The Orioles rolled through rounds 5-20 on day 2 of the MLB draft as Sunday went along, adding to the four players they took over the first four rounds on Saturday. The O’s wrapped up the draft not all that differently from how they started it. Their top pick, Eric Booth Jr., came from the high school ranks, and in all they picked eight high school players plus one junior college player. That’s unprecedented for the Orioles in the Mike Elias era. Hopefully it ends up paying off.
Much more typical of an Elias draft is that he picked pitchers in bulk without using his top two picks on pitchers. The Orioles drafted 11 pitchers in their 20 selections. The earliest of these was taken in the third round, and only four pitchers were taken in the top ten rounds where the player being signed is a near certainty. If the O’s are lucky, they have found the 2026 version of Joseph Dzierwa, now one of the team’s top prospects after a dominant pro debut following being drafted in the second round a year ago.
Every team’s general manager, scouting director, or whatever title they give to their person in charge of the draft has been out there giving quotes about how much they like their draft class, how they can’t believe all of this talent fell to them, and so on. Prospect outlets are pumping out reports that make so many players seem like future big leaguers or even All-Star level players. Hit the brakes. Most of these guys aren’t going to make it.
The thing is that neither you, nor I, nor the Orioles, know with certainty which ones will or won’t make it, so for now, all of them could. That’s what is fun about the draft and about prospects in general. Nobody knows. You can dream as long as you steel yourself for a lot of disappointment.
Notes on the Orioles picks:
First rounder Eric Booth Jr. is a fast center fielder whose father was a late-round Blue Jays draft pick way back in 1993 before going to college for football instead. He only turned 18 years old on July 4. The younger Booth, ranked #6 on MLB Pipeline’s list of prospects in this class, is said to have “an excellent feel to hit, even with an unusual setup at the plate.” Praising the pick, FanGraphs wrote “Booth has an electricity to him that is unmatched in this draft. The quickness of his hands and his speed for his size are both show-stopping.”
In the second round, the Orioles went into the college ranks to pick outfielder Ty Head from NC State. Head is notable for how little he struck out as a college player, with just 23 strikeouts in 56 games with the Wolfpack this year. He walked 57 times. That’s an uncommon skill set and not one that the Orioles have typically targeted with their high picks. FG said, “he needs to add strength, but everything else (contact, speed, defense, natural launch, baseball IQ) is already in place.”
The third round brought the first pitcher selected, Dominic Voegele from Kansas. If the draft telecast is any indication, it’s pronounced the same as “vaguely.” Don’t worry about his ERA, which if you look you will see is bad (5.85). The environment for college offense with the metal bats is nuts. What the Orioles surely like about Voegele is he struck out 120 batters in 97 innings this year.
The Orioles went to Mississippi high school ranks again in the fourth round, taking Kevin Roberts Jr. He was picked from the same high school as Pirates rookie Konnor Griffin, who debuted before his 20th birthday early this season. Griffin was the #9 overall pick. This is a big guy, listed at 6’5” and 200 lbs. He’s still young, as he won’t turn 18 until later this month. Pipeline’s capsule noted he played basketball and track in high school; we’ll see if he benefits from focusing just on baseball.
Jimmy Anderson (fifth round) has been drafted by the Orioles before, in the 19th round a year ago. The O’s surely saw him before this, because, as the prospect enthusiasts of Orioles On The Verge noted, Anderson was a high school teammate of 2024 draft pick Nate George. He hit 26 home runs in 59 games against the junior college competition. The scouting world thinks he’s ticketed for second base.
Sixth round pick Zane Adams was draft eligible as a sophomore one year ago, but his sophomore season was bad, so he went undrafted and returned for his junior year. Pipeline summarizes the lefty’s arsenal as “a 91-94mph fastball that touches 96 … a plus upper-70s curveball and shows good feel for a 77-81mph changeup that dies at the plate.”
With their seventh round pick, the Orioles chose righty Ryan Piech from Xavier. Piech did not have a freshman year because he needed Tommy John surgery. Most recently, he had the best strikeout rate (11.6 K/9) among Big East pitchers.
Another high school position player went to the Orioles in the eighth round: Will Plunkett from a New York high school. Prospects from states in the northeast generally don’t get as many reps as ones in the south because of the weather, so there’s always potential for growth as they focus year-round on baseball. Pipeline ranked this prospect #198 on is draft board and called him one of the most intriguing picks of day 2, noting he has “a promising approach at the plate with room to grow into more power, and he has plenty of arm to fit on the left side of the infield.”
6’5” righty pitcher Collin McKinney was the ninth round pick. McKinney is a college senior out of Arizona. He’s already 22. Typically, “senior signs” are picked to save a little money against the pick’s slot value ($213,000) that will be used on other players. McKinney pitched mostly in relief for the Wildcats this spring, striking out 49 batters in 37.1 innings.
Tenth round pick Carlos Sanchez is one of three players drafted by the Orioles whose birthplace is listed as Venezuela. The 22-year-old Sanchez is listed as a junior, but for a guy to be labeled “utility” in the MLB database plus his already being 22 probably marks him as a spiritual “senior sign” if not a literal senior.
My complete tracker of the Orioles picks, including the rounds 11-20 players, can be found here.
Across the whole league, around 99% of players picked in rounds 1-10 typically sign. The system is set up such that teams lose bonus pool money if they don’t sign one of those players, so the incentives are to draft guys they know will sign. There are sometimes medical concerns, as when the Orioles didn’t sign third round pick Nolan McLean four years ago. McLean now has a 3.07 ERA in 155.1 innings across two seasons with the Mets. Not looking like the concerns were worth tanking a signing in the $750,000 range.
The rules are different for the rounds 11-20 players. They can sign for up to $150,000 without counting against the team’s bonus pool. Additionally, a player who attends a junior college rather than a four-year school can be a “draft and follow” who can sign for up to $225,000 any time up until a week before next year’s draft. Later round picks aren’t guaranteed to sign. The O’s had three unsigned players among their 24 picks a year ago.
My guess is that there will be a number of unsigned players in the later rounds of this class as well. It’s almost guaranteed with five high school players picked from 11-20. There could be overslot money ticketed for some of those players, but since the Orioles also have three high schoolers and a junior college player in their top 10 rounds, a lot of the overslot might go there instead.
Two years ago, the Orioles signed George for $455,000 and catcher Andrew Tess from a Florida high school for $347,500. We’ll probably see a couple of contracts like that among the 11-20 set while the rest head to a college campus. Sometimes, the go-to-college players turn into multi-million dollar prospects three years down the road. Most times, they don’t.
Was this a good draft for the Orioles? Baseball’s draft lacks the instant gratification of other American sports like football and basketball. Not even the most knowledgeable person can answer the question for sure. These are 18-21 year old guys who may develop or not develop in unexpected ways.
What I can say for sure is that this is a different draft for the Orioles, with a focus on young talent that hasn’t been seen in Elias’s tenure. There are no “home run or bust” players among their top few picks. That should be welcome for anyone who feels that the farm system has stagnated in recent years. They are not just trying the same old stuff and hoping it still works out. It won’t feel much better if this doesn’t work out either, but it is something different.
Teams have until July 27 at 5pm Eastern to reach agreements with their draft picks.
