Left-handed pitcher Travis Seabrooke, the Orioles' fifth round pick last year out of a Canadian high school, tore the ACL in his right knee and had season-ending surgery Monday.
Initially targeted for the Short-A Aberdeen rotation, Seabrooke will not pitch this season, but he should be back within the next year.
"It is quite a lengthy recovery with those injuries, but hopefully next year at this time he'll be 100 percent healthy and ready to go," Orioles player development director Brian Graham said.
Seabrooke, 18, signed last summer for a $291,800 bonus and pitched in three games, two starts, for the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Orioles in 2013. He posted a 1.13 ERA in eight innings, allowing five hits, five walks and striking out seven.
Despite the limited professional action, Seabrooke, who is 6 feet 4, 170 pounds, was named by Baseball America as the organization's 16th best prospect heading into this season.
Seabrooke was dealing with knee soreness in the last week and informed the Orioles' medical staff. He was evaluated, and the tear was discovered, Graham said. There was no specific incident that was the obvious cause of the injury. He'll stay in Sarasota, Fla., and rehabilitate.
"We really like him. He's young, left-handed, has a good arm, athleticism," Graham said. "We don't anticipate any problems [with the knee] going forward."
Seabrooke's father, Glen, was a first-round pick (21st overall) in the 1985 NHL draft and played parts of three seasons (1986-89) with the Philadelphia Flyers.
In other Orioles minor league injury news, High-A Frederick catcher Steel Russell had a pin inserted into his fractured right thumb Thursday. The surgery went well, Graham said. There's no set timetable on Russell's return, but the initial prognosis was that he'd be out six to eight weeks.
Russell, the 23-year-old son of Orioles bench coach John Russell, broke his thumb in the second inning of Parker Bridwell's near no-hitter earlier this month. He stayed in for the rest of the game.