On June 15th, the Orioles sit at 43-25. Just two seasons removed from a 110 loss campaign, the Baltimore faithful finally can get excited about their team. In that short time, Felix Bautista has risen to one of the best closers in baseball, Cedric Mullins has built on his 30-30 performance, and top prospects Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, and Grayson Rodriguez have all made their debuts.
Anthony Santander and Ryan Mountcastle add power to the lineup, Jorge Mateo compliments Mullins’ speed, and Austin Hays has shown the ability to stay over a .300 average for over 60 games into 2023. The scary part for the rest of the league is that there is way more talent coming down the pipeline.
Over the years, the Baltimore Orioles have done an unbelievable job in developing talent. As good a record as the major league team has posted, the Triple-A Norfolk Tides sit at 45-20, tops in the International League East division by a wide margin. Top prospects Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser have posted slash lines of .292/.375/.585 and .329/.471/.547, respectively, in 2023. In 2022, the duo split time between the Double-A Bowie Baysox and the Norfolk Tides with Cowser spending some time in High A ball as well to start the year. They posted these numbers:
Jordan Westburg .265 BA .355 OBP .852 OPS
39 Doubles 27 Home Runs 106 RBIs in 138 games
Colton Cowser .278 BA .406 OBP .874 OPS
36 Doubles 19 Home Runs 66 RBIs in 139 games [1]
They have made rapid improvement game after game, month after month, year after year. These two, however, just begin to scratch the surface of the full picture. The Orioles top the charts with the most names on the “MLB Top 100 Baseball Prospects” list at a whopping 8 players.
Jackson Holiday SS #3
Colton Cowser OF #29
Jordan Westburg SS #49
Heston Kjerstad OF #50
DL Hall LHP #79
Joey Ortiz SS/2B #80
Connor Norby 2B/OF #85
Coby Mayo 3B #99 [2]
The only other teams that are close to 8 in the top 100 are the Reds with 6, the Dodgers with 7, and the Guardians with 7. What is truly amazing is the ability of the development team to have their draft picks turn into huge minor league prospects and later MLB everyday players year after year.
Since 2018, every single 1st round pick has looked like a success, as they have gone in order: Grayson Rodriguez, Adley Rutschman, Heston Kjerstad, Colton Cowser, and Jackson Holliday. Obviously, we can only say the jury is in on Adley Rutschman at the major league level, but all roads are pointing to a chance for multiple guys in 2024 with the minor league numbers being thrown around currently.
This is not the first time that the Orioles have developed from within. The 2023 team is actually structured quite similarly to successful teams in the past. In 2012, after a few rough seasons, the Baltimore Orioles went 93-69 led by a strong offense and a solid bullpen despite an inconsistent starting rotation. Sound familiar?
They were led by a 1st round draft pick from the catcher position in Matt Wieters, an exciting third base prospect in Manny Machado, and a center fielder known as Adam Jones with suspiciously comparable numbers to Cedric Mullins in 2021. However, we can’t forget about Austin Hays being the Nick Markakis of this team or Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander looking like Chris Davis and Mark Reynolds. I can’t quite pinpoint who is J.J. Hardy, but the 2012 team also struggled with production from the second base position and a corner outfield position. [3]
The 2012 team, unfortunately, fell to the Yankees in the ALDS 3-2 after winning the Wild Card Game. The team was .500 or better through 2016, getting to the ALCS just once in 2014, falling to the Kansas City Royals. From 2017 on, the decline came quickly. Manny Machado left, Adam Jones retired, and there were no top names to take the place of those walking out the door.
What the 2012 team didn’t have was the core of developing prospects to keep the success going. The only Orioles top prospects in the 2012 preseason were Manny Machado at #6 and Dylan Bundy at #10 [4]. By 2013, Bundy was on at #2 with Kevin Gausman at #37. They remained on the list in 2014, with only Eduardo Rodriguez being added at #68 [5]. Their pipeline was filled with failed pitching talents, in fact, they didn’t have a hitting prospect on the top 100 list until 2017 with Chance Sisco at #99.
Since that point in 2017, Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle, Adley Rutschman, and Gunnar Henderson have all appeared on that list and made a major league impact. There are still 7 more hitting prospects on the top list currently. In the same time that the Orioles waited for 1 hitter to appear on the list after Machado’s rise back in 2012, they have developed 11 notable hitters who either have already made an impact or have a great chance to do so very soon.
I would say get ready for the rise of Birdland, but it has already started. This team will not come and go as the previous team did. They are here to stay and compete for years to come.
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