Former Orioles minor-leaguer fires fans up about Baltimore's young core

The unfortunate truth is that very few of all of the players that start their professional careers with the Baltimore Orioles (or any team) actually make it to the big leagues. The minor leagues is a meat grinder with loads of really talented guys not making the cut. There is no shame in that at all, as just getting signed by a big league team is a huge deal.

One such former Oriole is Shelton Perkins, who Baltimore picked in the 16th round out of James Madison University. Perkins put together a very solid minor league career as a reliever from 2019-2022 with a 2.94 ERA in 70 appearances. However, a cursory guess is that his issues with walks became an issue, as well Tommy John surgery, which ultimately led to his release last November.

Still, that isn't keeping Perkins from gassing up his former Orioles teammates and getting fans exciting for the talent that Baltimore still has coming through the minors.

Former Orioles prospect reminds everyone that success in baseball has a lot of forms

Take it from someone who was there. This group is special AND growing.

It would be easy for a guy like Perkins to have some bitterness about his time in baseball. He got all the way to Double-A only to get released last offseason. However, instead he has chosen to cheer on his former teammates, made sure to thank the Orioles for giving him the opportunity he got right after his release, and seems like he was a tremendous guy to have in the organization for the years he was here.

For every Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman who seemed destined for greatness from the beginning, there are at least 40 minor leaguers that are out there grinding hoping to improve enough to get their next big promotion or opportunity. They make the uber-talents in a farm system better just by how they carry themselves and how hard they work to improve every single day.

Perkins seems like one of those guys, and it is sad that things didn't work out for him in baseball. However, that doesn't seem to have stopped him from having an impact on his teammates and fans down in the minor leagues. Hopefully he finds success in whatever he has moved on to in life (although a cursory look at his Twitter feed shows he may want to work on his golf game a bit).

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