With the first-year player draft fast approaching, Orioles fans may want to acquaint themselves with Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman, who could be the team’s next top prospect. The Athletic’s Dan Connolly offers a detailed profile of the college junior and his path to prospect stardom. With the O’s holding the first selection in June’s draft, general manager Mike Elias and company will have their choice of the best amateur players in the country. However, Rutschman is doing what he can to make Baltimore’s pick an easy one; the switch-hitting catcher has emerged as the favorite to have his name called first by commissioner Rob Manfred, earning rave reviews from scouts, coaches, and teammates alike. On the baseball diamond, Rutschman earns praise for his outstanding defense at a premium position, which he pairs with an impressive combination of power and contact at the plate. At a pivotal juncture in the Orioles’ rebuild, the organization’s choice at the top of the draft could be a franchise-altering decision,
Here’s the latest news out of Baltimore…
- In Connolly’s latest for The Athletic. he offers thoughts on all things Orioles, including a drop in velocity that prompted manager Brandon Hyde to yank Dylan Bundy from his last start in just the fifth inning. The source of the declining velocity is unclear; it could merely be a continuation of a trend that began in 2016, or there could be a health issue, though Bundy claims he is healthy. Regardless, it’s a situation to monitor going forward, whether because of injury, or because the O’s might consider tinkering with Bundy’s repertoire.
- More from Connolly: Brad Ausmus, who succeeded Jim Leyland as the Tigers’ manager from 2014-2017, offers some advice for rookie manager Brandon Hyde, who finds himself in a similar situation, having to follow in the footsteps of the respected Buck Showalter. Hyde certainly has been, and will continue to be, subjected to his fair share of scrutiny in his first month-plus at the helm of a Big League club. Commandeering a rebuilding team, Hyde has had to balance outsiders’ demands to win with the mandate to identify and develop young players around whom the organization can construct the next great Orioles team.
- Talented outfielder Austin Hays, a preseason favorite to play his way into in the Orioles’ starting outfield this season, will make his season debut in the coming days. After suffering a thumb injury in March, Hays should join one of the O’s low-level affiliates shortly and work his way through the ranks, hopefully culminating in an extended stay in the Majors, where he could contend for a starting role. Hays has long tantalized fans with eye-popping minor-league numbers, though he struggled in his 2017 debut. After a disappointing 2018, the hope is that Hays will actualize his offensive potential and force his way into Baltimore’s lineup.
As a person who does like the orioles (not fav team of course) I really hope they do not take a catcher with such a high overall 1st round pick. Such a high bust rate, especially college catchers.
As a person who likes the White Sox, I really hope the Orioles and Royals both pass on college catchers with the first 2 picks.
Rutschman seems like the likely top pick. If he (unlike Wieters) produces big offensively that’s icing on the cake. But I certainly wouldn’t bank on it. The daily grind, physically and mentally, just seems to take a cumulative toll.
Excited for Hays to get back to pro ball as his talent, so far, seems legit.
Sad to say that Bundy seems to struggle mechanically—even though he seemed like such a finely polished pitcher coming out of high school.
Im hoping Hays plays CF in AAA but with Mullins down there I’m not sure how that’ll shake out. One of the two will be in Baltimore shortly though I can’t imagine we roll with the Wilkerson/Rickard platoon much longer.
Do you see Hays as a CF?
Capable? yes. Preferable? Maybe not, but I think he’s better than Mullins. In my opinion Mullins’ arm is a real problem for a starting CF. And honestly I don’t think Mullins’ overall game is really more than that of a fourth outfielder. I realize we’ll give him every shot (as we probably should) seeing as we need to know that for sure.
I’d call up D.J. Stewart to play DH/RF and Hays for CF when he’s ready. I’d option Rickard (who we’ve prob seen enough of now) or Wilkerson for one slot. And I’d DFA Nunez. If we don’t trust his defense enough at any position but 1B he really has no slot on this team. We have Davis, Mancini, and soon Mountcastle on this roster. We don’t need a one trick pony like Nunez.
Agree re Núñez but not altogether Mullins. His arm shouldn’t preclude him from an outfield/cf spot (Kenny Lofton); I’m far more concerned about the bat, especially from the right side. An OF of Stewart, Hays and Mancini could actually rake; but the defense would be awful.
I agree with that. If the other tools were there with Mullins the arm would be tolerable. Hays actually has a strong arm and above average speed at this point. He’s also young and that will obviously decline with time but I think he could handle CF at least until he was arbitration eligible. Preferably a RF but you have to think about all these corner types we have in our system. Hays or possibly Diaz are the only ones with transferable skills to CF. Though Diaz needs to hit a lot more or we’ve got an issue there as well.
So then a trade for a legit CF for the system seems logical.
I’m sure at some point. I expect Mullins and Hays will both get looks first. We’re far off from contending so I don’t think it’ll be done with any huge urgency. Maybe we take one with our CB pick or somewhere early in the draft. We also have Ryan McKenna who is a CF in Bowie. He is Mullins esque but he’s actually a little faster and the arm is better. The arm isn’t great either but it’s noticeably better than Mullins. He’s having struggles at the plate (not all that different than Mullins) And may not hit enough to start in the bigs. But he’s another name.
