As minor league season begins, who is "next up?"

The Orioles aren’t strangers to elite prospects. 

For three consecutive seasons, Baltimore boasted the highest ranked minor leaguer in the game in Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday. 

Now, although there’s no No. 1 overall prospect in the system, the O’s still have two of the best prospects in the game in Coby Mayo and Samuel Basallo. 

They, along with Chayce McDermott, Baltimore’s fourth-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline, feel like the last of the great wave of youngsters. 

Take a look at the prospect list from 2023: the top six players are all contributors at the big league level and combine to help form the foundation of the young Orioles. They’ve all, of course, since graduated from prospect status. 

While it would be wonderful to have the best farm system and an elite big league team, this fantasy isn’t much of a reality. The depth on the farm isn’t what it once was because prospects have either graduated to the majors or have been traded for big league help. The priority is winning in the majors, and now. 

But it does beg a question: Once Mayo and Basallo are promoted from Triple-A Norfolk and graduate from prospect status, what will the farm system look like? Who could take over as the face of the prospect list?  

“You have a bunch of candidates that could make that leap forward or could be met with some challenges as so many minor leaguers do get met with at the upper levels or their first pro seasons,” noted Just Baseball’s prospect guru Aram Leighton. 

After an outstanding offseason of progression, the answer could be the speedster Enrique Bradfield Jr. 

“I know Bradfield has added some strength, and if he’s hitting the ball harder? All of a sudden, this farm system is back into the top third in baseball again,” Leighton added. 

“Hitting those line drives, that’s what’s gonna do it for me,” Bradfield said in spring training. “That’s all I want.” 

Bradfield’s added weight in the offseason has many around the league even more excited about his potential. 

His defense and speed, both graded by some as an 80 on the 20-80 grading scale, have never been in question. The Vanderbilt product is an elite defensive center fielder and a menace on the basepaths, nabbing three stolen bases in his final spring training game after stealing 74 last season in High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie.

And don’t worry, his speed didn’t go anywhere with added muscle. 

“I feel better than ever,” Bradfield said with a laugh. “I don’t feel like I’ve lost a step at all. I feel like I’ve gained a couple if anything. I like the way I’m moving. I actually feel better at the weight that I’m at now compared to where I was to even end the year.” 

“That (defense and speed) makes him a high probability big leaguer,” Leighton said. “And that is what, I think, is going to make him a consensus top-100 prospect.”

The bat could bring him even higher. 

“If he’s hitting the ball a little bit harder, he could be trending closer to that top-50 prospect,” Leighton noted. 

The lefty is never going to hit too many home runs. Doubles and triples will be his forte. But leaving the yard or not, high exit velocities make a big difference. 

Use the 2018 major league season as an example. On “hard-hit” balls, defined as an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher, the league-wide batting average was .524 with a 1.047 slugging percentage. On balls hit below 95 mph, that average dropped to .219 with a .259 slugging percentage. 

Bradfield started to show flashes of what his bat could do in Double-A Bowie to end last season. In the 27 games to close out 2024, the former first-round pick hit .287 with a .395 on-base percentage. He stole 15 bases and walked more than he struck out. That’s a recipe for a lot of success. 

“If he’s putting on strength and added 20-plus pounds already and you know that he’s going to put bat on ball and potentially steal 70 to 80 bags over the course of a full season? That’s a guy that’s probably a safe bet to be the face of this farm,” Leighton said. 

Mayo and Basallo may be the only O’s in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects for now. But once the minor league season is in full swing, expect that to change. 

It may not be the same farm as a few seasons ago, but the O’s minor league system is still in good shape. And Enrique Bradfield Jr. could be the next face of it.