Orioles predicted to stay painfully on brand in Fansided's first MLB mock draft

The MLB draft is two months away, and for the first time since drafting Jackson Holliday with the first overall pick in 2022, the Baltimore Orioles are drafting in the top 10 again. Despite what their record says, the Orioles are supposed to be a good team right now. They went through a painful rebuild starting at the 2018 deadline that was supposed to set them up for a period of sustained winning. Obviously, things haven't worked out quite the way the Orioles were hoping, but with the number seven pick in this year's draft, the Orioles could potentially revitalize this core of players. That is, if they pick the right player.

In 2024, the Cardinals drafted JJ Whetherholt with the seventh pick. The year before that, the Reds took Rhett Lowder in that same spot, and the year prior to that, the Cubs snagged Cade Horton seventh overall. All of those players made it through the minors quickly and have already begun to contribute at the big league level. If the Orioles get this pick right, the player they take could be up helping the big league team as soon as next year.

The Orioles have a chance to draft an impact player with their latest top pick

Over the past few years, the Orioles have had some pretty strong draft tendencies. Since 2019, they've had 13 first-round picks and drafted college hitters with 11 of them. Of those 13 hitters, 10 of them were left-handed or switch hitters. So if you were trying to guess which prospect the Orioles might target with the seventh pick in this year's draft, a left-handed college bat would be a high percentage hypothesis.

That's exactly the direction that Fansided has the Orioles going in their first mock draft of the season. They have the Orioles drafting left-handed hitting outfielder Sawyer Strosnider out of TCU.

Strosnider certainly fits the bill as far as what the Orioles have been interested in recently. Like Enrique Bradfield and Vance Honeycutt, Strosnider is an excellent athlete and could be a good MLB centerfielder. Like Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad, he has legit power from the left side. The real kicker that makes him feel like an Orioles draft pick is that he does have some swing-and-miss concerns.

By and large, the Orioles' conservative draft strategy has worked for them. Most of the players they've taken early in the draft have at least made the majors, even if they haven't been as productive as the Orioles might have hoped. With the tools that Strosnider possesses, he's a pretty safe bet to at least make the majors in some capacity.

The question is, is that what the Orioles need? Is another solid defensive outfielder who hits in the low .200s and strikes out about 30% of the time going to get this Orioles team where they want to be? That seems unlikely, and using what the Orioles hope will be their last top-ten draft pick in a while to take that kind of player feels like a misuse of the draft pick.

What the Orioles have needed for years and what they still need now is pitching. This is not the strongest draft for college pitchers, but at the seventh pick, the Orioles could be in a position to take maybe the first pitcher off the board, which most people have as Jackson Flora out of UCSB, and if someone takes him before they get a chance, they should have their pick of the remaining first-round college arms, Liam Peterson and Cameron Flukey.

Left-handed college bat may typically outrank right-handed college arm on the draft value board. However, either of those pitchers would be more helpful to this Orioles team than another outfielder who strikes out a lot.

Taking a pitcher in the first round would be uncharted territory for this front office, but with how their last couple of seasons have gone, the Orioles may need to venture into uncharted territory if they want to turn things around.

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