The prime of the 2022 Major League Baseball draft class is suffering from highschool expertise. The highest-selected prep participant of the Orioles’ rebuild has proven why they need to don’t have any hesitation taking one other with this yr’s first general decide.
The morning after 2019 No. 1 decide Adley Rutschman’s main league debut, govt vp and basic supervisor Mike Elias described infielder Gunnar Henderson, Baltimore’s second-rounder that yr, as “a sort of player development project.” He has since grow to be MLB Pipeline’s fifth-ranked prospect within the sport and Thursday was named the Orioles’ consultant within the All-Star Futures Game, a showcase for prime minor leaguers throughout All-Star weekend in Los Angeles.
“[Henderson] has been kind of, to me, like a flagship aspect of what our player development group is doing on the hitting side,” Elias stated in late May.
With every of Baltimore’s three first-round picks below Elias, the Orioles have taken a school place participant, resulting in assumptions concerning the group’s choice. It could be an comprehensible one, given these prospects are typically extra polished, have extra batted-ball knowledge accessible, and carry much less danger than pitchers or their highschool counterparts. Baltimore hasn’t drafted a excessive schooler within the first spherical since 2018′s choice of right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, the one prospect within the system ranked above Henderson. The Orioles haven’t taken a highschool hitter with their first decide since Manny Machado in 2010.
But the best way Henderson — Baltimore’s solely highschool draftee within the first three rounds below Elias — has carried out and developed of their system, the Orioles shouldn’t have any drawback veering from that faculty development with this yr’s prime decide. Elias famous Saturday that because it will get deeper within the draft, highschool gamers grow to be much less more likely to bypass faculty to signal and thus don’t are typically picked in later rounds.
“Listen, I love taking high school hitters,” Elias stated Saturday. “We don’t do it left and right, willy nilly, but I think that we look back on the drafts that [assistant general manager Sig Mejdal] and I have been big parts of here or with the [Houston] Astros, it’s a pretty good group of high school hitters. We’ve got some in the mix at the top.”
In each MLB Pipeline and Baseball America’s rankings, 4 of the highest 5 gamers accessible within the draft are highschool hitters, with that quintet believed to be the gamers the Orioles are contemplating.
Both rankings have Georgia highschool outfielder Druw Jones, son of former All-Star Andruw Jones, as the category’s prime participant, with Cal Poly shortstop Brooks Lee and three different excessive schoolers — infielder Jackson Holliday (son of former seven-time All-Star Matt) out of Oklahoma, infielder Termarr Johnson out of Georgia and outfielder Elijah Green (son of former NFL tight finish Eric) out of Florida — in various order behind him. The Orioles are notoriously and understandably quiet about what they may do, resulting in inconsistent mock drafts.
It’s how they operated in 2019, when Rutschman was the draft’s consensus prime participant. In the second spherical, they took Henderson, 17 years outdated on the time, out of a small Alabama college the place he was additionally the state’s basketball Player of the Year. Like all different 2019 draftees, he misplaced what would have been his first skilled season in 2020 to the coronavirus pandemic, as an alternative taking part within the Orioles’ alternate coaching web site as a young person and finally holding his personal towards pitchers with main league expertise or constructing towards their debuts.
He performed for 3 associates in 2021 and ended the yr as a 20-year-old in Double-A, then dominated at that stage to open this season to earn a call-up to Triple-A Norfolk. Henderson entered Saturday with a .968 OPS between these upper-minors stops. In the previous week and a half, he’s hit for the cycle, turned 21, grow to be a top-five prospect and been chosen for the Futures Game.
Over the previous two seasons, Henderson has confronted a pitcher youthful than him one time amongst practically 800 plate appearances. In that at-bat, he homered.
Given how Henderson was considered as a fringe first-rounder getting into the 2019 draft and the success he’s had in Baltimore’s system, a participant with extra predraft pedigree could possibly be on an identical trajectory. One exterior argument for taking a school participant resembling Lee or LSU infielder Jacob Berry is that they may quickly attain the majors to hitch Baltimore’s upcoming wave of prospects. After taking Sam Houston outfielder Colton Cowser with final yr’s No. 5 decide, Elias famous how rapidly he may transfer via the system, and he’s reached Double-A lower than a yr later.
But regardless of shedding the 2020 season, Henderson is on the cusp of the massive leagues as a 21-year-old and is pushing for a promotion by the tip of this season. During Elias’ time concerned in drafting for the Astros, they took two highschool place gamers with top-five picks in shortstop Carlos Correa and outfielder Kyle Tucker. Both reached the majors three years later.
Every participant is completely different, and there are not any ensures concerning the journey this yr’s prime decide will take. But in Henderson, the Orioles have a blueprint of a prep participant who might be positioned to assist the massive league group in a brief period of time. They shouldn’t hesitate to doubtlessly add one other if they’ve a excessive schooler atop their draft board.
MLB DRAFT
Los Angeles
July 17-19
TV: ESPN
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Source: www.bostonherald.com