The best prospect the Baltimore Orioles acquired at last year’s trade deadline is now one level away from the major leagues.
The Orioles are promoting left-hander Cade Povich, ranked by Baseball America as the organization’s second-best pitching prospect, to the Norfolk Tides, a source with direct knowledge of the move told The Baltimore Sun late Wednesday evening.
Povich, Baltimore’s 10th-best prospect, was the biggest minor leaguer in the Jorge López trade last summer, with the Orioles shipping their closer to the Minnesota Twins for the young southpaw and three other pitchers. One of those arms is Yennier Cano, who over the past year has transformed from an inaccurate reliever into an All-Star.
Povich has displayed his elite swing-and-miss stuff with Double-A Bowie this season. In 81 1/3 innings, the 23-year-old has a 4.87 ERA with 118 strikeouts versus 37 walks.
No pitcher in the organization has more strikeouts than Povich this season. His 33.4% strikeout rate in Double-A is slightly higher than the 33.1% rate Grayson Rodriguez posted during his stint with the Tides earlier this season. Rodriguez was Baltimore’s top-ranked pitching prospect two weeks ago, but he’s since graduated from such status after rejoining the Orioles and starting twice for them in the second half.
While Povich’s strikeout numbers are encouraging, he hasn’t been as dominant in preventing batters to reach base. With a 10.5% walk rate and 8.2 hits per nine innings, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound pitcher has a 1.36 WHIP.
He allowed four or more runs in three straight starts this spring, but has yet to do so in his past seven, during which he’s held batters to a .208 average and compiled a 3.93 ERA. Povich has struck out at least 10 batters in three of his 18 starts, including a career-high 13 in June.
