2023 MLB Draft: Orioles draft pick tracker

In sharp contrast to some recent Orioles seasons, the MLB draft is not the most exciting part of the summer for fans of the team. The draft wasn’t even the second-most exciting thing to happen to the Orioles on its first day, with the team slugging the stuffing out of the Twins in its final game before the All-Star break, and a report from MASN’s Steve Melewski that 2020 O’s draft pick Coby Mayo is being promoted to Triple-A and later adding that 2022 #1 overall Jackson Holliday is going up to Double-A.

It’s not as imperative as it was when the Orioles picked in the top 5 over the past few years to nail the pick. It’s still going to be important. Now that the Orioles are good and their top pick is increasingly likely to keep coming from the bottom half or even bottom third of each round, it’ll be tougher to find future stars to keep the talent pipeline where it’s been lately. Getting a good one will help.

When and how to watch day 3

• Time: 2pm Eastern
• Streaming: MLB.com

The Orioles picks so far

This section will be updated as the draft progresses. Links are to separate articles about the day 1 picks.

• First round, #17 overall: Enrique Bradfield Jr. - OF - Vanderbilt
• Second round, #53 overall: Mac Horvath - OF - North Carolina
• Competitive Balance round B, #63 overall: Jackson Baumeister - RHP - Florida State
• Third round, #86 overall: Kiefer Lord - RHP - Washington
• Third round, #100 overall: Tavian Josenberger - OF - Arkansas
• Fourth round, #118 overall: Levi Wells - RHP - Texas State
• Fifth round, #154 overall: Jake Cunningham - OF - UNC-Charlotte
• Sixth round, #181 overall: Jacob Cravey - RHP - Samford
• Seventh round, #211 overall: Teddy Sharkey - RHP - Coastal Carolina
• Eighth round, #241 overall: Braxton Bragg - RHP - Dallas Baptist
• Ninth round, #271 overall: Zach Fruit - RHP - Troy
• Tenth round, #301 overall: Matthew Etzel - OF - Southern Missisippi
• Eleventh round, #331 overall: Nestor German - RHP - Seattle University
• Twelfth round, #361 overall: Blake Money - RHP - LSU
• Thirteenth round, #391 overall: Riley Cooper - LHP - LSU
• Fourteenth round, #421 overall: Michael Forret - RHP - State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota
• Fifteenth round, #451 overall: Qrey Lott - OF - Lowndes HS (Georgia)
• Sixteenth round, #481 overall: Cole Urman - C - Cal State Fullerton
• Seventeenth round, #511 overall: Zane Barnhart - RHP - Hillsdale College
• Eighteenth round, #541 overall: Tanner Witt - RHP - Texas
• Nineteenth round, #571 overall: Kollin Ritchie - SS - Atoka HS (Oklahoma)
• Twentieth round, #601 overall: Jalen Vasquez - SS - North Greenville University

Check out my roundup of the Day 2 picks here.

Some mock draft names to know

We’ll see if the Orioles end up selecting any of these players. (Update: They didn’t.)

• MLB Pipeline (Callis): Arjun Nimmala - SS - Strawberry Crest HS (Fla.)
• MLB Pipeline (Mayo): Tommy Troy - SS - Stanford
• ESPN: George Lombard Jr. - SS - Gulliver Prep HS (Fla.)
• FanGraphs: Colin Houck - SS - Parkview HS (Ga.)
• Baseball America: Nimmala
• The Athletic: Ty Floyd - RHP - LSU

A couple of other players whose names have come up in these publications through mock draft season are University of Florida right-handed pitcher Hurston Waldrep, and tall two-way high school player from Northern Virginia, Bryce Eldridge. How many of these players even end up making it to the Orioles pick is something of a question. I’ve seen mocks where Waldrep, Nimmala, Houck, and Troy are all gone. The Orioles have not drafted and signed a pitcher earlier than the fifth round in Mike Elias’s tenure as GM.

Mainstream draft big boards

• MLB Pipeline (250)
• FanGraphs (54 and honorable mentions)
• The Athletic (100, sub. required)
• Baseball America (500, sub. required)
• ESPN (300, sub. required)

Orioles bonus pool information

The Orioles have a total draft bonus pool of $10,534,800 for this draft class. That is the 14th-highest pool among MLB teams this year. They can exceed this number by up to 5% in signing players with only a tax on the overage. Signing bonuses up to $125,000 for players drafted in rounds 11-20 do not count, with only the total over that number going against the pool.

In two recent drafts, the Orioles have employed an underslot strategy, in which they drafted a player who received less than the pick allotment for their top pick, with the excess pool money being spent in later rounds.

In 2020, that was Heston Kjerstad, which allowed the O’s to go over slot on Coby Mayo and Carter Baumler. In 2021, the underslot pick of Colton Cowser allowed them to go over slot later on John Rhodes and Creed Willems. At the moment, having picked Kjerstad and Cowser looks pretty good without even getting into who else the pool money was spent on. There was not much sign with the day 1 picks that the O’s are doing this in 2023. They might have saved a little money for day 3 with their late day 2 picks.

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