There’s nothing easy about teams picking amateur players in the draft. Even when it goes well, it takes a ton of work by dozens of people over months and even years of scouting and analysis about a particular draft class. It’s sure easier when you pick early in the draft, because the higher a team picks, the more likely they will have a chance to get one of the draft’s top talents.
This started to change for the Orioles with the 2023 draft, because in the 2022, they stopped sucking. The franchise’s reversal in big league fortunes, which began right about when they called up 2019 #1 overall pick Adley Rutschman, meant that the days of picking in the top 5 were gone, hopefully for a long time.
The 2022 Orioles surged starting in June and ended up with an 83-79 record for the season. It actually is still possible to get lucky and pick high in the draft. The Cleveland Guardians hold the #1 pick this year despite having only the ninth-worst record. Teams that come up only a few games short of the postseason, as the 2022 O’s did, are more likely to just pick where their record says. For the 2023 draft, this meant the O’s were at #17 overall.
Along with picking in the back half of the first round, the Orioles did not have any pick between the first and second round. The O’s had a competitive balance round B pick after the second round, and a compensation pick after the third round due to their unsigned third rounder from 2022, Nolan McLean. The O’s had the 14th-biggest draft bonus pool to spread around. All in all, there was much less opportunity for them to add players who were widely recognized as potential impact talent.
How does this draft class look after its first year in action? This article will highlight the three players who received signing bonuses over $1 million, plus a few other guys who I at least try to check in on how they’re doing every now and again.