It’ll be interesting to see what we do. IMO the place where we are the strongest organizationally is pitching. You can and should always add there as pitchers have high bust rates but our highest upside guys are really pitchers. Rodriguez and Hall could anchor our rotation for years to come. I think we could find some mid to backend type guys out of Knight, Akin, Lowther and Kremer. And I think Means is well on his way to cementing himself as a ML starter.
It’s night and day if you look at where the farm was last year at this time and where it is now. Plenty of work left to do but we’re trending in the right direction.
The Orioles are at the beginning stages of their re-build. It might make better sense to draft Bobby Witt Jr. since the Orioles are several years out from being where they want to be.. Witt Jr. has already drawn comparisons to Carlos Correa. Also curious to see if Chance Sisco can do well with the Orioles. Drafting Rutschman would mean moving Sisco at some point, either to another position or another club. Sisco did well in Spring Training,
Sisco is a poor defensive catcher. His bat is what carries him. I don’t think the new org is particularly high on sisco as we passed over him twice already this season in favor of first Sucre and now Wynns. I don’t think the defense is where they want it to be. Rutschman is supposedly the clear best talent available so I don’t see anyway we don’t take him. And Witt has questions about his hit tool. I’m sorry but I can’t take a kid #1 who has legitimate hit tool question marks. I don’t think there’s really any debate over who it’s going to be at this point.
Teams should take the best player in the draft, regardless of the player’s position. It’s hard to say how long it’ll take the Orioles to contend for postseason again.. Hopefully not as long as the last drought (’98-’11).
The two hardest things in baseball to acquire : 1) an ace pitcher 2) a legit catcher who can also hit.
I’d argue that when you consider positional scarcity, rutschman is the best available.
I’ve heard Andrew Vaughn mentioned re the O’s and the number one pick too.
Chance Sisco and his lifetime .626 aren’t blocking anyone from anything.
This is just a nonsense comment. Sisco doesn’t even have 200 ML abs and the thing keeping him in AAA is defense, not hitting ability. He’s thrown out 2 of 20 runners at AAA this year. If you want a reason he’s in AAA there’s one right there. A ML catcher can’t throw out 10% of baserunners. There’s a nonzero chance that Sisco has to be moved off of a catcher at some point down the line if things don’t improve.
You should have mentioned Rutschman’s stat line,, .431/.581/.800/1.381
Tigers made a huge mistake letting Ausmus walk. If Ausmus had been the Tiger manager they would have had back to back number 1 picks.
If Hyde actually takes advice on managing from Brad Ausmus, the Orioles need to fire him on the spot…
I love rave reviews! Few players get rave reviews!
Catchers can decline in productivity very quickly. Idk the other talent in the draft, but I feel like drafting a catcher can be risky
He’ll be 21 on draft day and you figure you probably won’t see him in the bigs until he’s 23. The orioles only get 6-7 years of control of Rutschman on the rookie deal. That’d make him 30. By then, maybe he has to transition to another position but I don’t think that’s a real big consideration for us. He’s the best prospect available. That’s what we need. The best talent we can get our hands on.
Rutchman has excelled under the pressure of scouts in the stands with millions of dollars in their pockets; not quite like playing in front of Mommy, Daddy and Betty-Sue. Frankly, Witt’s under-performance in front of the scouts, especially given his dad’s being a MLBer, is a giant red flag.
It doesn’t look like a strong draft class this year, so I’d roll with Rutchman and draft-to-slot from there. Conversely, the International class looks strong. I suspect the O’s will be including those slot monies if (when?) they move Villar, Gyvens, et al.
We’ll be including international money with guys like Givens in a trade? You mean to tell me we’ll be trading away more international money? I don’t think you’ll see that at all. I suspect Elias will use his funds this year. It’s a fresh pool of players and he’s had some time to put together a scouting team. He was given 5.5 MM at the end of IFA this year with a watered down pool and no structure in place. I don’t blame him for jettisoning fundS this year. I highly doubt you see that again.
And Villar looks like a non tender candidate. If the orioles end up flipping him (which I wouldn’t say is a lock anymore) it won’t be for anything of use. I fully expect if he does end up staying here all year that we won’t tender him a deal as he’d cost somewhere in the 8-9 MM range. I’m starting to see why Brewers fans soured on this guy. He plays lackadaisical defense at 2B. His hard contact rate is down and he really only plays 2B or SS so he’s not as versatile as you’d think. Maybe he’d be more motivated on a contender but my view on him has certainly been shifting.
Agree with ya there. You look at Villar’s numbers, and think “Well, there’s not a bad little player”. Then you watch him play, and think “What a waste of 5M; he’d be a waste at 2M”. Lackadaisical is a pretty good description.
OOOPs. Sorry about that. I meat that he’d be RECIEVING slot money in any deals,.
Hays MOM once worked with my God-Mom…
The biggest O’s note is that Davis is finally starting to look at least like a resemblance of his old self.