Adam Hall handed chance to impress as part of Baltimore Orioles spring training roster
Adam Hall will be given the opportunity to impress Baltimore Orioles coaches after being handed a spot in the Major League Baseball outfit’s spring training roster.
The Bermudian shortstop was among a contingent of young hitters including Adley Rutschman, Heston Kjerstad, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and Terrin Vavra announced among the roster last week, with an emphasis on continuing their development in the coming months.
“These are formative years, formative at-bats for these position players,” said Mike Elias, Baltimore Orioles executive vice-president and general manager to the Baltimore Sun newspaper. “We’re a little bit more worried about that dynamic. We just want to get some of these guys here to see live pitching or track pitches, be around our coaches, and all that stuff.”
For Hall it will be a perfect opportunity to further develop and impress the club who made him the first Bermudian to play professionally in the United States, after handing him a £1.3 million contract in the Major League Baseball Draft in 2017.
Having been selected as the 24th pick of the second round in 2017, drafting him out of A B Lucas Secondary School in London, Ontario, as an 18-year-old, Hall has made steady progress.
In his first exposure to professional baseball, he had six hits in nine at-bats in the Rookie Level Gulf Coast League later that summer.
In 2018, Hall played in 62 games at Minor League Baseball side Aberdeen Ironbirds and showed more encouraging signs. He put up a .293 average and a .368 on-base percentage, as well as 22 stolen bases in 27 tries.
A year later, Hall impressed further at the Orioles affiliate club Delmarva Shorebirds and showed his consistency at the top of the order. The 22-year-old ranked in the top five in on-base percentage, hits, runs and stolen bases.
His form led to Hall being named Orioles Minor League Player of the Month in April of that year, while he was also selected to play in the 60th annual South Atlantic League All-Star Game.
The start of the 2020 Minor League Baseball season was ultimately cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.