O's take Ike Irish with top pick, select two pitchers on night one
The O's had seven picks on the opening night of the MLB Draft
On night one of the two-day, 2025 MLB Draft, the Orioles were baseball’s busiest team, making seven selections.
They added six college players, one from the high school ranks and selected two college pitchers on night one.
No. 19 – Catcher/outfielder Ike Irish, Auburn University
With the No. 19 overall pick, the O’s took their seventh position player with their first pick in seven drafts on Mike Elias’ watch.
A lefty batter and outstanding hitter, Irish, age 21 was ranked as the No. 5 prospect in this draft by The Athletic’s Keith Law. He was No. 11 via MLBPipeline.com and ESPN and No. 13 by Baseball America.
In 54 games with Auburn, he hit .364/.466/.716/1.182 with 13 doubles, two triples, 19 homers, 11 steals, 65 runs and 58 RBIs. He walked 31 times and fanned just 37. This season he posted an OPS of 1.332 in SEC games, second-best in the conference and he homered six times in his last eight games.
He played three years at Auburn after playing high school ball in Orchard Lake, Mich.
In his three-year career, over 160 college games, he hit .350/.435/.625 with 39 home runs and 168 RBIs.
Wrote Keith Law of Irish in a scouting report on The Athletic: ‘Irish started the year as Auburn’s catcher but was hit in the back by a pitch, fracturing his scapula, and after his return he mostly played the outfield, which is only going to underscore questions about whether he’s a catcher at the next level.”
“I think really the Orioles are taking a bat here. They like power,” said Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo on the MLB Network telecast. “Irish is one of the more well-rounded college hitters in the class. He had a chance to go top 10, top 15 here. You also look at the Orioles, they have the most pool money to work with so I imagine they can hand a pretty nice bonus to Irish here.
“Wherever he plays (on defense), I think the hit-power combination is really exciting.”
Here is Matt Blood, O’s vice president of player development and domestic scouting on Irish on a team Zoom call late last night: “First and foremost, we love his bat. It’s a very polished bat, on really all aspects on how you would want a hitter to be. Contact, power, swing decisions. Just really, really exciting hitter.
“He has the ability to catch. He has the ability to play corner outfielder. He can play some first base. And we’re pretty big on defensive versatility, so we’ll probably explore all those options.”
No. 30 – Catcher Caden Bodine, Coastal Carolina Univ.
Ranked No. 29 in this draft by Baseball America and No. 32 via MLBPipeline.com, Bodine is clearly expected to be a catcher at the next level.
At age 21, he won the Buster Posey Award, as the national collegiate catcher of the year. Over 67 games, this switch-hitter batted .318/.454/.461/.915 with 18 doubles, a triple, five homers, 55 runs and 42 RBIs. Another solid contact hitter, he walked 47 times with just 24 strikeouts.
Baseball America gave him a 60 grade hit tool, 40 for power, 40 for running, 60 for fielding and 50 for arm.
He was on a Coastal Carolina team that had a 26-game win streak and made the College World Series. He hit over .300 all three years in college and hit .384 in the 2023 Cape Cod summer league. He is said to be an elite pitch framer.
Said MLBPipeline’s Jim Callis on the MLB Network telecast: “He does two things exceptionally well. He is one of the best contact hitters in all of college baseball, rarely swings and misses. Hasn’t shown a lot power yet, but there is probably more in there because he makes contact so easily, you could probably get him to change his swing a little bit and get him to drive the ball more.
“He frames the ball exceptionally well. I had guys put a 70 on his framing skill and he’s maybe a 50 receiver. You don’t see that combination very often. Probably an average arm, so he’s an average defender behind the plate, except he’s a well-above average framer.”
Both Callis and Collazo thought Bodine would be drafted higher.
Blood on Bodine: “He’s just a very polished player. He was a high-level competitive wrestler in high school. You can see that athleticism and body control and awareness. He’s very good behind the plate and one of the better receivers in the country, an accurate thrower. He’s just a very effective catcher and then, when you think about him being a switch-hitter and having really high contact rates, and hitting line drives and being a guy that is going to be productive. You start to add that up and think he can be a major leaguer and an impact player for the team.”
No. 31 – Shortstop Wehiwa Aloy of Arkansas
The O’s had back-to-back picks and added Aloy, who won the Golden Spikes Award, which is given to the top amateur baseball player in the United States, according to USA Baseball.
He was ranked the No. 16 prospect for this draft by Baseball America and No. 17 via MLBPipeline.com.
