Where the Orioles Top Draft Picks Rank Among the Organization's Best Prospects

The days of the Orioles grabbing a player in the first round and having him enter their prospect lists barely in the top 10 are long gone. They’re over.

There was no liftoff, as Mike Elias claimed on May 22, 2022, but they have graduated their top prospects and their farm system is now middling at best. Last season was such a disaster that Elias was just picking seventh-overall and he selected an outfielder who the industry thought might go in the top five selections.

So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say when MLB Pipeline and Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs update their prospect lists, that Booth is going to figure very prominently in it. And ditto for the next few players they selected. This isn’t rocket science and, because we know how the sausage is made, Elias and his minions know their jobs are on the line and they try to prove their worth with these arbitrary rankings. And with so few real prospects there presently, they are going to want to see these kids they just picked flushing out their suspect top 10s.

Here’s where we expect to see some of their recent top picks slotting into this mix:

Eric Booth Jr. – No 1

There isn’t a lot of competition. Not anymore. Pipeline has Nate George there, basically a teenager who was taken in the 16th round a few years ago and who has barely played baseball this season at Hi-A with “an undisclosed illness.” No one else is making a charge.

Baseball America has Ike Irish there, a potentially position-less bat who has a lot of variance in his profile as their No. 1 prospect. I have a hard time thinking someone considered the best high-school position player in the draft isn’t immediately the top dog in this system even if the swing plane needs some work and there are going to be challenges with the bat.

This seems like a total no brainer. He certainly won't be behind fellow first-round outfield selections like Enrique Bradfield Jr. or Vance Honeycutt.

Ty Head – Top 5

With not much power in his profile, this ceiling might not be that high. But he played at a big-time program at NC State against what would equate to Hi-A competition in a lot of ways and he was an on-base machine and he is considered a future MLB centerfielder from a defensive perspective.

This farm system doesn’t have prospects anywhere in the high minors who project as sure-fire everyday major leaguers and this system is always short on pitching prospects and has zero pedigree for developing them. So it wont take much to displace a few arms at the top of this prospect list to make room for Head.

A consensus top 50 talent in a just-completed draft is going to result in that at that stage in Elias’s never-ending rebuild. He got on base 45% of the time this season. That’s gonna get him in the top five.

Kevin Roberts Jr. – Top 12

Another prep outfielder from Mississippi and one with a 6-5 frame and all kinds of tools. A kid who other front offices were dreaming on. One who might have 35 homers in that frame somewhere.

Usually, when a kid like this gets nitpicked ahead of a draft – with levers this long – you hear all about how many holes are in the swing. Not with Roberts. The fact he is just 17 with this kind of upside is going to work in his favor as well. The fact he was selected just outside the top 100 won’t work against him in a system this devoid of potential impact bats.

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