Orioles Star Prospect Joins Rare Top 100 Company
The Baltimore Orioles have the No. 1 prospect in baseball for the second straight year according to MLB Pipeline’s latest Top 100 rankings.
To little surprise, shortstop Jackson Holliday is No. 1. He was No. 1 in the rankings at the start of last season and he is the fourth player to be ranked No. 1 at least twice, joining Wander Franco, Byron Buxton and Delmon Young. Young was No. 1 three straight seasons from 2005-07 while with Tampa Bay.
Joining Holliday in the updated Top 100 were catcher Samuel Basallo (No. 17), outfielder Colton Cowser (No. 19), corner infielder Coby Mayo (No. 30), outfielder Heston Kjerstad (No. 32) and infielder Joey Ortiz (No. 63).
Before the re-rank, the Orioles had Holliday (No. 1), Cowser (No. 14), Kjerstad (No. 24), Mayo (No. 27), Basallo (No. 46) and Ortiz (No. 50) in the Top 100.
Holliday, the son of former Major League start Matt Holliday, was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2022 MLB Draft. He cruised through the Orioles’ minor-league system last year, reaching Triple-A Norfolk before turning 20 and he’s batted .320/.449/.490 in 671 minor league plate appearances.
The Orioles signed Basallo out of the Dominican Republic in 2021 and he finished with the Double-A Bowie BaySox last season. He’s a .291 hitter in three minor-league seasons with 31 home runs and 137 RBI.
Cowser made his MLB debut last season, batting .115 in 26 games. He was the Orioles, first-round pick 2021 out of Sam Houston. In three minor-league seasons he is a .298 hitter with 38 home runs and 168 RBI.
Mayo has been working his way through the Orioles’ system since he was a fourth-round pick in 2020 out of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. In three minor-league seasons he’s batted .279 with 57 home runs and 209 RBI. He ended last season at Triple-A Norfolk.
Kjerstad also made his MLB debut last season, playing 13 games and batting .233. The former first-round pick in 2020 is a .305 hitter in the minor leagues with 26 home runs and 92 RBI.
Ortiz was the Orioles’ fourth-round pick in 2019 out of New Mexico State. He finished last season with Norfolk. He’s a career .285 hitter in the minors with 33 home runs and 177 RBI.
Rankings were created based on input from scouts, scouting directors and other talent evaluators. It also takes into account skill set, upside, proximity to the Majors and potential immediate impact to their teams.
The Top 100 includes players with 2024 rookie status, which includes players that debuted in 2023 that don’t have the service time (45 days on the active roster), at-bats (130) or innings pitched (50) to graduate.
