Baltimore Orioles: Top Ten Prospects for 2018
We have reached the point of the offseason where prospect lists abound. We continue our top 10 prospects for every team with the Baltimore Orioles!
Our team top 10 prospect lists at Call to the Pen are spearheaded by Benjamin Chase. Today, he gives us the top ten prospects for the Baltimore Orioles.
This season, we will be going through teams by division, in order of 2017 record. The AL East will be first, followed by the AL Central and AL West. Then the focus will shift to the National League in the same order.
The format will be as it was last season for the same lists, with a system review, which will include last season’s list. The top 10 will follow in reverse order, two players per page in order to give adequate space to each player. Major trades or international signings will lead to an updated top 10!
Finally, don’t go away after #1 is revealed as each list will also contain a player either signed in the 2017 international free agent class or drafted in 2017 that isn’t part of the top 10 and should be tracked. Last season’s mentions in that area made over half of the top 10s this season, so this is a great way to get to know a player who could be making a big splash in the organization.
System overview
While the Orioles have had a rough farm system for a number of years, and that certainly continues into 2018, there is something rare to brag about – an actual top 100 bat, and possibly even two. The Baltimore Orioles have had excellent prospects in recent years, but those prospects who received top 100 notice were typically pitchers outside of Manny Machado and Matt Wieters before him.
The current Orioles have seen Wieters leave and face the likely departure of Machado, if not in trade before his free agency after the 2018 season, certainly he won’t be back in free agency after the season. The team also has All Star center fielder Adam Jones in that same free agent class, meaning two of the biggest stars on the team will be walking out the door at the end of the 2018 season if the team does not choose to rebuild.
With the Baltimore Orioles really being synonymous with ignoring the entire international free agent market, there will be a long road ahead once that rebuild starts, but the good news is that there are a few players at the top of the system right now that can help push the youth movement forward at the major league level as the team builds underneath them, akin to what players like Anthony Rizzo and Jose Altuve did in Chicago and Houston, respectively, before being rewarded with eventual championships.
The farm system behind that top few, though, is quite barren, filled with high-floor, low-ceiling types or extreme risk types, and even then the depth is not heavy.
Let’s take a look at that system….
Next: #9 and #10