It’s no secret that drafting and developing pitchers has not been a strength of the Mike Elias regime in Baltimore. And yet, every now and then, Elias & Co. unearth a gem that might start to change that track record. In 2025, that gem’s name was right-handed pitcher Michael Forret.
The 21-year-old North Carolina native came to the Orioles as a 14th-round draft pick out of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota in the 2023 draft. The O’s clearly had a scouting advantage on Forret, with the 6’3”
right-hander playing his college ball 20 minutes away from the Orioles’ Spring Training complex in Sarasota.
Fourteenth-round picks almost never amount to anything, but a strong 2024 season set Forret on a path to defy the long odds that came with his draft status. During his debut professional season, Forret pitched nearly 100 innings, starting the year with Low-A Delmarva before earning a promotion Aberdeen in early June. He’d stay in High-A for the rest of the season, pitching to a 4.35 ERA over 60 innings while punching out 75.
Those promising numbers meant Forret would start 2025 back with the IronBirds. However, nothing we saw in 2024 could’ve helped predict the leap he’d take this past season. Forret kick-started his 2025 campaign with a dominant April, making four starts and combining for 21.2 innings and 29 K with a 1.66 ERA and .118 batting average against.
The first bump in the road for Forret came not on the mound but in the training room. A back injury landed him on the IL at the beginning of May and kept him out of action until June. When he finally got back in action, he was the same dominant force we saw at the beginning of the year. In his first five starts back from the injury, he tossed 16 innings, posted a 1.13 ERA, .167 BAA with 21 K.
Forret reached the peak of his powers at High-A as the season turned toward its second half. In his first start after the All-Star break, the 21-year-old pitched a then-season-high 5.2 innings, allowing 6 H and 3 ER while punching out eight. Those runs would be the last Forret ever allowed with Aberdeen, as the right-hander finished his time at High-A with 14.1 scoreless innings across his last four appearances with the IronBirds.
That hot streak earned him a promotion to Double-A on August 12th. At the time of his promotion, Forret had a 1.51 ERA across 59.2 innings, while racking up 76 strikeouts and holding hitters to a .152 average. In almost exactly the same number of innings as he threw in 2024 for Aberdeen, Forret improved his ERA by almost three runs, dropped his BAA by 92 points, cut his BB/9 rate from 4.4 to 2.6 and maintained an 11+ K/9 rate.
In his first start at Double-A, Forret delivered his best start of the season. Taking on the Erie SeaWolves, Forret tossed a career-high six innings, allowed only two hits and an unearned run and punched out seven SeaWolves. After a second start with the Baysox where he pitched 4.2 scoreless innings, Forret extended his streak to 25 innings without allowing an earned run.
That streak would snap at 28 innings after Forret allowed three runs in the 4th inning of his August 31st start. That would end up being the last inning of the righty’s season, as the back injury that cost him the month of May flared up again and ended his season prematurely. He finished his second professional season with 74 IP, a 1.58 ERA, 21 BB, 91 K, a .157 BAA and 0.82 WHIP. The only knock on his excellent record was the injury that cost him at least five starts.
His impressive 2025 campaign has seen Forret rise to the No.11 prospect in the Orioles and the organization’s third-best pitching prospect. The O’s focused heavily on adding pitching prospect depth during their trade deadline fire sale, meaning Forret has plenty of competition if he’s going to be the next pitching prospect to make it to the big leagues. If he can win that race, he’d become the first starting pitcher to be drafted by Mike Elias and make his debut with the Orioles.
Coming into his sophomore campaign, the biggest concern with Forret was his command was his biggest question mark, with MLB.com saying, “his command remains a work in progress. Until he develops a little more in that area, his ceiling remains somewhat up in the air.” The drop in his walk rate and ability to limit contact this season suggest he’s beginning to put those command concerns behind him. He’ll get a chance to prove that next year against tougher competition, as the former unheralded prospect looks to become the next great Orioles pitching prospect.
