Orioles scored on this throw-in prospect from last trade deadline

The Baltimore Orioles have a lot of exciting young prospects at the High-A affiliate in Frederick. The Keys are currently home to the Orioles top overall prospect, Nate George, and two of their first-round picks from last year's draft in Ike Irish and Wehiwa Aloy, as well as several other top picks from recent drafts. Amongst all of this high-drafted talent, the best hitter on the team so far this season has been first baseman Victor Figueroa.

Figueroa came to the Orioles at last year's deadline as part of the Ryan O'Hearn/ Ramon Laureano trade, where the Padres gave up six of their 2024 draft picks in exchange for the pair of veteran bats.

With the trade including the second, third, and fourth round picks from last year's draft, Figueroa's inclusion in the trade as an 18th round draft pick was barely a footnote in most write-ups and reactions to the trade. Figueroa's performance since the trade is making everyone take a second look at the towering first baseman who's managed to fly under the radar for so long.

The Baltimore Orioles were wise to get Victor Figueroa at last year's deadline

The person least surprised with Figueroa's hot start to the season is probably himself, considering that all he's done for the past four seasons is go from team to team, hitting the seams off the ball.

Before being drafted, Figueroa played in the SWAC at Mississippi Valley State, the wooden bat Prospect League, and at the JUCO level with Florida Southwestern State. Admittedly, the competition level in these leagues and conferences isn't always the strongest, but Figueroa was consistently excellent across all of them, with a batting average over .400 and an OPS over 1.000 at all those stops.

So the fact that he's currently slashing .357/.438/.700 in High-A must feel completely natural.

Among the many impressive things that Figueroa is doing right now, what stands out the most is his plate discipline. Most big power hitters are understandably swinging for the fences, which makes them vulnerable to large strikeout numbers, but that's not how Figueroa rolls. Throughout his career, he's run K/BB ratios that would make you think he's a small slap-hitting middle infielder and not a ginormous first baseman who can hit for power to all fields. So far this season, he's striking out in only 21% of his at-bats and has a BB% in the double digits. Both of these are great indicators for future production once the batting average and BABIP naturally regress.

Figueroa's plate discipline pairs very well with his all-fields power and makes him a very difficult hitter to face for these lower-level pitchers, who he's absolutely feasting on. He should get called up to double-A very soon, and it will be interesting to see how the better pitchers at that level attack him and how he responds.

If better pitching can't find a way to expose him, he'll continue to fly through the Orioles system, which brings the Orioles to a bit of a problem because with the long-term contracts they've handed out to Samuel Basallo and Pete Alonso, there's not a position they need less than 1B/DH. That being the case makes Figueroa an interesting trade chip either at this deadline or the coming offseason.

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