Orioles remain among league's elite in latest MLB Pipeline rankings

The Baltimore Orioles farm system will not feature the top overall prospect in baseball this year, a common sight over the last few years. However, the talent pipeline continues to flow at a healthy rate in Baltimore.

MLB Pipeline's latest Top 100 list has just two Orioles prospects on it - catching prospect Samuel Basallo, who ranks 13th overall, and third base prospect Coby Mayo, who ranks 14th overall. Despite having just two prospects on the list, the Orioles are one of only three organizations with two prospects among the top 15, with the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Guardians being the other two.

After a slew of prospect graduations and a number of top 30 prospects being moved at the 2024 trade deadline (RHP Jackson Baumeister, IF Mac Horvath, RHP Moises Chace, IF Connor Norby, OF Matthew Etzel), the Orioles' organizational ranking may have dropped this year, but Baltimore still features two of the top prospects in the game.

The O's also have a few prospects garnering top 100 consideration on various lists - RHP Brandon Young, RHP Chayce McDermott, OF Vance Honeycutt, OF Enrique Bradfield Jr, RHP Trey Gibson, RHP Michael Forrett, among others. The system may not be as deep as in years past, but that's to be expected now that the Orioles are active on the trade front to acquire major league talent and multiple top overall prospects graduate.

The Orioles still have high-end talent in the farm system, even after shedding some depth

Mayo and Basallo also represent two aspects of the Orioles scouting and player development departments that often get overlooked. Mayo was a fourth -round draft pick out of the high school ranks and quickly developed into a top 100 talent. The Orioles may not be picking at the top of the first round anymore (hopefully for a while), but recent first-round picks Honeycutt and Bradfield could still easily find themselves on every top 100 list with a strong season in 2025.

Also, guys like Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg, two current All-Stars on the major league squad, weren't taken at the top of the first round. Connor Norby and Joey Ortiz, two former top 100 prospects in the system, were not taken in the first round either.

Basallo, on the other hand, represents the blossoming international pipeline, quickly built up from literally nothing by Mike Elias and Orioles Vice President of International Scouting and Operations, Koby Perez.

Including Basallo, 11 of the Orioles top 30 prospects on MLB Pipeline's list were signed by the Orioles as international free agents. RHP Keeler Morfe opened eyes in 2024 after skipping the Florida Complex League and being promoted straight to Delmarva from the Dominican Summer League at the age of 18, thanks to his 100 mph fastball, two plus secondary offerings and elite athleticism. OF Stiven Martinez began tapping into his double-plus raw power as a 16-year-old last year in the DSL and is now being considered by some as a possible dark horse candidate to become to the top overall prospect in the system sometime in the near future.

We haven't even begun to see the real international talent rise through the system yet and see what kind of impact that talent is going to make in Baltimore.

The days of the Orioles being able to fill out a Double-A starting lineup full of top 100 prospects may be gone, but that doesn't mean the talent pool has dried. There may not be a Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, or Jackson Holliday sitting at the top of every prospect list, but there's still a Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo near the top, and plenty more clawing their way up.