An important draft just became even more critical for the Orioles

They now have four of the first 37 picks & seven of the top 93

BALTIMORE - When the Orioles make their first four picks in the 2025 MLB Draft on Sunday night - taking players with selections 19, 30, 31 and 37 - all of those players will instantly be able to say they were drafted higher than Gunnar Henderson.

Henderson, the team’s best player - a player that has finished eighth and fourth for the AL MVP the last two years - was selected in round two, No. 42 overall in the 2019 draft.

That puts into perspective what kind of damage the O’s could potentially do with some of these draft picks. Could they add four more Gunnar Henderson types? Almost no chance of that, but if they scored even one that would be tremendous.

Add in that they also have picks 58, 69 and 93 also and they have seven top 100 picks and more than any other team in this draft. Since Mike Elias has been the club’s executive vice president and general manager, overseeing his first draft in 2019 and selecting Henderson after he had taken Adley Rutschman No. 1 overall, the Orioles have never had more than five top 100 selections. That happened once in 2022 when they had picks 1, 33, 42, 67 and 81.

In six drafts since 2019, the O’s made 26 top 100 picks. so they averaged 4.33 per draft.

Some fans already have pointed out that it could take a draft pick a couple of years to get to the majors and so how does the Bryan Baker trade to Tampa Bay for the 37th pick in this draft, help the 2026 team?