The Orioles and outfielder Jordyn Adams are in agreement on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The CAA client and former top prospect will head to major league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.
Adams, who turned 25 in October, was selected by the Angels with the No. 17 overall draft pick back in 2018. At the time, he was viewed as one of the best athletes in the entire draft class — a two-sport high school star who’d committed to play both football (as a wide receiver) and baseball at North Carolina. Pre-draft scouting reports touted Adams’ 80-grade speed (on the 20-80 scale) and a projectable frame that carried the potential to grow into more power.
While the speed has been on full display in the minors throughout his career — he’s gone 144-for-176 (82%) in stolen base attempts — Adams has yet to hit much at any stop. He’s a career .252/.333/.377 hitter in 2425 minor league plate appearances and, in 78 big league trips to the plate, mustered only a .176/.205/.216 slash with a 35.9% strikeout rate.
The speed is legitimate, as Statcast ranked him in the 98th percentile of big leaguers with a blazing sprint speed of 29.7 ft/sec. Even as he tumbled down the Angels’ prospect rankings at Baseball America, from No. 3 in 2020 to No. 23 this past season, BA called him a plus defender in center who “tracks fly-balls like a wide receiver” while showing elite closing speed.
In almost every other sense of the word, Adams is a project for the Orioles. However, he’s heading into only his age-25 season. He’s also joining an Orioles organization that has been far more successful than the Angels (and than most of the league, for that matter) when it comes to developing young position players. Adams may not ever be a star, but if the O’s can coax a bit more out of his bat, his speed and defense give him a path to at least being a viable fourth outfielder. Encouragingly, the righty-hitting speedster does have an OPS well north of .800 against lefties over the past three seasons in the minors.
Kjerstad for lance Lynn?
Lynn is a free agent.
@cooperhill. Sarcasm and that’s why i picked lynn.
so, Silent J has to be Lance Lynn’s personal butler for a year if we sign him?
Stfu
As long as he is not Heston, this trade is OK.
He’s one of those guys who moves faster and more fluidly than everyone else. Yet he doesn’t look like he’s going max effort.
Adams is the last of Eppler’s athletes who he hoped to turn into baseball players despite Arte pinching every penny on development.
I’d like to see him reach his potential.
@halosheavenjj. Wouldn’t have mind if the angels re-signed him. I’m surprised he picked the orioles, because that’s 100 percent a minor league deal he has no chance of making the roster.
True but if he feels the orioles can develop him into an MLB caliber player it is a good long term play.
The orioles make alot of sense for him. The organization is already doing the same with Bradfield and Honeycutt so he knows they have the ambition and operation to work with a player of his skillset to ready them for the bigs.
Surprised Ward broke out. Adams, Adell, Thaiss, Wilson…yikes. Now Canning gone too. Detmers at least has upside but wow did Eppler have bad draft picks.
Or Eppler could’ve just called him up and other prospects up to give them reps and see what sticks. I think cutting funding from the farm system is still a poor excuse. Players still have to work hard on their own, and teams shouldn’t need state of the art technology and facilities to develop good players. At this point, the only reason the Angels system is ranked so low is because they called everyone up and now their pipeline is skewed toward pitching, which last I heard was ranked 4th. Angels just didn’t use their farm system for a while and it cost them. Now they are and have a more solid core that makes it easier to know what they have and know where they can just supplement.
Bro what? We literally have the results. Dodgers, Yankees, Rays, Boston and Cleveland all spend on scouting and development and are always top 10 systems.
Those that famously dont, well…
“In almost every other sense of the word, Adams is a project for the Orioles in virtually every other sense of the word.”
So nice they had to say it twice.
They really wanted you to get the sense of the word.
Guys I just some pitching please xD
“In almost every other sense of the word, Adams is a project for the Orioles in virtually every other sense of the word.”
This is a truly heavy, deeply profound statement.
This site needs editors in the worst way. It’s every article now.
