With AL’s best record, baseball’s best farm system, Orioles ‘set up for many, many years’ – The Denver Post

The start of Ryan O’Hearn’s major league career in many ways coincided with the beginning of the Orioles’ rebuild. His debut for the Kansas City Royals came July 31, 2018, the same day Baltimore completed its series of teardown trades. O’Hearn’s first full season was 2019, the same year the Orioles and Royals respectively made the first two picks in the draft.

Four years later, Kansas City remains one of the majors’ worst teams, while O’Hearn is a key member of a Baltimore team that has grown into one of the best. This week, MLB Pipeline recognized the Orioles as baseball’s No. 1 farm system for the fifth straight rankings — with Baltimore once again possessing the top-ranked prospect — while the major league team holds the American League’s best record. Despite five straight top 10 draft picks, Kansas City was 29th of 30 teams in the rankings and is second worst in the AL standings.

“When a team struggles for a few years, you know they’re drafting guys up at the top, and Kansas City was doing the same thing,” O’Hearn said. “Not till I got over here did I realize the extent of it, but obviously, [the Orioles] have done an incredible job with the rebuild and getting the right people in the building, right guys on the field, and it’s impressive how fast it’s turned around and where we’re at right now. It’s awesome to be part of that.”

With top-five selections each year from 2019 to 2022 — including two No. 1 overall picks in catcher Adley Rutschman and current top prospect Jackson Holliday — Baltimore drafted before Kansas City in each of those four years, but the gap between the organizations as they stand can’t be accounted for by a handful of spots in the first round. The Orioles have done exceptionally well throughout their drafts, not only at the top, to build that farm system, and their major league success stems from other areas, too, with player development, game-planning and successful moves on the margins — such as trading cash to Kansas City for O’Hearn after he was designated for assignment — playing key roles in where they are now.

MLB Pipeline has ranked them as the top farm system since the middle of the 2021 season. After Mike Elias was brought in as Baltimore’s executive vice president and general manager ahead of the 2019 campaign, the Orioles were 23rd.

“It makes you proud of our organization,” said manager Brandon Hyde, hired by Elias that same offseason. “Super happy for Mike, honestly, the recognition that he’s getting, the organization he has put together since he’s been here and how well he’s drafted. To me, it’s a testament to him, just how well he has done in accumulating young talent, and they’re performing.”

Taking Rutschman atop that 2019 draft was a significant boost in those rankings, and he’s provided a similar one since arriving in the majors in May 2022. That draft also saw Gunnar Henderson go to Baltimore in the second round, with the 22-year-old infielder now poised to be the Orioles’ first AL Rookie of the Year since 1989.

2019′s draft also featured outfielder Kyle Stowers and infielder Joey Ortiz, two of the four other Elias draftees who have played for Baltimore this year, with Jordan Westburg, 2020′s 30th overall pick, getting regular playing time in the infield and 2021 first-rounder Colton Cowser struggling before being sent back to Triple-A on Monday.

The Orioles’ No. 1 system comes despite Henderson, Westburg and right-hander Grayson Rodriguez — the organization’s top selection in 2018 — graduating from prospect status during this season and Rutschman coming off lists last season. Rutschman and Henderson entered the past two seasons, respectively, as Baseball America’s No. 1 overall prospect, the first time players from one team’s draft class topped the rankings in consecutive years. Holliday, a 19-year-old shortstop already in Double-A and atop every notable publication’s rankings, is poised to make Baltimore the first organization with three straight No. 1s in Baseball America’s 33 years of offseason rankings.

“They’ve drafted a bunch of really good guys outside of just being great baseball players,” Henderson said. “I feel like that all ties in together because you have the camaraderie between teammates, and then it feels like it just helps you win ballgames.

“It’s definitely set up for many, many years of this type of winning baseball.”

There’s an understandable excitement for the future, but the present is quite bright, too, with Rutschman saying “the here and now is going to be the most important thing.” There is, after all, plenty of talent that has already reached the majors and is fighting for an AL East title.

Rodriguez is a representative of a collection of players with bright futures who were already in the organization when Elias and Hyde arrived. Among others, their regime also inherited Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays and Anthony Santander — Baltimore’s starting outfield — as well as first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, starting pitcher Dean Kremer, and key relievers Félix Bautista and Mike Baumann.

But in each case, the Orioles’ restructured player development staff helped each player improve, and they’ve done the same with external additions. Right-handers Kyle Bradish and Yennier Cano both arrived as trade acquisitions without guaranteed major league futures, but they have been Baltimore’s third and fourth most valuable pitchers by FanGraphs’ version of wins above replacement.

The front office also complemented the team’s youth and established core with a collection of veterans brought in through free agency and trades. Many of them are set to be free agents after this season, meaning they will miss out on the bright future in Baltimore. But as the Orioles’ record suggests, they’ve already gotten a look at it.

“That future is voiced really well when you talk to people on the other team,” veteran starter Kyle Gibson said. “Having known a lot of guys that I play against now, getting the chance to talk to them and hearing them talk about this team is really interesting. Not one pitcher says, ‘Man, this lineup, if you get this guy or that guy, this is going to be really good.’ No, no, everybody says, ‘Man, this lineup is so tough to face.’ Everybody says, ‘Man, this bullpen is so tough to face. Your starters, all these young guys are so good.’ Yeah, everybody says that about this team.

“And for a long time, this is going to be a team that not many people want to come to play.”

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