Bundy, Myers to begin year in Minors

Dylan Bundy is "going to be a good one." Wil Myers was "better than advertised." But when the 2013 season begins next month, both top prospects will be back in the Minor Leagues.

The Orioles optioned Bundy to Double-A Bowie on Saturday, while the Rays optioned Myers to Triple-A Durham.

Bundy, MLB.com's No. 2 overall prospect, went 1-1 with a 1.13 ERA in four Grapefruit League appearances in his second Spring Training in big league camp. But the Orioles want the 20-year-old right-hander to get more work in the Minors.

"It's time for him to get stretched out a little bit more, and [innings] aren't here for him," Baltimore manager Buck Showalter told MLB.com. "He's going to start the year in Bowie and go ahead and get that mentality, mind-set, adjustment made as soon as possible."

Bundy will return to Bowie, where he was 2-0 with a 3.24 ERA in three starts last summer. The fourth overall pick in the 2011 Draft began his professional career with eight overpowering starts at Class A Delmarva. Over 30 innings, he yielded two unearned runs on five hits while striking out 40. Bundy moved up to Class A Advanced Frederick and went 6-3 with a 2.84 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 57 innings.

The Orioles brought the Oklahoma native to the Majors in September and Bundy worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings in two relief appearances.

"He's in a really good frame of mind and likes where he is," Showalter said. "He had a good spring. ... He's going to be a good one."

Myers was similarly upbeat as he heads back to Triple-A.

"I'm actually kind of excited about it," he told MLB.com. "It was something that I knew was going to come eventually. It wasn't a surprise at all, so I'm really looking forward to getting down there and getting some at-bats. I really enjoyed my time here, it was a blast. But now I'm ready to get down to business, get down there and get my at-bats in."

The bonus for Myers is that he'll play his home games a little more than an hour from High Point, N.C., where he attended high school.

The key piece in last December's seven-player trade that sent right-hander James Shields to Kansas City, Myers batted .286 with three doubles, a triple, an RBI and four runs scored in 17 games this spring. He struck out 10 times in 35 at-bats, but that did nothing to cloud the way manager Joe Maddon views MLB.com's No. 4 overall prospect.

"He was actually better than advertised for me, personally," Maddon said. "Everybody talks about hitting and worries about hitting; I like the rest of the potential in his game. Defensively, he made a nice throw to the plate. He's a better runner than I thought. He truly can be a complete baseball player. The bat can be very special, but the rest of his game can be very good, too. That's what I saw."

Splitting last season between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha in the Royals system, Myers won a handful of Minor League Player of the Year awards. The catcher-turned-outfielder combined for 37 homers and 109 RBIs while batting .314 in 134 games.