Where Baltimore Orioles' Top 5 prospects rank entering spring training

Look for Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo to make the jump to the big club this season.

Shortstop Jackson Holliday, last season's Minor League Player of the Year, as selected by Baseball America, is the top major league prospect for the Birds who have one of the best farm systems in the American League. / Brace Hemmelgarn/GettyImages

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Colton Cowser, outfield

MLB Pipeline has Cowser ranked as the 19th best prospect among the Top 100. He is just two spots below Basallo. Baseball America ranks him as the fourth best product in the Orioles system. The fifth overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft signed for below slot value, but has made tremendous strides with his game and appeared in 26 games last season for the big-league club. He is on the 40-man roster and will be in the mix to break camp as a utility outfielder this season.

Cowser batted .300 at Triple-A Norfolk before being called up to the major leagues last season. In 87 games with the Tides, he hit 17 home runs and drove in 62 runs. He had a slugging percentage of .520 with an on base percentage of 417.

He cooled to the pressures of the major leagues and batted below the Mendoza line at .115 with 61 trips to the plate. The Orioles' executives are high on Cowser, despite his sluggish debut at the major league level. He had a .996 OPS at the time he was called up, but when he was sent back down, it fell to .777, and his strikeout numbers went up drastically as the Orioles were looking for him to be more aggressive at the plate.

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