3 Orioles draft picks from 2024 who already look like huge steals

It's way too early to start evaluating the Baltimore Orioles 2024 draft class, but now that the 2025 Minor League Baseball season has been underway for a few weeks, we have more information and data on the 2024 draft class and a few later round picks are on the early track to being labeled as late-round steals.

The first name that has been popping is 11th round pick LHP Sebastian Gongora. Gongora pitched collegiately at Louisville and saw his velo decrease over the course of the season, but Jon Meoli at The Baltimore Banner noted over the winter that the 6'5" lefty had seen his velo get back up to 97 mph while down in Sarasota after the draft.

He's been assigned to Low-A Delmarva this season and made his pro debut a few weeks ago. His first two starts were a bit rough as he allowed six earned runs across 2.2 IP, with six walks to just four strikeouts. But he's very quickly turned a corner and has looked much stronger in his latest two outings. With his velo getting up into the mid-90s and the shape of his breaking stuff looking much better while producing a hefty amount of swing and miss, Gongora has allowed one earned run on one hit across five innings, walking two and striking out nine. In his two inning outing on April 20th, Gongora produced 12 whiffs, a number you're happy with from an arm going a full six innings.

He's being eased into the season, but after watching his last two outings, expect to see him start to work deeper into outings and getting a bump up to High-A sooner rather than later.

When it comes to drafting pitching, the Orioles have shown a very clear strategy of not using high draft picks on pitchers and instead, finding arms in later rounds who have high quality stuff and the traits they covet in their pitchers, and then trusting their pitching development to turn them into quality pitching prospects. Gongora could be joining the long list of pitching prospects who popped onto the scene last year, as could RHP Cohen Achen.

These 3 Orioles prospects might be the best of last year's draft class

Achen was drafted in the 14th round of last year's draft, taken out of Lindsey Wilson College, a NAIA school in Kentucky. The 6'2" arm out of Canada struck out 341 hitters in 268 career college innings and then showed that he could compete against Division-I hitters, striking out 52 (just 9 walks) with a 2.93 ERA across 40 innings in the Northwoods League, a collegiate, wooden-bat summer league.

Achen made his pro debut this year in Low-A Delmarva, striking out 14 in 14 innings, and was promoted to High-A after three outings. In his High-A debut last week, Achen allowed one earned run with two strikeouts and one walks across five innings. He's showcased good command of his fastball and a plethora of secondary offerings early on in his career.

Switching to the hitting side and moving up to an earlier pick in the draft, OF Austin Overn is worth paying close attention to. Drafted in the third round out of the University of Southern California, Overn had first-round grades on him after a stellar freshman campaign, including leading the nation in triples, but he struggled to build on his hot start as a sophomore and couldn't meet the same production. He tweaked his setup and swing and put it to the test in the Cape Cod League last summer where he showed MLB teams that the freshman version of Austin Overn was back, and better.

He's going to be overlooked in a system with Jud Fabian, Enrique Bradfield Jr, and Vance Honeycutt also playing center field and possessing elite tools, but Overn was given 70 grade speed and 70 grade defensive grades by MLB Pipeline heading into the 2024 MLB Draft. While both tools receive the most attention, pay attention to Overn's power numbers as he climbs up through the organization. I wouldn't be surprised to see him develop above-average power with a solid hit tool and two plus tools in his speed and defense. If all goes right, he could be a great get in the third round.

Overn missed some time already due to a hand injury, but he's up to three home runs and has shown off the game-changing speed both on the bases and in the field. It's very common to see hiting prospects show some struggles in the first half of the season in High-A as they adjust to life as a pro and new teaks they've made to their game, but pay attention to Overn's progression at the plate over the next few weeks. Once the contact rate starts to increase and his hard-hit balls begin falling in for hits (well below league-average batting average on balls in play entering play this week), expect to see a strong rookie campaign from Overn.