Creed Willems remains an intriguing Orioles prospect

Do we see another rebound in 2024?

Photo credit: FOTOJOE Photography, Inc.

Written by: Nick Stevens

Throughout the 2022 season, Creed Willems was one of the prospects we received the most questions about on Twitter and during podcast recordings. He was a Top 30 prospect and high school signing who received a $1 million signing bonus to bypass his TCU commitment, but he struggled offensively during his first stint with Delmarva, and while many questions about his bat surfaced, just as many questions about his defense and physical presence were brought forward by fans anxious to see yet another Mike Elias high school draft pick break out. 

After a strong rebound with Delmarva to begin 2023 and an up-and-down first experience in Aberdeen, where does Creed Willems and his prospect status stand going into 2024? 

First, let’s revisit why the Orioles selected Willems. Drafted in the 8th round of the 2021 draft, the 227th overall pick had a slot bonus of $187,000. Again, Willems received $1 million. The left-handed hitting catcher brought a high ceiling, impressive raw power (was belting home runs onto Eutaw Street during a pre-draft workout as a teenager with a wood bat), and a plus arm behind the plate. 

Listed at 6’1” and 225 pounds as an 18-year-old, Willems spent his high school showcase days impressing scouts with high exit velos at the plate and even a mid-90s fastball on the mound. Not surprisingly, his high character was also commonly noted, even quickly noticed by the King of Hugs himself, Adley Rutschman, once he was in the organization. 

Other teams passed on Willems, thinking his commitment to TCU was pretty strong, but the Orioles were intrigued enough with his power and high ceiling. As Willems now prepares to begin his third full year as a pro, he’s given both the organization and fans enough reasons for that intrigue to remain high. 

Willems played in just 68 games with Delmarva in his first full year back in 2022, missing a little more than a month with an elbow injury. He failed to maintain a batting average above the Mendoza-Line, hitting just .190 with a .585 OPS and finding his way to only four home runs and a wRC+ of 65. 

He was able to rebound well last season, hitting .302 with a 1.057 OPS and 192 wRC+ in 30 games as a Shorebird, collecting eight home runs and posting a 20/29 K/BB in 96 at-bats. 

It wasn’t just feeling more comfortable because he was repeating the level that led to Willems’ success. He lost 27 pounds before the start of the 2023 season, started wearing glasses at the plate, journaled each at-bat, and fully embraced the growth mindset approach preached by the organization. 

Unfortunately, the jump to High-A proved to be a difficult one for Willems. He was able to showcase his power in Aberdeen (nine home runs in 75 games), but his numbers, pretty much across the board, looked almost identical to his 2022 Delmarva numbers. 

It’s safe to say Willems will begin 2024 back in Aberdeen where he will have an opportunity to rebound once again. He won’t turn 21 until June and will be 1-2 years younger than his peers in High-A, so youth is still very much on his side. Factor in his position and the fact that catchers typically peak offensively much later than other position players, there are still reasons to remain optimistic about Willems’ future. 

A big reason for his struggles in Delmarva was attributed to pitchers attacking him with secondary offerings. He worked on that and started to find success. Now, he’s going to need to do the same in High-A. 

Something else that I don’t think is appreciated enough when discussing Willems is the fact that when he was an 18-year-old catcher at Delmarva, not only was he learning how to adjust to pitchers who quickly adjusted to him, but he had to take control of a variety of different factors when it came to his defensive position. 

Learning an entire pitching staff in Delmarva, one that’s constantly in flux due to injuries and the shuffling of guys between Delmarva and the FCL, not to mention the growing number of international signings who are climbing up the ranks and making up a majority of Delmarva’s roster at times, many of whom speak very little to no English which presents a language barrier. That’s a lot to handle for a teenager who needs to find time to work on his offensive craft at the same time (not to mention the off-the-field growth and development we all experience during this age range).

I’m also curious to know what the pitch-calling situation was like for Willems up to this point in his career. Was he taking control in high school and calling games from behind the plate, or did the coaching staff signal in pitches? What about when he was in Delmarva? Not only are you learning your own pitchers, but now you have a scouting report of everyone on the team you’re playing that week you have to learn. I’m curious to know if at that level the organization is letting the catchers take the scouting reports and call games on their own or if they are getting help from the bench. Regardless, there’s another variable to consider when looking at a young catcher like Willems. 

*Edit* The Orioles Player Development Twitter account dropped a Creed Willems “Fly By” video as I’m just about to hit submit and Creed highlights this specific point about learning how to call games in his video. You can watch it here.

With an established star in Adley Rutschman behind the plate in the majors and the massive breakout of Samuel Basallo last season, barring a trade involving Basallo, the duo could very well combine forces in the big leagues sometime in the near future. The Orioles don’t necessarily need Willems to become one of the top catching prospects in baseball, there are a few other elite defensive catchers in the system who can provide solid depth (Silas Ardoin and Cole Urman, for example), and Willems does become much less attractive if he’s moved off from behind the plate, but he does have the potential to separate himself from the likes of Ardoin and Urman in the organization and either present as a unique depth option for the Orioles, or maybe even catch the eye of another organization and become a wanted trade piece. 

Either way, despite the challenges he’s faced thus far in his career, Creed Willems is still firmly on the radar and someone who I will be paying close attention to as the 2024 season begins.