Attending to know Orioles’ prospect Ike Irish

Both Vance Honeycutt, the Orioles’ No. 1 draft choose in 2024, and Ike Irish, the staff’s high choose in 2025, made wonderful impressions throughout Grapefruit League video games.

Honeycutt was 5-for-10, hitting 4 straight house runs whereas Irish was 4-for-5.

Last 12 months, Irish performed 20 video games at Single-A Delmarva, hitting .230 with a house run and 12 RBIs.

Irish is anticipated to play the outfield, first base and catch for High-A Frederick. The Keys have Honeycutt, Irish, the Orioles’ No. 1 prospect, outfielder Nate George, and shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, who was additionally an Orioles first-round choose. All are 22 aside from George, who is nineteen.

Irish spoke to Orioles’ media earlier than final month’s Spring Breakout sport. Here are excerpts:

Question: How is it transferring from place to place?

Ike Irish: “It’s a lot of fun. You get to learn and do new things almost every single day. I think it just grows you as a player. You see things from different perspectives, whether it be the outfield, first base, catching, a totally different perspective on the game, moving around so much. I think it’s a blessing to be moving around and having fun with it.”

Q: What was it prefer to get into Grapefruit League video games with the Orioles as an additional participant?

Irish: “It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of learning. Most of the games, we’re just trying to soak in information, be a sponge. It’s a copycat league. We’re trying to copy what the big leaguers are doing. They’re doing it at the highest level, but it’s been a lot of fun getting in there sometimes, seeing Vance do what he did was pretty sick. It’s been so much fun hanging around with the guys, just being a ballplayer.”

Q: What sorts of changes did you must make to professional ball?

Irish: “Last summer, the hardest part was to restarting the body again. Having a full offseason, being able to hammer out the little things because little things snowball into big things eventually. Crossing my t’s, dotting my i’s with swing mechanics, with defensive positions, and now I feel I’ve grown in all those categories.”

Q: What did you get from these 20 video games at Delmarva?

Irish: “It’s laborious. Baseball’s nonetheless laborious, and it doesn’t get any simpler. It’s simply the every day grind. I believe in Delmarva there was a lot that I wished to do, and we knew our season was brief. I attempted to perform issues there, and I simply did an excessive amount of.

“Even though we only played 20 games, it’s still a long month. Taking it day-by-day and not putting too much on the body, not doing too much. It’s a long season. You can do stuff over weeks.”

Q: Would you like to focus on a place or do you want transferring round?

Irish: “I don’t actually care personally. I simply like to play baseball. As lengthy as I’m within the lineup, it doesn’t matter the place I play. If they’ve an EH, I might like to be an EH, too. I’m simply so younger. I don’t assume I’ve performed sufficient in all three spots, 4 spots, the corners, first base, catching. I haven’t performed sufficient baseball in my life but to be like, ‘This is where I’m actually good at.’

“So just taking it day-by-day, soaking up from the coaches and just trying to be the best player that I can.”

Q: Utility gamers aren’t normally catchers. They’re typically infielders and outfielders. How did you develop this talent the place you may catch in addition to play the infield and outfield?

Irish: “I think it came in college. That’s really where I started to move around a lot. In college, my freshman year, I DH’d and played first base. Sophomore, I caught and played the outfield. Last year, I played the outfield and caught. Just honing in, and just getting experience. There’s nothing like experience, so just trying to gain as much as I can and just play baseball.”

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