O's MLB Draft wrap-up and notes on Ryan O'Hearn in the All-Star game
The O's took a college SS to start Day 2 of the draft
The second day of the MLB Draft was Monday as the Orioles and the rest of MLB made selections in rounds four through 20. Here are the players the O’s pick on Day 2 of this draft.
Over the two days of the draft the O’s selected 24 players - 21 from the college ranks and three from high school. They drafted 13 pitchers and 11 position players. They selected eight right-handed pitchers and five lefties and also took four outfielders, five infielders and two catchers.
Round 4 (No. 124) – Shortstop Colin Yeaman, UC-Irvine
The Big West Conference Player of the Year played in 60 games, batting .336/.447/.591/1.038 with 13 homers and 56 RBIs. He has had a couple of left shoulder surgeries and was ranked No. 97 by MLBPipeline.com.
Round 5 (No. 154) – Shortstop Jaiden Lo Re, Corona del Sol (Ariz.) High School
The right-handed hitter is a BYU commit. At age 18 he led his school to the Arizona 6A state title, producing the championship with a walk-off hit. He has great contact skills with a 3.2 strikeout percentage.
Round 6 (No. 184) – LHP Caden Hunter of USC
Ranked No. 149 by MLBPipeline, he was USC’s Friday night starter, pitching to a 5.50 ERA, with a 1.550 WHIP and 25 percent strikeout percentage. His fastball sits in the low 90s, topping around 95 mph.
Round 7 (No. 214) – RHP Hunter Allen, Ashland (Ohio) Univ.
At that Div II school he was 7-1 with a 3.96 ERA in 12 starts and fanned 84 with 37 walks over 61 1/3 innings. His fastball has touched 100 mph.
Round 8 (No. 244) – LHP Kailen Hamson, Univ. of the Cumberlands
At this NAIA school he fanned 79 over 56 innings with a low 90s, high-spin fastball. Hamson is a native of Austraila.
Round 9 (No. 274) – OF Cam Lee, Mineral Area (Miss) JC
Age 19, Lee has also played second base and pitched. At Mineral Area he hit .444 with 13 homers, 32 steals and 46 RBIs. He has a Univ. of Missouri commitment.
Round 10 (No. 304) – RHP Dalton Neuschwander, Univ of W. Florida
In 12 starts he went 9-4 with a 2.42 ERA and 14 walks over 81 2/3 innings.
Round 11 (No. 334) - LHP Holden de Jong, New Jersey Inst. of Technology
Round 12 (No. 364) - RHP Daniel Lopez, Odessa (Tex) College
Round 13 (No. 394) - 2B Brayden Smith, Oklahoma State
Round 14 (No. 424) - RHP Brayan Orrantia, New Mexico JC
Round 15 (No. 454) - RHP KK Clark, Pearl River (Miss.) CC
Round 16 (No. 484) - RHP Denton Biller, Johnson County (Kan.) CC
Round 17 (No. 514) - LHP Braeden Sloan, TCU
Round 18 (No. 544) - OF Cole Johnson, Oconee County (Ga.) HS
Round 19 (No. 574) - SS Jimmy Anderson, Heartland (Ill.) CC
Round 20 (No. 604) - RHP Connor Gehr, Meridian (Miss.) CC
Blood comments
On an O’s Zoom call last night, O’s vice president of player development and domestic scouting Matt Blood sized up this draft.
“There’s a lot of excitement in the room upstairs about the players we were able to get yesterday, and today, as well. A lot of players that were coming into the draft, we were targeting and hoping would sort of fall to where we were comfortable drafting them, and that happened, so there’s a lot of pretty excited people right now,” said Blood.
He also commented on the O’s selecting so many pitchers below the Div I college level.
“We’ve done a lot of work across all different types of schools. Major league players come from everywhere. Today for whatever reason we ended up taking some guys from junior colleges and from some smaller schools. A lot of players that we were excited about and hoping to get and they were there and near the top of our board, so we took them.”
Turn and burn O’Hearn
Ryan O’Hearn is the lone O’s All-Star for the game tonight in Atlanta. There were five All-Star games between 2017 and 2022 (with no game in 2020) and the O’s had just one All-Star named in each of those seasons. It was Jonathan Schoop in 2017, Manny Machado in 2018, John Means in 2019, Cedric Mullins in 2021 and Jorge Lopez in 2022. Baltimore had four All-Stars in 2023 and five last year.
O’Hearn in the All-Star break stat rankings:
.286 average (14th in AL)
.382 OBP (7th)
.458 slugging (29th)
.840 OPS (12th)
O’Hearn will be in the starting lineup at the DH spot and bat sixth tonight for the American League.
His bat cooled a bit lately. He was 9-for-46 (.196) over his past 16 games with no homers and four RBIs.
O’Hearn would be an unlikely All-Star MVP tonight but Oriole players have won six All-Star Game MVP Awards, tied with the San Francisco Giants for the most among all teams since the award’s inception in 1962.
Cal Ripken, Jr. was a two-time winner (1991 at Toronto, 2001 at Seattle). Other Orioles to win the award are Brooks Robinson (1964 at St. Louis), Frank Robinson (1971 at Detroit), Roberto Alomar (1998 at Colorado), and Miguel Tejada (2005 at Detroit). Ripken is one of five players to win two All-Star Game MVP Awards, along with Willie Mays, Steve Garvey, Gary Carter, and Mike Trout.
The Orioles have played host to two All-Star Games...The 25th Midsummer Classic was held at Memorial Stadium in 1958 and the 64th All-Star Game was held at Oriole Park in 1993.
Steve with the A’s already playing Kurtz from last years draft and the Royals playing Jac C do we believe one of these early picks catcher will impact the Orioles in 2026? Not high school guys no need to spend 4 years in the minor leagues.