NORFOLK, Va. — Coby Mayo called his shot.
When the Triple-A Norfolk Tides’ slugging third baseman fractured a rib while in pursuit of a wayward foul ball last month, he predicted that he’d be back sooner than most people thought.
Twenty-six days after he tumbled into a metal railing leading down the stairs to Harbor Park’s third base dugout, Mayo made a rehab start at High-A Aberdeen. Four games, six hits and three home runs later, Mayo was back with the Tides, immediately continuing to own the Triple-A International League.
Mayo, 22, the second-ranked prospect in the Orioles organization according to Baseball America, entered Wednesday’s game against Charlotte on a five-game hitting streak. He’d hit .375 with two homers and four RBIs in six games since his rapid return from the rib injury.
Less than a month rehabbing at the Orioles’ player development complex in Sarasota, Florida, seems to have been plenty.
“I don’t know much about the healing process of those things, but it seems like he healed pretty fast,” Norfolk manager Buck Britton said. “About a month, and he’s back in there playing, and it looks like he’s picking up right where he left off. Maybe it’s a benefit of being a really young kid, healing really fast. But I’m really, really glad it wasn’t more than what it was.”
For the 6-foot-5, 230-pound Mayo, who has a swing so violent it should come with a parental advisory, the process wasn’t exactly that simple.
While rehabbing in Florida, his home state, Mayo started slowly with work on a stationary bike and some underwater exercises to take the weight off his burly body.
He progressed to simply keeping his legs moving, followed by work on his core. As he felt better, he began to run and do some light hitting.
The process gave him time for introspection.
“I think it’s never fun to be rehabbing, but I think it’s a part of the sport and the business,” Mayo said. “And I think you have to sometimes take that time and rehab and reflect on your season so far and how things are going. I was excited to get back out there when the time was ready.”
It had to be a fun look back. In total, Mayo entered Wednesday hitting .301 with 15 homers and 41 RBIs through 48 games with the Tides.
The time off cost him the league lead in homers, but he was still tops with a .617 slugging percentage and third with a .987 OPS.
Mayo is one of several Norfolk prospects blocked by players on the loaded parent club, which has struggled lately with five straight losses and could soon be in need of reinforcements.
The list includes top overall prospect Jackson Holliday, a second baseman and shortstop who has been relegated to a designated hitter role for the foreseeable future by an elbow injury. Connor Norby, a second baseman and outfielder, is one of the league’s most dynamic players and is coming off his first taste of the major leagues.
Norby, a former East Carolina star, said the Tides are a better team when all the prospects, including Mayo, are at full strength.
“When we’re playing together and it’s contagious like that, it’s pretty dangerous,” Norby said. “Obviously, you want to ride that out as long as you can, but it’s baseball, so we’re going to have off nights. Not everyone’s going to click at the same time. But yeah, when we’re going together and we’re going as a unit, I know for opposing pitchers, it’s not very fun to go against us.”
By returning so quickly, Mayo might have surprised everyone but himself. The pain, he said, wasn’t extreme, and the nature of the injury seemed to make things easier.
“I know that, obviously, a broken bone can be quite a while,” Mayo said. “It’s usually, like, six to eight weeks or even longer. But I knew that with the rib, you kind of just had to wait for it to start healing a little bit. And then once that rib starts to heal, you can start doing more. Because it wasn’t an injury with the swing or with throwing or anything; it was more of just a contact injury. So with that, it’s more of a quicker process.”
The Tides couldn’t be happier to have him back. In his first home game in nearly a month on Tuesday, Mayo launched a no-doubt bomb over the left field wall to tie an eventual 10-inning loss in the eighth.
It was further evidence to Britton that Norfolk is a more menacing team with Mayo on it, and it could be just a matter of time before the Orioles know the feeling.
“Oh, no question,” Britton said. “That’s a big-time impact bat. Helps the guys around him. It’s just nice to have Coby, one of our big prospects, back in the lineup playing. And hopefully, he can work his way into an opportunity in the big leagues.”
