The Orioles are reportedly calling up Colton Cowser

They’re doing it again! The Orioles have reportedly added another prospect to the major league mix. According to MASN’s Roch Kubatko, 2021 first rounder Colton Cowser is on the way to New York to join the Orioles. Reinforcements are coming. Well, hopefully.

Cowser had ascended as high as #14 on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects list before this big league arrival. The quad injury that cost him a few weeks, and possibly an opportunity to be called up at the end of May when Cedric Mullins was hurt, does not seem to have slowed him down. Cowser has made it up to the MLB level within two years of being drafted out of Sam Houston State by the O’s. The underslot signing strategy that also enabled the O’s to get Coby Mayo into the system looks pretty good just now.

He’s batted .330/.459/.537 in 56 games with the Tides, cracking ten home runs. Plate discipline has been impressive too, with 48 walks in 257 plate appearances. Since returning to action on June 3, that’s a .936 OPS with three home runs in 19 games. In 10 of the 15 games he played in the field, he’s played right field, which might be a hint of how the O’s are hoping to use him this season. Or not. He’s also stolen seven bases.

Within the last few days, GM Mike Elias appeared on MASN and said of Cowser that Cowser could get the call any day now. Sometimes Elias says stuff and people read what they want into it, but in this case it seems that maybe he was actually giving a hint about his very short-term plans. Goodness knows that the offense could use a boost, with the team having scored three or fewer runs in 11 of the last 18 games.

Of course, it’s going to be interesting to see how they find Cowser the playing time. Unless there’s an injury that we don’t know about, the outfield seems to be pretty well set! Though Mullins has slumped since his return, there’s Austin Hays, Anthony Santander, and Aaron Hicks in the mix too.

It is hard to imagine any one of these would be shuffled aside, so there could be a surprise coming. The surprise might end up being that Cowser doesn’t hang around as long as any Orioles fans who’ve been dreaming about his long-term contributions would like. This treatment has happened to Kyle Stowers and Joey Ortiz in the last couple of years. I don’t know why they’d call up Cowser only to do that, but that’s never stopped the Orioles from doing things before.

The possibility of a disappointing future is always out there. In the meantime, this makes the present more exciting, so let’s enjoy what we can about that.