The O’s don’t need to draft players that will be ready in 2030, but as soon as possible. With that in mind, we look at prospects who should be ready quicker than others.

At the beginning of 2023, the Orioles had eight players on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list. Their farm system was loaded after having a top-five Draft pick in each of general manager Mike Elias’ first four seasons at the helm (‘19-22).

Orioles GM Mike Elias spoke Thursday about the Bryan Baker trade, the deadline and the state of the club. Here’s what we learned.

Baltimore signed George for $455,000, the seventh-highest bonus in its 2024 draft class. So far, as the 19-year-old George rips his way through the Florida Complex League and Low-A Delmarva, he’s proving himself as a sound investment.

ONE OF ELI WILLITS' earliest baseball memories is of playing catch with his father, Reggie, in the Angel Stadium outfield. In late June, Eli again took the field that his dad called home during six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels during a private workout with the team, which has the No. 2 pick in the 2025 MLB draft.

Of the 64 pitchers Orioles GM Mike Elias has drafted and signed, 40 are still with the organization and only nine have reached Triple-A.

Above all else, the Orioles’ last few seasons have hammered home the idea that high-level starting pitching and an abundance of major league-caliber arms are the separator, with an outsize influence on how the team performs.