Orioles put their pitching development to the test with selection of struggling starter

Coming into this year's MLB draft, many Baltimore Orioles fans were hopeful that they would break away from their position-player-only rule for the first round of the draft and take a pitcher with the seventh pick. A few optimistic mock drafts had top pitching prospect Jackson Flora falling to the Orioles at seven. When the San Francisco Giants took Flora with the fourth pick in the draft, the Orioles pivoted to a big-time upside pick in Eric Booth Jr.

The Orioles circled back on pitching two rounds later, selecting Dominic Voegele with the 82nd pick of the draft. Voegele was a surprise selection for the Orioles. In part becuase they so rarely target pitching in the first three rounds of the draft and also in part becuase Voegele was not projected to go in the first five rounds of the draft.

The Baltimore Orioles got creative in the third round of the MLB draft

So this was a bit of a reach for the Orioles, but with how the MLB draft works, it's a reach that should pay dividends later on. Voegele is almost certainly a significant under-slot pick. Meaning that the Orioles saved money by selecting Voegele in the third round and will be able to use that money to entice one or more interesting high school draft picks to forgo their college commitments and sign with the Orioles.

The Voegele pick may have paid off as soon as the Orioles' next pick, which was high school outfielder Kevin Roberts Jr., a raw but toolsy prospect currently committed to Florida. The bonuses the Orioles are offering are still unknown, but Roberts Jr. is the kind of prospect that could use some motivation to sign, and the money the Orioles saved by drafting Voegele might be just that. If it's not Roberts Jr. that the extra money goes to, it will be another high schooler later in the draft. This is a strategy the Orioles have used before that helped net them top prospect Nate George in the 16th round of the 2024 draft.

Even if Voegele's utility to the Orioles in the draft is as a cost-saving pick, he still has potential as a prospect. The Orioles could have saved money by drafting a lot of different prospects in this draft, and they chose Voegele. That means they see something in him.

Voegele had a breakout year as a freshman when he pitched to a 3.89 ERA with 80 strikeouts and just 29 Ks. The next two seasons didn't go quite as well, as his ERA ballooned up to 5.70 in 2025 and stayed elevated at 5.85 in 2026. The issue for Voegele is that he's hittable. He doesn't walk a lot of guys, and in his junior year he did manage to get an impressive amount of strikeouts, but in between the very few walks and the nice strikeouts, Voegele gave up a ton of hits. This past season he surrendered 101 hits in 97 innings. Not great.

What Voegele has in his favor is an impressive breaking ball and solid command. If the Orioles can help him use his ability to spin the ball to develop more breaking pitches, he could become a Trey Gibson-type breaking-ball-forward kind of pitcher where the fastball is more of an afterthought than a pace setter. If that doesn't work, then there's always the bullpen, where you only need 1.5 good pitches to be effective.

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