Blazing Dominican shortstop highlights Orioles' 2025 international free agent class

The Orioles kicked off the start of the 2025 international signing period on Wednesday with a bang. The team announced the addition of 22 players in total, five of whom are listed as catchers. It's an interesting group the Orioles are bringing aboard, with three incoming players being listed on Baseball America's top-100 big board of international prospects.

The biggest name of the group is Dominican shortstop José Peña, who's listed at number 44 on BA's top-100. Peña has blazing speed and has shown developing power, particularly to the pull side. The righty will play nearly all of the upcoming season as a 16 year old, meaning there's still plenty of room for him to grow into his frame and develop more strength and power at the plate.

Peña is set to receive the largest bonus in the Orioles' signing class. He's earned a $1 million signing bonus and will jump into the Dominican Summer League in 2025. There's a chance that Peña has to move off shortstop at some point in the near future. It all depends on how his arm develops. He has the frame to play short but his arm might play a bit better at the hot corner. It'll be some time before we truly know.

The other two players in the Orioles' signing class who appear on BA's top-100 list are Johanse Gomez ($750k), an outfielder from the island of St. Thomas, and Meykel Baro ($500k), a shortstop from Cuba. Gomez is ranked as BA's 65th best prospect, while Baro appears at number 86 on the list.

Trio of top-100 prospects headline the Orioles' 2025 international signing class

In Gomez, the Orioles are getting a left-handed power bat who likely profiles best as a corner outfielder. His defense needs work but the hit tool looks good enough to play, and he has enough raw power to get him through the lower levels of the minors. Baro, on the other hand, is a small, speedy infielder who's most likely to stick at shortstop. He's a strong baserunner and his hit tool has looked sharp, especially during his time with the Cuban u16 squad.

There are a number of additional interesting names on the list. Benjamin Vasquez, a RHP from the Dominican, has flashed 96-97 on the radar gun with multiple potential plus secondary pitches. Kelvin Zapata, a LHP also from the Dominican, has been sitting 93-94 and his fastball has some strong sinking action that's been able to miss bats. He could be a sleeper signing despite the $290k price tag being the most the O's spent on a pitcher in this class.

The O's did sign Ricardo Chirinos, who is the nephew of Robinson Chirinos. The elder Chirinos spent time with Baltimore during his major league career and is about to enter his first season as a major league bench coach with the Orioles.

Baltimore was also able to flip catcher Yeison Acosta of Cuba, who was initially projected to sign with the Mets for $300k. He wound up inking a deal with Baltimore for $375k, in large part thanks to his exceptional raw power. Whether he can turn that into effective game power remains to be seen.