Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Prospects in the Baltimore Orioles Farm System
Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Baltimore Orioles. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. This is the fourth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb. A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Power Projects
- Aneudis Mordán, C/1B
- Thomas Sosa, OF
- Jake Cunningham, OF
Aneudis Mordán is a highly entertaining catcher/first baseman whose elaborate swing is designed to get every ounce of power out of his little 5-foot-11 frame. He lacks typical catcher size and needs to have a much quicker exchange in order to have the arm strength for the position. Sosa is a big-framed lefty power bat who has posted some of the best exit velos in this system, but he’s striking out far too often in A-ball to have main section prospect value. Cunningham is a physical righty-hitting outfielder who was Baltimore’s fifth rounder out of UNC Charlotte last year; he’s also striking out too much in A-ball.
Arm Strength Fliers
- Juan De Los Santos, RHP
- Luis Sánchez, RHP
- Miguel Mesa, RHP
- Levi Wells, RHP
- Fermin Magallanes, RHP
- Luis Beltrán, RHP
- Adrián Delgado, RHP
This system has about 80 pitchers who have touched 95 mph this year. Everyone in this group has upper-90s arm strength but out of control walk rates. De Los Santos, 22, has been up to 98 this year with Aberdeen, and the pitch has heavy sink. He went on the IL a few days ago. Sánchez is a 6-foot 21-year-old righty at Aberdeen who has been up to 101. Mesa is a 21-year-old Dominican sinkerballer in the FCL who has touched 98. Wells was a 2023 fourth rounder out of Texas State (which has some of the better unis in college baseball) with a vertical arm slot. He’s had a velo spike in pro ball and has been up to 97, just without strikes. Magallanes is a 6-foot-7 22-year-old who is in his second DSL season. In his last outing prior to list publication, he was sitting 95-97 with a low-80s split. Beltrán is a 6-foot-4 20-year-old righty who has been sitting 95-96 in the DSL with a mid-80s slider and basically no strikes. A classically projectable 6-foot-3 Venezuelan righty, the 19-year-old Delgado is sitting 95-97 in DSL relief but — you ready? — he needs to throw more strikes.
Recently or Currently Injured
- Kyle Brnovich, RHP
- Zach Peek, RHP
- Noah Denoyer, RHP
Brnovich and Peek have been attached at the hip for the last half decade because they were Angels draft picks who came to Baltimore in the Dylan Bundy trade. Brnovich has a great changeup and double knuckle curveball, but his fastball velo has been a little lighter than it was before coming off of TJ and he looks to have a spot starter ceiling. Peek sits about 90 and has a good curveball, but he’s dealt with multiple long-term injuries and is currently on the 60-day IL. Denoyer signed as an undrafted free agent after the Orioles were impressed with his stuff in the 2019 Northwoods League. His four-pitch mix features a fastball that enjoyed a two-tick bump in the two years before he got hurt. When healthy, he sits 93-94 mph and will touch 96. Denoyer pitches backwards off his breaking balls to get ahead, then finishes hitters with a combination of high fastballs and diving splitters. He had TJ late in 2023 and we won’t see him again until 2025.
Rookie Level Sleepers
- Andy Fabian, LHP
- Keeler Morfe, RHP
- Jesús Palacios, RHP
Andy Fabian is a statuesque, 6-foot-4 21-year-old lefty off to a dominant start in the DSL. He uses a big open stride that seems to disorient hitters. His stuff isn’t great on the surface (low-90s sinker, mid-70s curveball), but it’s tough to pick up the curveball out of hand and that’s enough to crush DSL guys. Morfe is a little guy with huge arm speed whose fastball peaks in the mid-90s. He’s a supreme athlete repeating the DSL. Palacios is a 19-year-old righty specialist type who is peaking in the 94-95 mph range on the complex and throwing a lot of sliders.
Young Infielders
- Elvin Garcia, SS
- Aron Estrada, UTIL
- Anderson De Los Santos, 3B/1B
This group could also include guys like Luis Almeyda, Braylin Tavera, or some of the other recent Baltimore high-profile signees, but they haven’t looked very good. Garcia is a projectable DSL infielder at a lean 6-foot-2. He can swing really hard but often at the expense of contact. A toolsy switch-hitting utility guy, there are scouts who liken Estrada to the Yankees Oswaldo Cabrera because of his switch-hitting bat speed. Like Cabrera, Estrada is a messy infield defender. He swings hard but without really tracking the baseball. De Los Santos is a righty-hitting corner infielder who plays with big motor — sometimes a little too much of one, as he airmails throws he should pocket.
System Overview
They did it. This is real. The Orioles are very good thanks to coherent drafting and player development, and their farm system remains strong and deep enough to predict that they’re going to be a contender for a while. The major league club is currently reaping the benefits of the org’s recent historically great systems, and somehow there are still four top 30 prospects and a dozen more good role players in this iteration. The vast majority of Orioles prospects who project to have everyday futures (or close to it) are on the position player side, while the system’s depth is in its pitching. A problem contending teams often have to solve in order to be sustainably great is how to keep the pitching flowing while their position player core is in place. The Orioles aren’t going to have that problem. There are so many interesting pitchers in this system that it was tough to include them all.
There’s an org we’re aware of whose scouts need to write a full report on a player if he touches 95 in front of them. If you’re a scout from that team covering Baltimore, you’ve had to write up more than 80 pitchers based on their peak velo alone. The retaining wall of arms is strong in the upper levels, giving the Orioles the pitching depth to contend amid injuries. The bulk of this system is made up of domestic draftees, and even though the organization has increased its presence in the international market compared to what it once was (and even though they nabbed Samuel Basallo in 2021), they still have one of the smallest footprints in Latin America. The Orioles have favored picking position players in the early rounds of the amateur draft in recent years, but they’ve done well at acquiring pitching prospects via trade, as seen with guys like Cade Povich, Chayce McDermott, and Seth Johnson.
We’re already seeing many of the top prospects on this list dip their toes in big league waters to varying degrees of success, but there’s a lot less to dream on in the lower levels of this system than in years past, in part because some of the recent international signees have underwhelmed. While the lower-level talent is a bit lackluster currently, players like Jackson Baumeister, Juan Nuñez, and Leandro Arias have several intriguing qualities. Because Baltimore’s player dev is so good…
