 innings over his last eight starts. He backed that up just yesterday with 6.1 innings of one-run ball and nine strikeouts before the promotion came later in the day.
Now that he’s at Norfolk, the timeline feels a lot more flexible. There are already pitchers there waiting for a shot, but none of them bring De Leon’s stuff. He’ll likely need to prove he can handle Triple-A first, though it wouldn’t be a shock if the Orioles decided to use him out of the bullpen in the next few weeks if he looks ready.
Watts-Brown is making the same move to Norfolk. He doesn’t carry De Leon’s prospect cachet, and his Double-A season had been even bumpier, but he’s still a legitimate strikeout arm. With that skill set, a bullpen look before the season ends is at least in play.
The Orioles also sent a pair of notable bats from High-A to Double-A, and Wehiwa Aloy stands out among them. One of Baltimore’s 2025 first-round picks, Aloy has been crushing High-A and earned the bump he was headed for. He was a star in college, so dominating that level wasn’t exactly a surprise, but the next test will tell a lot more about how quickly he can keep moving.
If he keeps rolling, Aloy looks like the kind of player who could race through the system. Making the majors this season would take a Herculean effort, but a strong finish could put Triple-A in reach late in the year, with an early-season MLB debut in 2027 still very much on the table.
Caden Hunter’s promotion is the other one Orioles fans should circle. The sixth-round pick out of USC has been on a tear all season, and his numbers make the case loud and clear: a 1.46 ERA and 102 strikeouts in 68 innings across Low-A and High-A. He’s already been promoted once this year, and Baltimore is being aggressive with him again.
That matters because the Orioles haven’t exactly built a long history of finding pitching gems after the first four rounds of the draft. Hunter is forcing his way into that conversation. With enough season left, he could even wind up in Triple-A before it’s over, and this could end up looking like one of the best picks Mike Elias has made.
One more name worth watching from the week’s promotions is Victor Figueroa, acquired in the Ryan O’Hearn trade package. He’s easy to miss on paper because his defensive ceiling is limited - he’s never going to be more than a first baseman, and he might not even be very good there - but the bat keeps carrying him.
Figueroa has always hit, and he does it with real slug and high on-base numbers. He may never crack a top 100 list, but he’s the kind of prospect who can hit his way to the majors anyway.
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