This time final yr, Gunnar Henderson wasn’t amongst Baseball America’s 50 finest prospects within the sport. Wednesday, the Orioles’ infielder was atop the publication’s prime 100, going back-to-back in main the rankings with fellow 2019 draftee Adley Rutschman.
Even after Henderson, a 21-year-old infielder, graduates from prospect standing early this season, the Orioles can have a few gamers left of their deep farm system who gained’t need to leap so far as he did to be thought of baseball’s prime prospect and provides Baltimore that honor for the third straight offseason in 2024. They are already solely the second group to have totally different gamers ranked No. 1 general in consecutive years and the primary to have them come from the identical draft class.
Henderson’s rise from No. 57 to No. 1 is a credit score to not solely him, but additionally the Orioles’ improvement system, one which led to seven different Baltimore minor leaguers becoming a member of Henderson on the record. Including Henderson, seven of the eight have already reached not less than Triple-A, with the exception being Baltimore’s likeliest candidate to leap to the highest spot.
The Orioles had been capable of choose Rutschman with the opening decide of the 2019 draft due to the worst season in franchise historical past in 2018. The second worst, in 2021, allowed them to pick shortstop Jackson Holliday first general in 2022.
Orioles executives have already in contrast Holliday to Henderson. Both are infielders drafted out highschool who hit left-handed, and every confirmed outstanding enchancment within the spring main as much as his respective draft.
“There are a lot of parallels there,” Orioles director of draft operations Brad Ciolek stated the night time of Holliday’s choice.
Holliday, the 19-year-old son of former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday, ranks fifteenth in Baseball America’s record, the best of any 2022 draftee after the publication initially had him third within the class. After the draft, he hit .297/.489/.422 within the Florida Complex League and Low-A, strolling greater than twice as typically as he struck out. Between his senior season at Stillwater High School and his first expertise in skilled baseball, Holliday struck out in solely 19 of his 255 plate appearances in 2022.
Like Henderson, Holliday’s rise to the highest of the rankings must be extra about his personal efficiency than the graduations of the gamers in entrance of him. Three of the highest seven prospects even have but to show 20, with Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio, Philadelphia’s Andrew Painter and Miami’s Eury Pérez all reaching Double-A in 2022. Given the Orioles’ aggressiveness in selling prospects up the minor-league ladder, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Holliday attain that degree in 2023, echoing a path Henderson took in his first full season in 2021.
At the worst, Holliday probably would be the Orioles’ top-ranked prospect subsequent offseason, with the 2 gamers in entrance of him, Henderson and right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, each anticipated to be on Baltimore’s opening day roster and provides the staff an opportunity to earn an additional draft decide if both finishes because the American League Rookie of the Year. Of the remaining 5 Orioles prospects within the prime 100 have reached Triple-A, left-hander DL Hall is the one one to have made his main league debut.
There are not any ensures that each one members of that group graduate in 2023. For as prepared because the Orioles’ entrance workplace has been to problem prospects by advancing them by means of the farm system, that course of has usually come to a halt relating to shifting a participant from Triple-A to the majors, a transaction that prompts concerns of service time, roster house and extra. The Orioles’ efforts to contend this season may alter these concerns, however govt vp and normal supervisor Mike Elias has lengthy preached about having the large image in thoughts relating to how he operates the group.
Rodriguez had little left to show within the minors when he suffered a proper lat muscle pressure that sidelined him for 3 months and saved him for making his debut and shedding prospect standing in 2022. Henderson was the minors’ prime hitter for a lot of the season however didn’t obtain a promotion till some extent within the season during which the Orioles may play him often however nonetheless guarantee he wouldn’t get sufficient at-bats to lose rookie eligibility. Kyle Stowers closed 2021 in Triple-A — sharing organizational participant of the yr honors with Rutschman — however he didn’t have sufficient main league time in 2022 for Baseball America to not think about him a prospect; he’s ranked ninth within the system, Baltimore’s finest prospect outdoors of the highest 100.
Even although outfielder Colton Cowser and infielders Jordan Westburg, Connor Norby and Joey Ortiz ended 2022 at Norfolk and can begin 2023 as prime 100 prospects, they may actually nonetheless maintain prospect standing come subsequent yr relying on once they’re promoted. Ranked forty first a yr after showing at No. 98, Cowser could be Holliday’s prime challenger to be Baltimore’s No. 1 prospect subsequent yr and sure the one different participant within the system who may fairly make the bounce to No. 1 if he’s nonetheless eligible to be.
Across three ranges in his first full skilled season, the fifth-overall decide within the 2021 draft hit .278 with an .874 OPS and had his most success with Bowie, slashing .341/.469/.568. That degree of efficiency in his second stint at Norfolk — echoing how Henderson dominated Double-A upon his return — would ideally immediate a call-up early sufficient for him to not be prospect-eligible subsequent yr. But it could in any other case propel him towards the highest of rankings if the Orioles’ outfield depth, a think about Stowers remaining a prospect, prompts Baltimore to provide him on a regular basis at-bats within the minors late into the season.
Regardless of whether or not the Orioles handle to safe a 3rd straight No. 1 prospect, the chance speaks to their drafting and improvement successes, even when they’ve been aided by early picks on account of poor main league seasons. Still, all eight of their prime 100 prospects had been Orioles draftees, and solely 4 had been first-round picks, with Rodriguez and Hall picked eleventh and twenty first, respectively. Henderson, Westburg and Norby had been Baltimore’s second choice of their respective drafts, whereas Ortiz went within the fourth spherical in 2019.
The Orioles’ first decide in 2023′s draft would be the seventeenth general. In Henderson, Baltimore has already turned a No. 42 decide right into a No. 1 prospect. Even as the key league staff turns towards rivalry, Wednesday’s prime 100 reveal reveals the Orioles can stay able to producing prime expertise.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com