Over 65 games for the Razorbacks, Aloy hit .350/.434/.673.1.107 with 19 doubles, two triples, 21 homers, 81 runs and 68 RBIs. In 30 SEC-only games he hit .326/.403/.612 with 10 homers and 31 RBIs. In conference games he walked 16 times and fanned 36 times.
In the 2024 Cape Cod League, the righty hitter using a wood bat in a summer league, hit .309/.352/.642 and mashed eight homers in 21 games.
A Hawaii high school product, he began his college career at Sacramento State before transferring and playing two seasons at Arkansas.
After this third O’s selection Callis said this on MLB Network: “You know what is jumping out at me with the Orioles, they’ve made three picks. Ike Irish at 19 when we thought he might go in the top 10 and they just got Bodine and Aloy we thought might go in the middle of the first round. So, the Orioles, who have the largest bonus pool in draft history, have gotten tremendous value on all three of their picks so far based on where we thought the players were going.”
Added former Colorado Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd on the telecast: “It’s interesting. They got a plus hitter in Irish, they got plus power in Aloy and they got a guy who is an elite college defensive catcher who is a switch hitter. I think they’ve killed it quite honestly.”
No. 37 – High School outfielder Slater de Brun from Summit High School in Bend, Oregon.
A very fast center fielder, who has a Vanderbilt commitment, he was considered the top prep outfielder of this class.
A lefty hitter and thrower, he is ranked No. 24 in this draft class by MLBPipeline and No. 30 by Baseball America.
He has 70-grade speed, which is “double plus” per the scouting scale as he profiles as a speedy, top-of-the-order kind of batter. Some know him as “Lil Slayy” for some of his music recording and producing.
Baseball America provided him a 55 grade hit tool, a 40 power, 70 run, 60 for fielding and 55 grade arm.
No. 58 – Lefty pitcher Joseph Dzierwa from Michigan State
The Spartan southpaw was named a national semifinalist for three major awards, including USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award and NCBWA's Dick Howser Trophy and College Baseball Foundation's National Pitcher of the Year Award, as presented by the College Baseball Foundation.
He goes 6-foot-8 and was also named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year and also garnered First Team All-B1O honors. He was the only player that was a unanimous selection to the First Team.
Dzierwa posted an 8-3 record in 15 games with a 2.36 ERA, with 104 strikeouts and 22 walks over 91 2/3 innnings. He had a 0.98 WHIP and allowed a .201 batting average against. He does not have big velocity, averaging 91.6 mph this season.
He was a second-team academic All-American, to become just the third-ever MSU baseball student-athlete to earn both athletic and academic All-American honors in the same season. He posted a 3.66 GPA majoring in communication.
The O’s finally took a pitcher with their fifth selection tonight. But even in taking one with pick No. 58, he became the highest drafted pitcher by Mike Elias, ahead of Jackson Baumeister of Florida State, taken 63rd in 2023.
In this draft class he was ranked No. 50 via Baseball America and No. 74 by MLBPipeline.
Blood on Dzierwa: “Definitely a pitchability (guy). We feel like our pitching development group is going to be able to help him in some ways. So when you combine the size and the stuff and the pitchability and then also some upside for building out more of his arsenal, we felt like this was an upside play for us.”
No. 69 RHP J.T. Quinn, Univ of Georgia
Quinn went 1-1 with a 2.75 ERA over 17 games, with seven starts this year. He threw 36 innings, allowing 23 hits with 16 walks and 49 strikeouts. He posted a 1.08 WHIP and .184 batting average against.
The 6-foot-6 Quinn played his first two years at Ole Miss, before transferring for the 2025 season. In this class he was ranked No. 127 by MLBPipeline and No. 144 via Baseball America.
Quinn pitched in the mid 90s with his fastball, topping aat 98 mph. And his best secondary was his mid 80s gyro slider.
No. 93 - Outfielder RJ Austin, Vanderbilt
Austin played 59 games in college this year, batting .257/.353/.383/.736 with 15 doubles, four triples, two homers and 42 RBIs. He walked 21 times and fanned 47.
The 5-11 junior was an all SEC first-team defender. Over 29 SEC games he hit .233 with an OPS of .641.
Over their seven picks the O’s selected six college players and one from the high school ranks. They added two pitchers, a catcher/outfielder, a catcher, a shortstop and two outfielders.
The draft resumes today around 11:30 a.m. with round four.
Obviously, we don't know much about these college players other then brief write-ups. Position player picks sound great! Not so much for pitcher picks so far. The 2 picked on day 1 don't sound like future TOR starters. Hope I'm wrong.
Seems more and more like, to get a college pitcher with swing and miss, you give up control. The college pitchers with low walk ratios tend to give up more contact. If the Orioles continue to have plus defenders, I’d take chances on control/contact pitchers.