Top Prospects Rutschman, Hall Promoted to Norfolk

In conjunction with the Baltimore Orioles, the Norfolk Tides today announced prospects Adley Rutschman and D.L. Hall are being promoted to Triple-A after Thursday morning’s game with Double-A Bowie. According to MLB.com, Rutschman ranks as the #2 prospect in baseball, while Hall is ranked #88. With current Tide Grayson Rodriguez (#6), Norfolk will feature three of MLB.com’s Top 100 prospects. Rutschman is scheduled to be in the Tides starting lineup at Nashville on Friday night, with first pitch at 7:35 p.m. ET.

In the matchup this morning between Bowie and Harrisburg, Rutschman and Hall were the battery. Hall earned the loss after tossing 3.2 innings and allowed two runs on three hits with a walk and six strikeouts. Rutschman went 2-for-4 with a walk, hitting .417 (5-for-12) in his three Double-A games

Rutschman, the first overall pick of the 2019 MLB draft, began the season with Norfolk on the Injured List. He started a rehab assignment with High-A Aberdeen on April 26 before being activated from the Tides’ Injured List and was assigned to Bowie on Tuesday, May 3 prior to today’s call-up.

Hall, the 21st overall pick of the 2017 MLB Draft, missed the second half of the 2021 season due to injury. He started the 2022 season on Baltimore’s Development List before joining Aberdeen on April 29. He was promoted to Bowie prior to this morning’s game.

In 2021, Rutschman earned numerous awards, including the MiLB Rawlings Gold Glove Award® at catcher. Rutschman, 23, played 82 games at catcher between Double-A Bowie and Norfolk. He totaled a .994 fielding percentage in those games, making just five errors in 887 chances. He also caught 27.8% of attempted base stealers (20-for-72), while recording only four passed balls. He was one of six catchers in all of Minor League Baseball to catch at least 80 games. He’s the second catcher to achieve a perfect fielding percentage with at least 29 starts at catcher in Norfolk’s history as an Orioles affiliate (since 2007), joining Chad Moeller (2009, 34 starts).

During his Gold Glove season, Rutschman was selected to play for the American League during the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game on July 11 at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. Two weeks later, he won the Double-A Northeast Player of the Week from July 19 to 25 after hitting .409 (9-for-22) with seven runs, three doubles, three home runs, 11 RBI and seven walks (.552 OBP) in six games. Rutschman then earned Orioles Minor League Player of the Month honors in August after batting .337/.408/.511 (31-for-92) with a .919 OPS, seven doubles, three home runs, 16 runs scored, 11 RBI, and nine walks in 24 games between Bowie and Norfolk. After the regular season concluded for the Tides, he was named a co-winner of the Brooks Robinson Minor League Player of the Year Award alongside teammate Kyle Stowers. In late October, Rutschman was named an MiLB.com Organizational All-Star at catcher for Baltimore, the second time in his career.