O's set up well to fortify talent base in the 2024 MLB Draft

During the Winter Meetings we found out the Orioles signed closer Craig Kimbrel, and also that top prospect Jackson Holliday could begin the 2024 season in the O's starting lineup.

We also got some very good draft news for the club. The assumption, confirmed in Nashville, was that the Orioles would have three picks well up in the draft.

Sure they won't have the No. 1 pick, as they did in 2019 and 2022, or a top five pick not No. 1, as they did in 2020 and 2021, but they will have three of the first 34 selections next July.

Executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and his staff have led five previous drafts for the club since taking Adley Rutschman No. 1 in 2019, and they've never had three picks among the first 34.

In 2019, they selected 1, 42 and 71. In 2020 they picked 2, 30 and 39. Then it was 5, 41 and 65 and then 1, 33 and 42. Last year they selected 17, 53 and 64.

And next year they will pick 22, 32 and 34.

They once held the No. 24 pick in round one for 2024. But luxury-tax penalties dropped the Padres and Yankees down in the draft and the O's moved up to No. 22. The club got the No. 32 selection - under the terms of the Prospect Promotion Incentive program implemented as part of the 2022 collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association - when Gunnar Henderson won American League Rookie of the Year. The No. 34 pick is the first of six selections going to teams in Competitive Balance Round A. With the best record of the six teams, the O's got the first pick among these.

The last two picks, per my definition, would not technically be first-round picks, but all three will come before the start of the second round. How we define them doesn't matter; the Orioles have them.

The Orioles have gotten a Competitive Balance Round pick every year since they were implemented with the basic agreement that began in 2012.

Per an MLB formula, the 10 lowest-revenue clubs and the clubs from the 10 smallest markets are eligible to receive a Competitive Balance pick (fewer than 20 clubs are in the mix each year, as some clubs qualify under both criteria). All eligible teams are assigned a pick, either in CB Round A or Round B. Round A falls between the first and second rounds of the draft (in even-numbered years), while Round B comes between the second and third (in odd-numbered years).

"We'll take all the picks MLB wants to give us. We need them," Elias said at the Winter Meetings.

"You look at the finances, there's a lot of disparity in baseball and there's a lot of markets that have been identified as ones that should receive Competitive Balance picks, and we're one of them.

"I think it's important lifeblood if you're Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, so we appreciate that part of the system. And honestly, I'd like to see it be more because it's a drop in the bucket compared to some of the market disparities that we have."

Having these three selections will not only help the O's keep the talent pipeline flowing into the future, but they can do it next year with some added draft economic clout. The No. 22 pick in 2023 had a slot amount of $3,496,600 while the amount was $2,607,500 for the No. 32 pick and $2,481,400 for selection No. 34.

Should a player rated, say, as a top-10 talent drop down the board due to signability problems, the O's may be able to get that player at No. 22. Or they can spread some money around with more than $8.5 million for just those three picks.

The Orioles will also pick No. 62 overall in Round 2 and No. 100 in Round 3. For just the second time under Elias, they will have five of the top 100 picks. They did that last year also, but four of their five came between Nos. 53 and 100.

Showing it's never too early for a mock draft, MLBPipeline.com posted one a few weeks ago projecting that nine of the first 11 picks next July would be college hitters. They predicted the O's would take University of Tennessee right-handed pitcher Drew Beam at No. 22. 

The No. 22 pick will be the club's lowest since the 2016 draft, when they took University of Illinois right-hander Cody Sedlock at No. 27.

Elias has pledged to keep the O's talent flowing and farm-system ranking robust, even though the club is no longer picking in the top five.

"I can promise you this: It will not dry up and we're going to be a first-rate scouting and player-development organization as long as the people who are in this room are here being in charge of that," he said.

"Whether that's top 10 or 11th one year or something, I don't know, but I can point to other franchises that you don't necessarily know where they're ranked every year, but you know they do a good job in scouting and player development. It's just part of their identity, and I think that's the Orioles."