ORGANIZATION REPORTS
American League
• Dillon Dingler’s athleticism helps the catcher find success in his pro debut for the Tigers PAGE 40
• A pair of former Auburn infielders team up again in the Twins organization PAGE 41
• The Blue Jays’ Samad Taylor went down under to test his swing and add defensive versatility PAGE 42
National League
• The Reds’ Alejo Lopez applies lessons he learned in big league camp PAGE 44
• The Rockies’ plan to make Willie MacIver a catcher pays off with breakthrough season PAGE 45
• Former Division II lefthander Ethan Elliott shines for the Padres PAGE 47
BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Australian lefthander Alexander Wells could only watch as Orioles pitching prospects took turns impressing the front office and manager Brandon Hyde at big league spring training.
Wells injured his oblique and didn’t throw in a Grapefruit League game. So the 24-year-old began the season in the Triple-A Norfolk rotation, where he ran up a 9.88 ERA in 13.2 innings in May.
The first month at Triple-A was a struggle. The lack of a healthy spring training had followed a 2020 season without minor league baseball and Wells’ exclusion from the summer and fall camps. He stayed in Australia and worked out, throwing with twin brother Lachlan Wells, a pitcher in the Twins organization.
Wells rebounded in June by striking out 19 in 18.1 innings and recording a 2.45 ERA. That performance helped earn him his first callup on June 26. He pitched two scoreless innings in a blowout loss to the Blue Jays.
For the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Wells, success is predicated on precision, not power. He doesn’t throw hard. He just throws strikes, with a career minor league walk rate of 1.4 per nine innings.
“This is a guy who flies a little bit under the radar in our system, but his minor league success has been crazy so far. He’s dominated,” Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said.
The Orioles signed Wells internationally in 2015 and added him to the 40-man roster following the 2020 season to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. He was the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year at Double-A Bowie in 2019.
“I think that the reason we were determined to protect him this time around is we view him as a potential starting pitcher,” Elias said. “That’s a valuable asset.”
—ROCH KUBATKO
BOSTON RED SOX
Scouts who saw righthander Brayan Bello with Low-A Greenville in 2019 saw a pitcher with intriguing stuff but uncertain projection.
Bello’s lean, 6-foot-1, 170-pound frame suggested projection for his repertoire, which then featured a low-90s fastball, solid changeup and fringy slider.
Bello finished strong that season, recording a 3.00 ERA with 59 strikeouts and nine walks in 54 innings. At the least, he looked like a promising reliever with back-end starting potential if his stuff took a jump.
A few instructional league appearances in the fall of 2020 hinted at progress. The 2021 minor league season has served as a sort of new unveiling as the 22-year-old climbed to Double-A Portland.
Bello added strength and filled out during the shutdown, resulting in a velocity bump that had him sitting at 94-95 mph with his fastball. In a late-June outing, he sat 95-96 mph and topped out at 98.
“He’s grown into his body and his stuff has gotten a lot better,” Red Sox pitching coordinator Ralph Treuel said. “He’s getting more swings and misses with the fastball. A lot of it has to do with the added velocity.”
Those velocity gains have also helped Bello’s changeup play up.
With greater separation from his fastball and improved movement, Bello’s changeup became a regular swing-and-miss offering, helping him dominate in his first 11 starts of 2021 at Greenville, now the organization’s High-A affiliate, and Portland. His slider was less consistent but still flashed plus.
Bello, who signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2017, went 5-0, 3.27 with 77 strikeouts and 16 walks through 55 innings this season.
One rival evaluator raved about his “electric” mix and pegged him as having the ceiling of a No. 3 starter, suggesting the Red Sox should view the righthander as just short of untradeable.
—ALEX SPEIER
CHICAGO WHITE SOX
Armed with a big fastball when he joined the White Sox in 2018 as a third-round pick out of Mississippi State, Konnor Pilkington has put in long hours trying to develop other pitches.
His curveball and slider are still works in progress, but the 23-year-old lefthander’s changeup has become quite a weapon.
“I’ve been using my changeup a lot,” Pilkington said. “I get a lot of swings and misses with it and I’ve been getting a lot of weak contact.”
Through the first three months of the season at Double-A Birmingham, Pilkington recorded a 3.48 ERA with 71 strikeouts and 21 walks in 62 innings.
“I’m feeling good,” he said. “My arm, my body, everything’s feeling good, so I’m pretty happy.”
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Pilkington will be even happier if his curveball and slider become as effective as his fastball and changeup.
“I’m working on them every day,” Pilkington said. “If I can get my breaking balls up to that level, that would be three or four good pitches I could roll out there.”
Pilkington was trying to get back up to speed after the pandemic wiped out the 2020 season. He was not invited to Chicago’s alternate training site but the year wasn’t a total loss.
“I dealt with it fine,” Pilkington said. “At the beginning, they told us to stay ready, be ready. I kept my routine, kept throwing and working out. Halfway through the summer it was kind of obvious we weren’t going to have a season, but I stayed on top of my game.”
