Good morning, Camden Chatters.
This week has brought a renewed focus on the Orioles’ farm system — well, theirs and everyone else’s — as various publications have updated their prospect rankings for 2026, including The Athletic and ESPN. Several O’s prospects have gotten high marks, led by Samuel Basallo, who has been a consensus top-10 MLB prospect on every list so far.
Overall, the Orioles’ prospect depth seems stronger now than it was at this time last year, at least according to The Athletic’s
Keith Law, who ranked the Birds as the #9 farm system in baseball. (A year ago, he had the Orioles ranked 20th.) The Birds’ improvement, Law writes, stems from a recent few months in which they have “had a banner draft, made several small trades for prospect depth, and seen several guys (Nate George, Dylan Beavers, Luis De León and Esteban Mejia) take big steps forward.”
“Depth” feels like the right word there. The Orioles’ farm isn’t quite at the level of 2021-23, when they regularly carried the most exciting prospects in baseball — Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Grayson Rodriguez, Jackson Holliday. This time, they don’t boast a slew of blue-chip, high-end prospects beyond Basallo. But they’ve got a whole bunch of guys with intriguing tools who are progressing nicely through the system and should contribute at the MLB level. Not every prospect is going to be a future superstar — and so far nobody of the Orioles’ previous batch has come close, beyond Henderson — but if you’ve got depth of talent all throughout your organization, you increase your odds of building a quality major league team.
I should begrudgingly mention, of course, that the reason the Orioles were able to add so much prospect depth in 2025 is because their team utterly stunk. That set off a trade-deadline selling spree in which nine O’s veterans were dealt for 15 prospects (16, if you count the draft pick the O’s acquired for Bryan Baker, which later became Slater de Brun, although he has since been traded anyway). Not all of those prospects are highly regarded, but collectively they’ve strengthened the farm system. That’s one good thing that came out of a lousy season.
The Orioles’ talent pipeline continues to churn. With any luck, it’ll lead to an O’s bounceback in 2026 and plenty more winning teams in the future.
Links
Still waiting on Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen – Steve Melewski
It’s weird that neither of these two prominent pitchers has signed yet with spring training just two weeks away. Ask Jordan Montgomery how getting a late start to the season worked out for him a couple of years ago.
Tyler Wells ready for any role Orioles have in mind – BaltimoreBaseball.com
You could do worse as a fifth starter than Tyler Wells. … I mean, a team could do worse. You would obviously do much worse than him.
Why O’s are excited about Basallo’s potential in ’26 – MLB.com
They signed him for eight years. They’d better be excited!
Because You Asked – Revenge of the Fallen – School of Roch
Roch Kubatko suggests that Ryan Mountcastle and Coby Mayo could coexist on the O’s roster if they don’t have a utility infielder. I just don’t see how it’s possible, unless each of them is fine with getting, like, two starts per week.
With only the Orioles now, MASN remains ‘viable,’ team official says – The Baltimore Banner
The Orioles intend to live it up on MASN now that they no longer have to worry about Nationals coverage. But don’t worry, there will still be 21 hours per day of broadcasting World Chase Tag, Wingshooting USA, and random gambling shows.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Three former Orioles have birthdays today, including the late Davey Johnson (b. 1943, d. 2025), who was both an All-Star second baseman and one of the best managers in O’s history, though far too briefly. Also born on Jan. 30 were right-hander Joe Kerrigan (72) and the late first baseman Walt Dropo (b. 1923, d. 2010).
On this date in 1997, the Orioles signed utility infielder Jeff Reboulet as a free agent. Reboulet was a well below-average hitter, with just a 61 OPS+ in his three seasons with the Birds, but was legendary for his inexplicable success against Hall of Fame lefty Randy Johnson. Reboulet posted a .790 career OPS in 60 career PAs against the Big Unit, including a home run off of him in the Orioles’ 1997 Division Series win against the Mariners.
And on this day in 2003, the O’s elected Cal Ripken Jr. into the Orioles Hall of Fame. Phew! Thank goodness he got enough votes.
