The Orioles’ front office was in a new position in this year’s MLB draft, selecting outside of the top five for the first time since the organization’s rebuild began a month after the 2018 edition. That didn’t stop Baltimore from using its first-round pick in a familiar way.
The Orioles opened their draft with a position player for the fifth straight year, taking Vanderbilt outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. with the 17th overall pick. Choosing later in the draft thanks to 2022′s winning season, Baltimore selected a player who forecasts to remain in center field and hit .411/.426/.447 with 15 home runs and 130 steals in 143 tries across three college seasons. Baseball America ranked Bradfield as the No. 16 prospect in this draft, while MLB Pipeline had him 21st.
Baltimore would do well if Bradfield follows a similar path as his four precedents, though it’s unfair to ask him to match a quartet taken at least a dozen picks earlier than him. Catcher Adley Rutschman, 2019′s first overall pick, will play in his first All-Star Game on Tuesday. Taken fifth in 2021, outfielder Colton Cowser made his major league debut last week, and outfielder/first baseman Heston Kjerstad could soon join him, with 2020′s No. 2 pick appearing in the Futures Game on Saturday while slugging away in Triple-A. Chosen atop 2022′s draft, infielder Jackson Holliday already leads at least one publication’s list of baseball’s top prospects and has quickly jumped to Double-A at 19 years old.
Regardless, Bradfield joins a top-ranked farm system, adding another young bat to a system loaded with them as its byproducts have already helped push Baltimore to one of the American League’s best first-half records. The focus on hitters has extended beyond the first round, with the Orioles also netting infielders Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and Joey Ortiz and outfielder Kyle Stowers — all of whom have appeared in the majors this season — in the early rounds of the past four drafts. Henderson, taken 42nd overall in 2019, developed into baseball’s top prospect entering this season, and although he has since graduated from that status, 11 of Baltimore’s top 14 prospects were hitters, according to Baseball America. Bradfield will make it 12 of 15, should he sign.
In their first four drafts under executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias, the Orioles took only one pitcher before the fifth round, failing to sign 2022 third-rounder Nolan McLean. As compensation for not signing McLean, the Orioles received an extra pick after this year’s third round, with Bradfield the first of five selections they will make within the draft’s first 100 picks.
Baltimore’s bonus pool, based on the assigned slot value of its picks through the first 10 of the draft’s 20 rounds, is slightly above $10.53 million. The No. 17 pick comes with a slot of just under $4.17 million, more than $4 million below the franchise record bonus of $8.19 million they gave Holliday to sign out of an Oklahoma high school last summer. Individual draftees can sign for above or below slot value, so long as the team’s collective bonuses, including anything above $150,000 given to a player taken in the final 10 rounds, do not exceed its total pool.
The Orioles signed each of their previous five top picks, including 2018 11th overall pick Grayson Rodriguez, for under their respective slot values — Kjerstad by more than $2.5 million and Cowser by over $1 million — and devoted the savings toward other prospects later in those drafts.
Regardless of how much Bradfield signs for, the Orioles selected him because they viewed him as the best player available after 16 other teams’ selections. They will take the same approach with their remaining 21 picks, including their other two Sunday, when they pick in the second round at 52nd overall and in the competitive balance B round at 63rd overall.
This story will be updated.
MLB draft
At Seattle’s Lumen Field
Rounds 1–2: Sunday, 7 p.m.
Rounds 3–10: Monday 10, 2 p.m.
Rounds 11–20: Tuesday 11, 2 p.m.
TV/Stream: ESPN (Round 1), MLB Network, ESPN+
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