Orioles rookie Coby Mayo collected his first career hit Wednesday night. On Thursday, the Orioles announced he’d been demoted back Triple-A Norfolk. Infielder Livan Soto has been called up to the big-league club as a corresponding move.
Mayo’s first foray into the majors saw him appear in seven games while going 1 for 17 with 10 strikeouts and three walks. In 139 career Triple-A games, Mayo has hit .287/.383/.555 with 37 doubles, 32 homers, 116 RBI and 92 runs.
Let’s also keep in mind that Mayo is only 22 years old and was drafted out of high school. There’s no shame in needing to go back to the minors for more seasoning after getting a quick glimpse of major-league pitching. Look no further than Mayo’s teammate, Jackson Holliday. In his first 10 games with the Orioles, Holliday was 2 for 34 with 18 strikeouts, two walks and zero extra-base hits. He went down to the minors for more than three months. In 13 games since his return, he’s hit .255/.314/.596 with a double, five home runs, 13 RBI and 10 runs.
This isn’t to say that Mayo will have a similar path or to compare the two players. It’s simply an illustration that sometimes a great player fails at the big-league level in his first taste. It happened with players like Alex Gordon, Anthony Rizzo and Mike Trout. Maybe Holliday is another example. Maybe Mayo will be. Time will tell.
In the meantime, the Orioles are in a pennant race. They enter play Thursday 71-50, which is good for second place in the AL East, half a game behind the Yankees. As things stand, they’d be the top AL wild-card, but surely they have their sights on their second straight division crown.
