O's promote top OF prospect Cowser to majors

NEW YORK — The Baltimore Orioles promoted outfielder Colton Cowser to the major leagues on Wednesday. He is the second top prospect they’ve called up in the past couple of weeks.

The 23-year-old Cowser was batting .330 with 10 home runs and 40 RBI for Triple-A Norfolk this year. He was the fifth pick in the 2021 amateur draft.

“I don’t think it’s really, truly hit me yet,” Cowser said after joining the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.

With his parents smiling in the stands, Cowser made his big league debut against New York, starting in left field and batting seventh. He laced a line drive up the middle his first time up, but it was caught by Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe.

Even after losing six of their past seven games, the Orioles are in position for the top wild card in the American League, and their farm system has remained loaded with hitting prospects. Late last month, they called up infielder Jordan Westburg, the No. 32-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline. Cowser is No. 14 on that list, and Baltimore also has the No. 1 prospect in Class A shortstop Jackson Holliday.

“It’s awesome, especially to see some familiar faces right when you get here,” Cowser said. “It puts your mind at ease a little bit, like OK, I’ve played with these guys a little bit.”

The Orioles selected the contracts of Cowser and right-hander Eduard Bazardo from Norfolk and optioned outfielder Ryan McKenna to their top farm club. They also designated catcher Anthony Bemboom and right-hander Chris Vallimont for assignment before Wednesday night’s game.

Cowser faced a tough path to playing time with the Orioles, with Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander and All-Star Austin Hays in the Baltimore outfield — but Hays bruised his hip this week and was out of the starting lineup on Wednesday for the third consecutive day. Cowser played left field in Hays’ place.

“We’re not scoring a ton of runs over these last couple weeks, so hopefully he can give us a spark offensively,” O’s manager Brandon Hyde said. “We could use a little energy.”

Hyde said Hays is getting better every day and might be available off the bench Wednesday night before hopefully returning to the lineup in a day or two.