Orioles Shortstop Prospect Adam Hall’s Path To Pro Ball Anything But Conventional

By Jordan Gold

Shortstop prospect Adam Hall’s road to the Baltimore Orioles was not the most conventional path taken by a professional baseball player.

Hall, a second-round pick by Baltimore in 2017, was born in Bermuda and spent most of his childhood there before moving to Canada at age 12 to help advance his baseball career; Hall’s mother is from Bermuda and his father is from Canada. As a kid, Hall grew up watching the Blue Jays and loved watching outfielder Reed Johnson and infielder John McDonald in particular.

In a country like Bermuda where the two most popular sports are soccer and cricket, Hall fell in love with the game of baseball because it was something he could practice on his own.

“Baseball for me was something you didn’t need other people around you to be able to do. That meant I could practice whenever I wanted, so that’s one of the things that drove me to toward baseball,” Hall said on Glenn Clark Radio Aug. 9.

Since Bermuda is not known for producing much baseball talent, Hall and his family moved to Canada, where his father had contacts in youth baseball to help further his career. Hall said he knew he could make it in baseball after making the Canadian junior national team in 10th grade.

Hall is the first professional baseball player from Bermuda, and that is something he is very proud of.

“I know Bermuda, the baseball scene that is there. I know there are quite a few people there who follow me closely, so that’s cool,” Hall said.

He’s made his fans in Bermuda proud as a professional so far. Hall, 20, is slashing .306/.381/.414 with 26 stolen bases, 43 RBIs and 22 doubles for Low-A Delmarva this year. He was also named to the South Atlantic League all-star team this summer.

Hall credits his success this season to the experience he had facing professional pitching with the Gulf Coast League Orioles (2017) and Short Season-A Aberdeen (2018).

“I think it’s just more exposure to the higher level pitching,” Hall said. “Rather than slapping balls, being able to drive it more — making pitchers pay for their mistakes rather than just getting a bat on it.”

Hall’s strong numbers at the plate are not the only reason why he was an all-star and ranks as the No. 14 prospect in the Orioles’ farm system, according to MLB Pipeline’s midseason rankings. He also flashes the leather nicely in the middle of the infield at shortstop.

“I’ve always played shortstop since a young age. That was where the most balls were hit, so that’s where I wanted to play,” Hall said. “Defensively, if it’s not working at the plate, you want to be able to do something in the field to help the team win. Shortstop is a pretty big position where you could go 0-for-4 but you could win the game. Having that as one of my tools is a big thing.”

This season, Hall’s bat and glove have been major factors in Delmarva’s league-best 48-21 first-half record, which clinched a playoff spot for the Shorebirds. Delmarva is 79-39 overall.

“It’s always better when you’re winning. Especially that first half was pretty special, the start we got off to,” Hall said. “Ever since that start, there has been an attitude that pretty much any situation we are in, in a game, we never really thought we were going to lose.”

The Orioles hope that all these wins at the minor-league level can someday translate to some wins at Camden Yards for the big-league club. Hall hopes that with a rebuild underway in Baltimore, maybe this current group at Delmarva could move up the organization and get a chance to win some games at the major-league level together.

“[The rebuild] brings a pretty exciting atmosphere around here. It would be pretty cool to have that happen,” Hall said. “A lot of the times in the minor leagues, you don’t really have the same teammates throughout the path up. Even if everyone is performing well, there could be guys blocking.”

For more from Hall, listen to the full interview here:

Photo Credit: Joey Gardner/FotoJoe

PressBox

For more from PressBox, read the latest news here.