The MLB Draft has been something for the Elias-era Orioles to hang their hat on. 

Whether they’ve drafted and developed All-Stars like Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman or stockpiled capital to trade for established stars like Corbin Burnes, the strength of the farm, built largely through the draft, has been a hugely valuable asset. And with the No. 7 overall pick in Saturday’s MLB Draft, Baltimore has a chance to add to their impressive résumé. 

But just how impressive have the O’s been at drafting and developing talent compared to the rest of baseball since 2019? To find out, I went through each team’s draft class from the last seven years. 

Here’s how I interpreted the data I collected: 

If an organization drafted and successfully signed a player, the organization gets credit for that player making their MLB debut, regardless of what organization they debuted for. Think Darrell Hernaiz, who the Orioles traded to the Athletics before his MLB debut. A player’s production once they reach the majors is measured by bWAR, which only counts for the organization that drafted them. As an example, the O’s would only get credit for Kyle Stowers’ production in Baltimore, but not Miami. 

The logic here is that an organization gets credit for initially identifying MLB talent in the Draft, but not for that player’s production with another team. There is certainly another exercise in this data collection to measure the kind of draft capital and future production that teams give up in order to trade for established major leaguers, but that’s not what I’ve measured here. This exercise is more useful to see how many players teams have drafted and developed for homegrown production. 

We’ll start with the sparknotes version of things. Here’s the team bWAR leaderboard (as of 7/2) for homegrown talent (production with the organization that drafted that player) since 2019:

  1. 1. Orioles – 47.1 bWAR 
  2. 2. Royals – 42.6 bWAR 
  3. 3. Tigers – 39.3 bWAR 
  4. 4. Reds – 38.8 bWAR 
  5. 5. Braves – 38.4 bWAR

The AL East, specifically, stacks up like this:

  1. 1. Orioles – 47.1 bWAR 
  2. 2. Yankees – 21.0 bWAR 
  3. 3. Blue Jays – 11.1 bWAR 
  4. 4. Red Sox – 7.1 bWAR
  5. 5. Rays – -0.5 bWAR

It’s important to note again that this measurement doesn’t count the production of drafted players that were later traded away, like Kyle Manzardo for Tampa, or the value of players drafted in this era that a team traded for, like Garrett Crochet in Boston. 

Baltimore’s 18 drafted players since 2019 with MLB debuts, regardless of current organization, is right around middle of the pack in baseball, tied with the Dodgers, Padres, Rays, Reds and Yankees. But among players that have stayed home, the O’s have gotten the most production of any org. 

Let’s dive into some of the specifics from different draft classes, with all data collected as of 7/2: 

The 38.7 bWAR the Orioles have gotten from their 2019 draft class is the highest of any team’s class over the last seven drafts. Of course, it does stand to reason that this leader would come from 2019, since bWAR is cumulative. Gunnar Henderson’s 22.7 bWAR with the Orioles is the second-highest for any homegrown talent since 2019, trailing just Bobby Witt Jr.. Adley Rutschman’s 16.4 is fifth-best.  

Despite going 30th overall in 2020, Jordan Westburg has the sixth-best bWAR among homegrown talent in that draft. Based on overall production, regardless of a player’s current organization, Westy’s 5.1 bWAR trails just Pete Crow-Armstrong, Garrett Crochet, Reid Detmers and Tyler Soderstrom among 2020 first-round picks.  

Colton Cowser’s 4.2 bWAR is significantly higher than any other top-10 pick in the 2021 draft, regardless of their current organization. Sal Frelick is the only player with a higher bWAR in the top 20. 

Jackson Holliday is one of only two top-five picks from the 2022 MLB Draft to debut. The other is Kumar Rocker, who entered pro ball during his age-23 season. Holliday, now nearly 250 games into his big league career, is still just 22.  

Plus, among first-round picks, Holliday and Dylan Beavers rank 5th and 7th in bWAR, regardless of current organization. 

All in all, the Orioles still reign supreme when it comes to production from homegrown talent in the Elias era. And with the No. 7 pick in next week’s MLB Draft, they’re in a prime position to add to that number.