Orioles opt for high floor pick in Virginia shortstop Griff O'Ferrall

On Sunday night, the Orioles selected shortstop Griff O'Ferrall with the 32nd overall pick in the MLB Draft. The Orioles were able to take advantage of their Prospect Promotion Incentive pick, stemming from Gunnar Henderson's 2023 Rookie of the Year award.

O'Ferrall is touted as one of the best defensive infielders in the entire draft class. Coming out of the University of Virginia, O'Ferrall had proven to be an elite defender at short with strong plate discipline, and a guy who consistently made good swing decisions at the plate.

O'Ferrall mostly fits the profile for guys the Orioles have leaned towards over the past five years - that being a college hitter with a strong hit tool. They strayed from that path a bit with their first round selection, outfielder Vance Honeycutt, but overall O'Ferrall feels similar to some of the O's other recent picks.

One major knock on O'Ferrall is that he doesn't have much power. The young righty hit just 8 home runs in 186 career college games. He did, however, steal at least 16 bases in each of his four collegiate seasons, and he slashed .344/.408/.443 during that time.

Scouts in general, and MLB Pipeline in particular, love O'Ferrall's ability to hit for contact. He's shown a penchant for putting the barrel on the ball in college and spraying line drives all over the field. O'Ferrall knocked 20 doubles in each of the past two seasons at Virginia and has been one of the most consistent hitters on several very good Cavaliers squads.

Despite not having the power to get the ball out of the park on a consistent basis, O'Ferrall delivers enough value through his strengths that he was widely thought of as a late first round pick this year.

The slot value for the 32nd overall pick is $2,835,400. O'Ferrall won't be an under-slot guy, seeing as he was the 38th ranked prospect coming into tonight's draft. With their first two picks, the Orioles are just about on track in terms of matching their slot values with projected signing bonuses for Honeycutt and O'Ferrall.