That’s a sentence I would put in a high school paper where a word count was required.
Older model of Enrique Bradfield. “tracks flyballs like a wide receiver”, love it.
floor is a defensive CF with 80 speed on the bases for late inning pinch running if they can get at least a little contact and pitch selection improvement but Baltimore’s player development is uniquely calibrated to just that.
odd to be excited about a lottery ticket minor league signing but 17th overall pick pedigree is always interesting to see.
let’s see him in a foot race against Mateo. or Elly De La Cruz.
In almost every other sense of the word, Adams has a massive platoon split in virtually every other sense of the word.
So maybe he could be useful as a short-side platoon player and defensive replacement.
The Orioles love speed and outfielders. if they didn’t need to fill out 6 other positions they probably wouldn’t.
Ultimately these guys just got a little further than many of us did – fast guys who couldn’t hit and get on base who ended up on high school track teams in the spring. These guys at least get into the minors but can’t hit at the MLB level. Like Mateo.
I don’t care how fast Mateo is, he has a .267 OBP. That hurts the team WAY more than his speed helps. Nor does his very slightly above defense at this point make a difference.
Adams has had OK success at AAA the past 3 years, 10-15 HR, hits .250 or .260 and OBP is .330 to .350, K’s a ton even in the minors…the difference with him and Bradfield is Bradfield so far has been able to maintain his ability to get on base with high success so I maintain hope with Bradfield.
After all, the Orioles have been looking for a true fast, get on base leadoff hitter type since Brian Roberts.
“In almost every other sense of the word, Adams is a project for the Orioles in virtually every other sense of the word.”
What a linguistic tragedy. Bad AI?
rushed rewrite without rereading what you wrote. man do I do that a lot. I know it well. still, the point about needing a copy editor bad is well said. truth.
He’s not going to be a superstar but it wouldn’t surprise me if he put up some good numbers for the O’s – Angels were dumb to cut him.
Good pickup, O’s position player development could turn this guy into Mateo v.2.
Also this sentence is literary gold:
“ In almost every other sense of the word, Adams is a project for the Orioles in virtually every other sense of the word.”
Not the news we’re looking for
Agree. Don’t get it. I don’t care how fast and young he is; dudes already done 2 years of AAA ball.
To me, a better fit for a team on the rebuild. On a short leash. Like the Orioles had Mateo on in 2021. IE. immediately throw him in to the deep end to see how he physically performs and with what level of enthusiasm. Mateo went balls to the wall and ended up being the everyday SS for that 101 win team. Win mode now Orioles shouldn’t be messing around with this type of player.
*everyday SS*
my bad, Jorge was that guy on the winning 2022 team. In 2023 (101 win), he started out as the main SS but FO eventually squeezed him out to get Gunnar there.
Maybe another team trading a pitcher to the Orioles will find Adams to be an attractive trade piece and has the luxury of giving him an extended look at the MLB level. I agree he doesn’t really have a place on a (supposedly) contending Orioles team with an existing OF glut.
On the 2022 Orioles with no other options MLB ready and the Orioles not willing to part with a dime, Mateo provided 2.4 dWAR in 149 games at SS. His defensive #’s slipped across the board in 2023 in 110 games at SS and last year further still, to the point of him being just above average. Since he can’t hit he provided less and less relative value to the team each year as it grew around him to the point he’s a deficit on the team. If they’re that worried about $, no need to spend 3.2M on that.
It’s nice to know that Mike is still firing on all cylinders. Nothing lost by trying to use your strengths (development) to continue to… develop talent/assets.
Either pony up for Burnes or trade for Cease. I’d give up Mayo and someone else for a trade but not another one year deal. Got to be a sign and trade.
Be a Tar Heel and play Football. Still young.
Every year the Orioles find these guys off the scrap heap that play a big roll for them.
Games are won and lost in the margins.
Something happened last season. I’m not sure what. Hyde had to fire his mentor.