The Orioles selected third baseman Coby Mayo out of Stoneman Douglas High School (Fla.) in the fourth round of the 2020 MLB Draft. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound third baseman began the 2023 season at Double-A Bowie and entered the campaign as a career .270/.359/.488 minor league hitter. So far this season, he is slashing .267/.390/.489 with five home runs, 12 doubles and 16 RBIs through 37 games entering play May 24.
High-A Aberdeen manager Roberto Mercado and Stoneman Douglas baseball coach Todd Fitz-Gerald chatted with PressBox about the 21-year-old Mayo.
PressBox: What makes Mayo special? What sets him apart?
Roberto Mercado: I’ll start on the offensive side. I think he’s one of our best power hitters in our organization. He proved it last year — started in High-A, hit the ball really well in Aberdeen, which is kind of considered a graveyard, pretty big ballpark. He made the ballpark look small at times. He’s got plus power, got a plus arm, solid defender at third base who continues to work on his craft every single day and one of the hardest workers we have in our organization. It was an honor and a pleasure to coach him this past season and be his manager. He comes from a great family, got a great support system at home. I got to know his family a little bit as well. They came to a bunch of games during the season, so got to know them.
PB: What’s your favorite Mayo story?
Todd Fitz-Gerald: [In 2019], we went down and played a school, Monsignor Pace High School. He was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and the guy dialed him up all night long with a changeup. There were probably about 40 or 50 scouts there, and he was kind of pressing a little bit. I said, “Dude, that’s baseball. Nobody’s going to remember the three strikeouts that you had tonight. They’re going to remember the home run that you’re going to hit to win it for us.” He hit a home run and the thing hasn’t landed yet. That was definitely one of the special times for him because as a young kid — and he’s a young kid, too — that’s the maturity factor and just the maturation process of being able to handle failure, that’s critical in this game.
PB: Where will Mayo need to improve to reach his ceiling? What challenges may he run into?
TF: Defensively, he’s got a huge arm. … He may go to the outfield because he’s a really good runner for a big kid. It’s just being able to handle the everyday grind of 162 games and the ups and downs that go with it. But I’ve really seen him mature over the last year and a half mentally, so that’s really positive. And he knows what he wants. He’s going to work his tail off to get to where he wants to be. … He’s got light-tower power, mostly pull-side power though. I’d like to see him go oppo a little bit. Most of his home runs in high school were pull-side home runs, too. When he can really start driving the ball the other way, he’s going to be dangerous. I think that’s really the only weakness that I see in his game and have always seen in his game, but I think that’ll come with age.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles
Originally published April 19, 2023. Updated May 24.