This Orioles prospect has a chance write their own comeback story in 2026

MLB Pipeline dropped their top 30 prospects for the Baltimore Orioles this week, and one Orioles prospect was notably missing. Vance Honeycutt, whom the Orioles drafted in the first round of the 2024 draft, got off to a rough start in his first full season of professional ball, and it appears many talent evaluators around the league have lost faith in his ability to become a big leaguer.

In the Mike Elias era, the Orioles have done a good job of hitting on their first-round picks. Every single Orioles first-round pick from 2019 to 2023 progressed well through the minors and eventually became a top 100 prospect, and once Enrique Bradfield Jr debuts this year, they will all have reached the big leagues. The Orioles did benefit from drafting very high in most of those drafts, but even so, hitting on five first-round picks in a row is impressive

In the wake of the draft, Honeycutt was considered one of the Orioles' top prospects. Evaluators knew about his contact issues, but they were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he could make it work the way he had in college.

The Orioles started Honeycutt at High-A Aberdeen, hoping that he would quickly master the level and move up. Honeycutt ended up spending the entire season at High-A Aberdeen, slashing .171/.284/.275 and striking out in more than 40% of his at-bats.

After a full season of Honeycutt appearing entirely overwhelmed by High-A pitching, the optimism around him is now gone, and he has dropped off the radar on these prospect lists. The power, speed, and defensive ability that made Honeycutt a viable first-round pick and a top prospect in the Orioles system a year ago are still there, but combined with the inability to make contact with minor league pitching, they're not worth much.

Tyler Honeycutt's early time in the Orioles' organization was looking rough, but there are glimmers of hope.

The good news is that as fast as Honeycutt plummeted down prospect rankings, he can rise again if he shows meaningful improvement with his bat-to-ball skills. Obviously, that's easier said than done, but Honeycutt went into this offseason knowing that if he didn't improve his contact skills, he'd be an assistant outfield instructor at North Carolina this time next year. If there's going to be an improvement, now is the time for it.

The early returns on Honeycutt this spring training have been unsustainably good. So far, he's 4-4 with four homers and a walk. If Honeycutt were to sustain that pace over the course of the 2026 season, he'd be the top prospect in baseball in a matter of months.

In all seriousness, Honeycutt doesn't have to hit a home run every plate appearance to salvage his prospect status; he just has to show reasonable improvement. If Honeycutt were to successfully reduce his K rate from 40% to 30% (which would be an improvement from disastrous to just bad), that would allow his other strengths to shine through and get him back on track to one day reach the major leagues.