The Baltimore Orioles have a long list of former first-round draft picks who haven’t panned out.
The Baltimore Orioles are in a prime position to make a lot of noise in the 2020 MLB Draft, even if this year’s selection process is limited to five rounds instead of the normal 40 rounds.
Last year’s draft featured top overall pick Adley Rutschman and helped propel the Orioles farm system from a bottom of the rankings system to one widely considered a middle-of-the-pack. This year, Orioles general manager Mike Elias and his team have an opportunity to add another elite prospect in either Arizona State’s Spencer Torkelson, Vanderbilt’s Austin Martin, or Texas A&M’s Asa Lacy.
As all baseball fans are well aware of, there is no guarantee that even the most highly touted first-round pick will work out. The journey to the major leagues is a long one, full of twists, turns, and unexpected obstacles. Some teams hit more than others with their top picks, but what about the Baltimore Orioles?
Since 1965, only 12 Orioles first-round picks have accumulated more than 10 bWAR in their professional careers. Jayson Werth (1997) and Pete Harnisch (1987) are included here but achieved their successes elsewhere.
If we remove those first-round picks since 2015 (Ryan Mountcastle, Cody Sedlock, DL Hall, Cadyn Grenier, Grayson Rodriguez, DJ Stewart and Rutschman), 25 Orioles first-round picks have failed to reach the major leagues, with a few of those picks being highly regarded prospects coming out of the draft with a high amount of promise.
Let’s revisit the Top 10 biggest Orioles first-round draft picks in franchise history.