One call away: Canon-Mac grad Weston making waves with Tides in Triple-A Norfolk
When a baseball player gets to the Triple-A level, they are one phone call away from a dream come true.
Anyone who’s ever been on the cusp of accomplishing a major goal can relate.
It’s human nature to wonder what that moment will be like.
That’s where Canon-McMillan grad Cameron Weston sits right now.
He’s a starting pitcher for the Norfolk Tides, the Class AAA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.
And one phone call away.
But like many baseball players before him, he’s done his best to tune out those thoughts and stay locked in.
“I try not to think about it,” Weston said. “I try to just be where my feet are and take it day by day. It’ll happen when it happens. I don’t want to put on any added pressure.”
Weston is coming off one of his best outings of the year, six innings of one-hit ball with no earned runs, seven strikeouts and one walk Tuesday in a 3-1 win over Gwinnett.
It’s the third time in four outings in June that he’s yielded two or fewer runs, which has been a common occurrence in his first season at minor league baseball’s highest level.
Outside of two starts where he gave up six runs, Weston has been strong. He’s yielded three or fewer earned runs in his other 13 starts and has a 4.35 ERA. Take those two starts out and his ERA is in the 2’s. He has 75 strikeouts to 35 walks in 68 1/3 innings.
“Every game you make small adjustments and when you have a game like (Tuesday) you want to take what works, the feels of the delivery with you to the next game and build off of it,” Weston said.
After a strong college career at Michigan, Weston was selected by the Orioles in the 8th round of the 2022 MLB first-year player draft.
He’s steadily climbed through Baltimore’s system. He posted an ERA in the 2’s in High-A and after finishing with a 3.14 ERA in 92 innings at Double-A Bowie last year, the Orioles promoted him to Norfolk to start this season.
Fangraphs had Weston listed as Baltimore’s 14th-ranked prospect coming into the season.
Part of what has allowed him to ascend is refinement with some pitches he already had and the addition of a wipeout slider, or more commonly known as a “sweeper” in this day and age of baseball.
“When I was in college, the cutter I have now was more of a slider and in pro ball I added the more sweepier slider and kind of fine-tuned everything else,” Weston said. “The cutter became more of a true cutter, and I can mix that off my old slider.”
Weston credited the Orioles with being advanced analytically. He regularly receives data of how his pitches are performing and what to adjust off that.
He was a natural lower slot thrower, but with some tinkering he has dropped his arm slot a little more.
The data is a good tool, but Weston restrains himself from getting too caught up in it.
“Sometimes you make adjustments off it, but you have got to be weary not to chase the numbers,” Weston said. “Every outing, though, you can take something from it. There’s going to be some details to see. Recently, it’s been arm angle and where I’m coming from and how the sinker is spinning. I’d say the biggest difference since college has been the slider and getting it more horizontal.”
Another adjustment in pro ball is the schedule. The way the minor leagues have set up the schedule since the pandemic is to have six straight games against one opponent.
In college, weekend series are used, so a pitcher rarely sees a team more than once. In pro ball that’s not the case.
On Sunday, Weston will take the hill again against Gwinnett, giving him the task of facing the same lineup twice in one week.
“You have to trust the scouting report and be mindful of how you go about it,” Weston said. “There could be some lineup changes, but guys are going to get six at-bats off you in six days, so you may have to switch it up, or stay on the same page and be weary of when you want to switch it. There are other times you may go with a completely different approach. It’s definitely a challenge.”
If Weston gets the call to Baltimore this year he’ll be the first Washington County native to play in the Major Leagues since Jordan Jankowski pitched for the Houston Astros in 2017.
For now, he’s going to keep working so that he’s ready if he does make the trip up I-95 to Baltimore.
“You just try to get better every day, learn new stuff and take it with you,” Weston said. “Different levels come with being more consistent. It’s a new group at every stop that you meet and you always learn something. The other thing is you don’t want to get too high or too low. Just keep moving forward with your work.”