Small school, high school, junior college, Mike Elias’s team was all over the place across rounds 4-10 of the Draft.
The first round of the MLB Draft gets the most attention for one simple reason: That’s when any team has the best chance of finding impact talent. Every year, players emerge from the later rounds to become tradeworthy prospects, productive big leaguers, and even sometimes star-level players.
The Orioles, for the most part, have not succeeded in turning these third round-and-later players into big-time prospects or players. The best they’ve got is Coby Mayo, a 2020 fourth rounder, about whom the jury is still out. Other than that, in Mike Elias’s tenure, they have not hit on any pick beyond the second round. That’s especially true about pitchers, because it is still the case that no Elias-drafted pitcher has made a start for the Orioles up to this point.
Is the 2025 Day 2 crop going to be the one that changes these trends? Player development timelines being what they are, it’ll be two years or so before we find out about any of the college players and likely four or five before the high school players might make it to the majors. Here’s who the Orioles grabbed from rounds 4-10.
4th round – Colin Yeaman – SS – UC Irvine
Nominative determinism at work? His name is “Yay, man!”
Yeaman is the player who is pictured on the front page of the site for this article. Listed at 6’2” 200 lbs., this righty-batting shortstop spent two seasons at a junior college and needed two different surgeries on his non-throwing shoulder during that time. As a junior with UC-Irvine, he batted .336/.447/.591 across 60 games.
The MLB Draft stream described him as a player whose “name shot up the draft boards,” and praised “an advanced approach that doesn’t swing and miss a lot, can drive the ball to all fields.” They guessed a most likely outcome of a bat-oriented second baseman.
5th round – Jaiden Lo Re – SS – Corona Del Sol (AZ) HS
The Orioles reached far down on Baseball America’s 500-deep draft prospects list to find Lo Re, who checks in at 413 on that list. He’s listed at 5’11” and 180 pounds and is probably being bought out of a BYU commitment with the O’s selecting him in the fifth round. I’ll be interested to see whether he gets any over slot bonus money compared to the slot value of $452,000.
Less-known high school players don’t always get the over slot. For one Orioles example, 2019 fifth rounder Darell Hernaiz, a high school shortstop who was eventually traded to Oakland for Cole Irvin, received an almost exactly slot value bonus from the O’s. BA on Lo Re:
LoRe’s game is anchored by solid pure contact skills thanks to a simple swing. He doesn’t miss frequently and can put the barrel on the ball with a chance for an average hit tool, though his raw power is just fringy. A shortstop now, LoRe is an average runner with fine quickness in the infield and might be a better fit for third base or second in the long run.
6th round – Caden Hunter – LHP – USC
This 6’2”, 205 lb. junior is a transfer to the bigger school of USC after two years at a junior college. This is not a player who comes along with great college results. He had a 5.50 ERA while pitching with the Trojans, with problems issuing walks and allowing home runs. MLB Pipeline rated Hunter as the #149 player in the Draft class, so roughly a fifth round talent, describing him like this:
Hunter has the chance to bring a solid three-pitch mix into the pro game, which points to a future as a big league starter. While his fastball sits around 91 mph and tops out at 95, it plays above the radar gun readings thanks to good carry, leading to solid swing-and-miss … Strong and durable, Hunter tends to be around the zone with his fastball and changeup, though he struggles landing his breaking ball for strikes consistently. There are enough pieces to work with for him to be an innings-eater in the back of a big league rotation
The last name of Hunter hits my “fun in a Baltimore accent” test because, you know, it ends up sounding more like Hunner. Let’s note the possibility, if things go colossally well, for there to be a Caden-Caden Orioles battery, combining the earlier draft pick Bodine with this pick of Hunter.
7th round – Hunter Allen – RHP – Ashland University
Another Hunter! Yes! This one’s first name is Hunter, rather than his last name. Allen has been facing Great Midwest Athletic Conference competition with Ashland, where he posted a 3.96 ERA with 84 strikeouts in 61.1 innings. As with last round’s Hunter, there are some command problems on display there; he had a 5.4 BB/9 this season.
Draft broadcast highlighted a mid-upper 90s fastball, “can flash three plus pitches at times,” summing him up as having “big arm strength for a guy from a small school.” Allen is a senior, so this 6’4” 245-pound player could be headed for something under the $272,000 slot value for this pick.
8th round – Kailen Hamson – LHP – University of the Cumberlands
This is another college senior, so again there’s likely some savings against the slot value of $221,700 here. The Orioles need to do that, probably, to pay for talented players they did not expect to fall to them with their top three picks. More immediately interesting about him is that he was born in Australia. (MLB.com beat writer Jake Rill noted that Hamson would become the fourth Aussie-born Oriole.) What a journey from there to playing college baseball in Kentucky, where his university is located.
This 6’1” 188-pound lefty swung between the rotation and bullpen over 21 games, striking out 79 batters in 56.2 innings while having some command problems with a 5.6 BB/9. You can note a little trend in the pitchers the Orioles have taken here on Day 2. MLB’s Draft broadcast noted that “he’s up to 96mph, with a good feel to spin the ball.” In the eighth round, a player with some building blocks who needs some work is about as good as you can hope for.
9th round – Cam Lee – OF – Mineral Area JC (MO)
Talking about slot value things, a junior college freshman who is just 19 years old might be in line for a modest overslot compared to the $200,400 slot value here. According to the MLB Draft broadcast, Lee is committed to transfer to the University of Missouri for the fall.
On that broadcast, Jim Callis described this outfielder, who’s listed at 5’10” and 165 pounds, as “an athletic guy and plus runner who got attention late in the draft process,” noting that there’s question about how much he’ll be able to impact with his bat once switching to wood in the pro ranks. In the ninth round, everybody’s got questions, otherwise they would have been picked several rounds earlier.
10th round – Dalton Neuschwander – RHP – University of West Florida
Another senior sign here, as Neuschwander is already 23 years old. That will net probably six figures worth of savings against the slot value of $189,300 for the pick. For what it’s worth when considering a player who was facing Great South Conference-level competition, Neuschwander posted a 2.42 ERA before being drafted this year, with 80 strikeouts and 14 walks allowed over 81.2 innings pitched.
The broadcast’s limited awareness of him beyond his stat line is that he can “run (a fastball) up to 97mph.” Melanie Newman, a familiar face for Orioles fans, was delighted to discover that he has a website touting his baseball talent.
Local talent that didn’t go to the Orioles
I always think it would be cool if the Orioles draft a local kid who turns out well for the hometown or at least home region team. Mike Elias does not value this aspect in his draft planning.
The best draft prospect from Maryland high schools this year was Aidan West, a shortstop at Columbia’s Long Reach High School. West was picked at the end of the fourth round by the Dodgers. It’s a good guess he’ll sign rather than go to NC State.
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I won’t be doing a pick-by-pick rundown of rounds 11-20. If the Orioles end up selecting any notable players across these rounds, I’ll add a little section to this article about them when it happens.
On this Day 2 group overall:
The Orioles went best player available with their four picks in the first 37 spots of the Draft on Day 1. I think they’re paying for this in their Day 2 picks because it looks like a lot of under slots on this group, players from mostly smaller schools who don’t have a ton of track record.
One way to look at this is that the Orioles are aiming to take players with some traits they like and they will see if they can polish those players into solid pro prospects. There are player development success stories in the Elias era, but again, other than Mayo, there’s no round 3+ guy who’s become a good prospect, and even Mayo hasn’t established himself as a definite major league regular yet.