About that No. 1 draft pick ...

It is several months away. but another big decision that new Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias will have to make is which player to take with the No. 1 pick in the June 2019 First-Year Player Draft.

For just the second time in Baltimore Orioles history, the club will have the top pick next June. That is since the draft began in 1965. In 1989 selecting first overall, the Orioles took LSU right-hander Ben McDonald. The Orioles have never had the No. 2 pick, and selected No. 3 overall just once - when they took Manny Machado in 2010.

Under the new rules for the draft, in effect since the new collective bargaining agreement was signed in December 2016, any savings on the slot amount for any top 10 pick can be used to sign other players.

The last two years, the team picking No. 1 overall has indeed signed the top pick for under slot and had savings to use elsewhere. In 2017, Minnesota selected high school shortstop Royce Lewis with that pick. The slot amount was $7.770 million, and Lewis signed for $6.725 million, a savings of $1.045 million. Last year, Detroit took Auburn right-hander Casey Mize with the first pick. The slot amount was $8.096 million and he signed for $7.5 million, so the club saved nearly $600,000.

The slot bonus amounts rose by 4.2 percent from 2017 to 2018. If the slot amounts increase again by 4.2 percent for 2019, the Orioles would have a slot amount of $8,420,152 for the No. 1 selection. Last year the club's entire draft pool for picks in the top 10 rounds was $8.754 million. The club's top pick - high school right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, taken No. 11 overall - signed for $4.3 million.

Elias was involved with three drafts in Houston in which the club had the No. 1 pick. In 2012, the Astros selected shortstop Carlos Correa, in 2013 they selected Stanford right-hander Mark Appel and in 2014 they took high school lefty Brady Aiken.

Jim Callis of MLBPipeline.com said that having the No. 1 pick puts the Orioles in position to not only get a top player but save some bonus pool money to get other good players.

"Yes, it was designed to do that," said Callis. "In the previous CBA, the first three or four picks would get so much more than the rest of the first-round players. They tightened up the difference between picks in the new contract.

"This gives the Orioles a huge opportunity. Let's say they take (catcher) Adley Rutschman out of Oregon State or (shortstop) Bobby Witt Jr. (out of a Texas high school). Whoever they take will probably be a 6.5- or 7-million-dollar guy, and they could have $1.5 million to play with.

"Elias had the first pick three times with the Astros. The first year they took Carlos Correa and saved some money, and it helped them sign Lance McCullers Jr. So he's been through that in Houston. You have to get that pick right. You can't mess that pick up, and here's a guy involved with it three times already."

While over the years players including Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, Bryce Harper and Alex Rodriguez have been taken with the No. 1 pick, there have been plenty of misses too. Brien Taylor, Shawn Abner, Paul Wilson and Matt Bush have also been taken 1/1.

Click here for the all-time list of players taken first in the draft.

But as Callis pointed out, the Orioles under Elias' guidance will have the chance with their No. 1 pick to not only get a good player and possible future All-Star, but to save some of the bonus money to use toward other talent as well.

RSVP to our event so you get a reminder about Monday's press conference, airing on MASN and our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/433690977163877/

-- Orioles on MASN (@masnOrioles) November 18, 2018