For the first time since 2022, the Orioles have a draft pick in the top 10, allowing them to pick on a smaller group of players. It’s the eighth draft in the Mike Elias era, and for the first time, Will Robertson, the Orioles’ vide president of domestic scouting, will be making the pick.
Robertson is in an unusual position. He was once an Orioles draft pick and now, in his first year in his new job, he gets to conduct the draft. Robertson was a 30th-round pick from Davidson College in 2017.
There are no longer 30th-round picks, but the process still excites the 31-year-old, who as an outfielder played three seasons in the Orioles’ organization, rising to High-A Frederick in 2019.
“There’s an argument for a lot of different demographic classes,” Robertson said. “The high school pitching class, I would think would be a relative strength to past years, and that’s reflected by the industry, but there’s definitely interesting players across all demographics, college bats, high school bats.
“There’s a lot of depth, I think in all demographics from the first pick to some of the other big investment picks as well.”
The Orioles have only three picks in the top 100. Their second-round pick will be 46th, and their third-rounder, the 82nd. They traded their Competitive Balance Round A pick, the 33rd overall, to the Tampa Bay Rays in the trade that brought them pitcher Shane Baz.
In Elias’ drafts, the Orioles have chosen college position players in every year but 2022 when they took high school shortstop Jackson Holliday first overall.
Their college top picks were catcher Adley Rutschman (2019), outfielders Heston Kjerstad (2020), Colton Cowser (2021), Enrique Bradfield Jr. (2023) and Vance Holliday (2024), and first baseman/outfielder Ike Irish last year.
Even though the Orioles have taken college position players nearly every year, Robertson contends the Orioles don’t have a philosophy that leads them to do that.
“I think there are good prospects, good major leaguers that come from a variety of different backgrounds and variety of different skills sets,” Robertson said. “There’s no philosophical attachment to any one group.”
Many mock drafts have UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky or Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson as the top two picks.
The Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals pick ahead of the Orioles.
“Our player pool is still pretty wide, and that’s the nature of this class,” Robertson said. “You want to be very thorough, don’t want to close doors too early no matter where you’re picking.
“We’ve picked later. We hope to continue to pick later in future years, and you have to be prepared for all kinds of scenarios. This year, there’s some ability to be creative, but no matter what you’re always subject to what teams do in front of you and what the market dictates.”
Last year, the Orioles drafted two college pitchers, Michigan State left-hander Joseph Dzierwa (58th) and Georgia right-hander JT Quinn (69th) in the second round. Those were the earliest the team selected a pitcher since Grayson Rodriguez was taken in the first round in 2018.
Robertson insists he’s open to taking a pitcher with a premium pick.
“There has been openness to [selecting] pitching early,” Robertson said. “But we’ll see how the board shakes out this year. I promise that we are discussing pitchers at all levels of investment and certainly have done the work to feel prepared to take a pitcher or a position player earlier than the small sample of drafts that this administration has had.”
Mock drafts have linked the Orioles with Mississippi high school outfielder Eric Booth Jr., Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress, Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron, Arkansas catcher Ryder Helfrick and LSU outfielder Derek Curiel.
Robertson says he has seen the “vast majority” of the top 150 players.
“I got out a lot this year and saw players in person, as did a number of members of our staff,” Robertson said.
The draft will be held in Philadelphia next Saturday and Sunday.
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