The Orioles haven’t made a lot of noise outside the early rounds of the draft under Mike Elias. Of the Elias draftees currently on the 40-man roster, only Coby Mayo was drafted outside the top 100 picks of a draft (Mayo was pick 103 in the 4th round in 2020). However, with fast-rising prospects Jaiden Lo Re and DJ Layton, Elias may have found some mid-round picks that could turn into future major leaguers.
Lo Re was one of the true breakout players throughout the organization. The high school SS out of Scottsdale,
AZ wasn’t one of MLB.com’s top 200 prospects for the 2025 draft, but caught the eye of Elias and his scouting department. Baltimore took the now 19-year-old with the 154th pick in the 2025 draft and signed him for an above-slot-value $562,500 to lure him away from a BYU commitment.
Despite being drafted in July of 2025, the 5’11”, switch-hitting infielder didn’t make his minor league debut until the start of the 2026 season. The Orioles chose to start him off in rookie ball, as he made his pro debut in early May. Lo Re only lasted 20 games in the Florida Complex League, however, thanks to his red-hot start to the year. In 65 ABs at rookie ball, Lo Re slashed .354/.421/.462 while walking 9 times against 6 Ks and adding 7 stolen bases.
That impressive showing earned Lo Re a step up to Low-A Delmarva at the beginning of June. In his first month with the Shorebirds, the infielder continued to be an on-base machine. In his first 20 games with Delmarva, Lo Re hit .333 with a .471 OBP, as he collected 23 hits and walked 18 times against just 8 strikeouts. July in Salisbury saw the 19-year-old cool off just a little, as he only slashed .299/.377/.433, but did start a 12-game hitting streak.
He started to show a little more pop in August, launching 6 doubles and a triple while hitting .343 and posting a .926 OPS. That final hot stretch for the Shorebirds earned Lo Re a late-season promotion to High-A Frederick. In his first seven games with the Keys, the teenager definitely showed signs of going through an adjustment. In his first 19 ABs for Frederick, Lo Re hit only .158 with a .638 OPS. However, he turned it around to end the year, slashing .387/.406/.484 across his last 7 games of the year to truly establish himself at High-A.
The former 5th-round pick also went from high school infielder to professional utility man in his first season as a professional. Split across the three levels he played at in 2026, Lo Re logged 100+ innings at 2B, SS, 3B and CF. One professional season in A-ball is far from enough to know if he’ll make it to Baltimore one day. But early returns on the Arizona native paint a picture of a Blaze Alexander-like player.
Charting a similar path in 2026 was fellow utility man DJ Layton. The 20-year-old came to the Orioles’ organization as a 6th-round pick (189th overall) in the 2024 draft. He was another high school SS whom the O’s paid over slot value for, giving out a $715,800 bonus to get Layton to forgo his Southern Miss commitment. The 2025 season saw little to write home about for Layton, who hit .183 with a .597 OPS in 40 games in rookie ball.
Despite that inauspicious start to his professional career, the Orioles promoted Layton to Delmarva to begin the 2026 season. Early on, that move paid off for Layton and the Shorebirds. Through his first 22 games with Delmarva, Layton hit .284 with a .896 OPS while walking 20 times and stealing 8 bags.
The 20-year-old’s performance dipped in May, with his average dropping to .250 and OPS dipping to .765. Those struggles continued into June, with his average dipping further down to .214, his power nearly non-existent with a .343 slugging percentage and a still declining OPS at .732.
Layton began to turn it around as the calendar turned to July, eventually earning a promotion to Frederick at the beginning of August. Over his last 30 games with the Shorebirds, his average ticked up to .242 while posting an elite .390 on-base percentage. When the switch-hitting utility man was promoted to Frederick on August 11th, he signed off on a Low-A career that saw him slash .247/.396/.389 with 73 walks and 32 stolen bases.
The North Carolina native opened up his High-A account with a 3-for-4 night that included his first Keys home run. He’d settle back to being much the same hitter he was at Low-A after that. Over 25 games with Frederick, Layton slashed .238/.390/.393 while walking 21 times and stealing 13 bases.
At this point, Layton is more projection than production. He’s a high-level athlete with 65-grade speed and a 60-grade arm. Eventually, that may turn into more over-the-fence production, but that’s yet to show up. In 117 games across the two levels of A-ball, he only hit 8 homers while collecting 25 doubles.
What he does extremely well already is get on base and create havoc on the base paths. He walked 92 times in 489 PAs, an 18.8% walk rate that would’ve led the majors by almost two whole percentage points. His 45 stolen bases were also one more than 80-grade speedster Enrique Bradfield Jr. His athleticism should also allow him to stick at a premium position long term, with Layton playing 500+ innings at SS in 2026 while also seeing significant time in CF and at 2B.
