The youth movement has been underway for a few years now with the Baltimore Orioles, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some intriguing players still rising in the farm system.
Keith Law of The Athletic recently released his upgraded Top 20 prospect ranking. What stood out about the Orioles was a handful of players making jumps into that next tier and securing their status as players to watch.
The first five players in the ranking were slugger Samuel Basallo, third baseman Coby Mayo, outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., pitcher Chayce McDermott and shortstop Griff O’Ferrall.
O’Ferrall was the second round pick of Baltimore last season and made his debut on the list in the top five. It’s hard to set expectations much higher. He has never hit for much power, but looks like a solid speed threat that has the potential of good vision at the plate.
He was a young college player and still just turned 22 years old so there is plenty of time for him to come into his own with this development.
The No. 6 through No. 10 players were outfielder Vancy Honeycutt, outfielder Dylan Beavers, pitcher Nestor German, catcher Ethan Anderson and pitcher Luis De Léon.
German made the biggest jump of anyone that was already in the farm system entering the year. He was an 11th-round selection out of college back in 2023.
His first 73.2 innings of professional baseball came this year and they were impressive. He had an ERA of just 1.59 with a 0.937 and 11.0 K/9.
Up next in the rankings were pitcher Trace Bright, shortstop Leandro Arias, pitcher Trey Gibson, pitcher Brandon Young and outfielder Austin Overn.
Overn is an interesting prospect that could group into a solid center fielder at some point for the Orioles. He isn’t on the exact timeline to be ready before Cedric Mullins hits free agency, but he could still be there future long-term answer there.
The 2024 third round pick posted a .280/.398/.467 slash line with five doubles, three triples and 16 stolen bases over his first 21 games.
Closing out the top 20 for Baltimore was pitcher Patrick Reilly, pitcher Michael Forret, catcher Creed Willems, shortstop DJ Layton and infielder Aron Estrada.
Reilly is the most fun prospect of this group. He flashed as a reliever in college, but became a starter last year and the results were great. His walk rate is still high but he had a 3.47 ERA and 11.0 K/9.
