ORGANIZATION REPORTS

BALTIMORE ORIOLES

Rylan Bannon knew he had to make up significant ground during the season, with a prolonged slump and oblique injury threatening to ruin any chance of a callup.

The wisest approach was to just get back to being himself. And hit lots of home runs in the process.

Bannon, primarily a third baseman at Triple-A Norfolk, belted 10 homers in a span of 10 games beginning Aug. 11.

“It’s no secret that I’ve been going through some struggles the past month or so,” said Bannon, acquired from the Dodgers in the July 2018 Manny Machado trade. “To see some hard work paying off, trusting the process of going through all those struggles and learning from it, it’s been awesome.”

Norfolk hitting coach Tim Gibbons has worked on the mental and mechanical sides of the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Bannon’s game to unlock his power.

“He comes in with the same attitude and effort every single day,” Gibbons said. “You would not know by his demeanor and his cage work ethic and everything he does hitting-wise that he’s having that type of season with those numbers.”

The 25-year-old Bannon missed a month with an oblique injury sustained while making a tag play on May 27 and had not been able to lift his season average to .200. But he slashed .356/.431/1.044 in a 12-game stretch in August to get hot at the right time.

“He’s on the 40-man (roster) and he’s swinging the bat better as of late, which is good to see,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “I hope Rylan can keep hitting.

“I love seeing guys being able to dominate before they come here and graduate before they get here.”

The Orioles opted not to call Bannon up in September.

—ROCH KUBATKO

BOSTON RED SOX

In the summer of 2017, one inning into his career after being taken out of Florida Gulf Coast as a 16th-round pick, Kutter Crawford experienced elbow discomfort.

It was enough to shut the righthander down for the duration of his first pro summer, but not enough for surgery.

Crawford impressed with his pitchability across three levels in 2018 and 2019. His four-pitch mix, anchored by a fastball and—yes—cutter projected as that of a potential big league depth option.

But he was pitching through discomfort that steadily grew and ultimately forced him to have Tommy John surgery after the 2019 season.

Crawford used the rehab not just to restore himself but to alter his mechanics. He’d been extremely closed off in his delivery, forcing him to redirect his body to get over his front side. He worked to straighten his line to the plate.

In the process the 25-year-old gained more true spin and an