This surging Orioles prospect just shared what piece of advice helped him break out

Baltimore Orioles prospect Thomas Sosa is off to a hot start in Double-A that could quickly change the way he's viewed around the league. Coming into the season, Sosa's calling card as a prospect is his plus bat speed and impressive raw power. In the Arizona Fall League last year, he hit a ball 113.7 mph, and his bat speed came in at 77.3 mph. Those are both impressive numbers for a player who was just 20 years old at the time.

Despite these impressive tools, up until this season, the results had not followed. Last year, he put up a .562 OPS in his first stint in Double-A and in the Arizona Fall League, where his tools looked so impressive, his OPS was .484. In the offseason, Sosa made an important mental adjustment, making him look like a whole new player. About this change in mentality, Sosa told Birds Watcher:

"In seasons past, I went up to plate just thinking about big swings, you know everyone dreams of those home runs where you're going to be the savior and I ended up having a conversation with Koby Perez (The Orioles VP of International Scouting and Operations) and we talked about that way of thinking of the big swing vs just trying to make contact and get on base. After we had that conversation, that really sunk in, and that's been my goal ever since."

If you were built like Sosa, you'd think that every swing needed to result in a home run too. He's 6'4, and from looking at him, you can tell that his listed weight of 160 pounds is quite outdated. However, it is because of Sosa's size and strength that he doesn't need to "try" to hit home runs; if he just regularly makes contact, the ball is going to regularly go over the fence.

Thomas Sosa's focus on making contact has yielded excellent results

So far in 2026, Sosa is hitting .276, well above the league average and by far his best mark over his last three seasons of minor league ball. He has nine extra-base hits in just 14 games, which is on pace to blow his mark of 21 extra-base hits in 68 games from last season out of the water.

In watching Sosa this year, one thing that stands out is his ability to use the opposite field. He already has multiple extra base hits to left and left centerfield. This is something that is by design with his swing, and when asked about it, he shared:

"I was working with Gregory Polanco, and we were talking about my stance, and he was saying that if I turned my foot in a little bit, that I would be able to navigate my power into the opposite field, and that's helped me a lot."

Sosa has known Polanco, formerly of the Pirates, since he was eight years old, just beginning to play baseball. The two are from the same city in the Dominican Republic, and with Polanco also being a towering left-handed hitting, left-handed throwing (rare) right fielder, the similarities between Sosa and his long-time mentor are hard to ignore. Injuries derailed Polanco's career just when he was reaching his peak, but if you're wondering what a good version of Thomas Sosa looks like in the big leagues, 2018 Gregory Polanco is a good goal to shoot for.

The fact that Sosa is purposely driving the ball to the opposite field is a great sign in his development as a complete hitter. Some prospects show "opposite field power," but what that really means is they can't pull the ball, and that tends to be a weakness that gets exploited at the big league level. Sosa CAN hit it to the opposite field, but that's not his only trick; he also demonstrates impressive pull-side power.

The adjustments Sosa has made have not made him a perfect player. He is still working hard to improve against left-handed pitching, and ideally, he'd walk a little more, but the fact that he made such a leap over one offseason bodes well for his future development. He is still just 21 years old, almost three years younger than the average Double-A hitter, and has a long runway to continue improving.

Sosa is good friends with fellow prospects Aron Estrada and Luis De Leon, and with Sosa making a leap at the plate, those three make up an exciting trio of international prospects for Orioles fans to watch and keep track of as they progress towards the majors.

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