With the release of a new top 10 O’s prospects list this week by Baseball America comes confirmation of what we already knew: the O’s system remains loaded. They currently hold the title of top farm system in all of baseball.

The new top-100 prospects lists are likely to come out sometime in January and February. But on the latest lists from Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com, the Orioles have six top-100 prospects.

Here is how Baseball America ranked them this week on its new team top 10.

1) Shortstop Jackson Holliday: Did we expect anyone else? The player drafted No. 1 overall by the Orioles on July 17, 2022 has lived up to the hype and then some. He played at four levels last summer – ending the year at Triple-A Norfolk – and hit .323 with a .941 OPS and led all minor league players in runs scored, with 113. He played above-average defense and has 60-grade speed. He was the O’s Minor League Player of the Year and Baseball America’s National Player of the Year after a season in which he played in the All-Star Futures Game. Speaking of the future, his day in Baltimore could be close. Holliday will celebrate his 20^th birthday tomorrow.

2) Catcher Samuel Basallo: He turned 19 in August. He is a super-fast riser that has become the shining star of the O’s international program. He rose three levels last year, producing 20 homers and a .953 OPS. He played four games at the end of 2023 at Double-A Bowie, where he will likely start the 2024 season. It could end for him at Triple-A. The tools and production are loud for this guy. While Holliday is the third straight O’s farm player to be No. 1 in prospect rankings, Basallo could be the fourth. Yes, impressive by the Orioles. 

With the promotion Sunday of infielder Max Wagner from High-A Aberdeen to Double-A Bowie, the Orioles now have their first four picks from the 2022 MLB Draft all together at the Double-A level with Jackson Holliday, Dylan Beavers, Wagner and Jud Fabian. 

Holliday was the No. 1 overall pick in that draft with Beavers at No. 33, Wagner No. 42 and Fabian No. 67. The last three are all college draft picks but Holliday, who is baseball's No. 1 prospect, is the 19-year-old phenom having a sensational season. 

Beavers has put up some very solid numbers in his own right and just got to Bowie last week, going 8-for-20 in his first five Double-A games. His bat is hot now, but it wasn’t always that way in 2023. He began the year with Aberdeen and after 45 games was batting just .214 with a .664 OPS.  But then in his next 40 games with the IronBirds he had this line - .343/.443/.580/1.023 with 29 walks and 21 extra-base hits.  

Now ranked as the No. 10 O’s prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 22 by Baseball America, his bat was smoking. He is a player that gets some 60 grades from scouts for his power, running and arm.  

Beavers told me over the weekend in Bowie that when his bat was slow to get going this year, he tried not to overly stress about it and instead draw on experience from college ball at the University of California. There he began his career as a two-way player and later as a power-hitting outfielder was good enough to be the No. 33 overall selection. 

When a top draft pick is officially signed and introduced by his new team, as Vanderbilt outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. was yesterday by the Orioles, it is a big day for a lot of people. The player of course and his family, the organization and also the signing scout.

Orioles' area scout Trent Friedrich was at the podium yesterday with Bradfield and O’s executive Mike Elias on the big day for the highest draft pick Friedrich has had as an O’s scout. He joined the organization after the 2019 season.

That scout puts in a massive amount of time compiling volumes of information on a player that his club may not even draft. But in this case, they did. Friedrich’s guy was the No. 17 overall selection by the Orioles and this week signed an exact slot bonus amount of $4,169,700.

Bradfield and the O’s second-round pick, UNC outfielder Mac Horvath, who has now also signed, will report to Sarasota, Fla. for orientation and then likely play some games in the rookie-level Florida Complex League. They could advance to join Low Single-A Delmarva before this season ends.

“It’s gratifying,” Friedrich said to put in so much time scouting a player that his club then actually does select and sign. “And to get a special kid like that. To know where our team is now and where it can go with a guy like him with it, it just makes me really excited for the future.”

Orioles scout Trent Friedrich used the word multiple times today when describing outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr.

Different.

Friedrich watched Bradfield play at American Heritage High School in Plantation, Fla. in 2018. He tracked Bradfield at Vanderbilt University, with Tennessee part of his territory. And he knew.

“He impacted the game in so many ways,” Friedrich said. “It’s been really fun ever since he was a sophomore in high school, following him through high school, and then coming into my area at Vanderbilt and being able to watch him the last three years.

“He’s just been different every step of the way.”

The first three pitches from Grayson Rodriguez tonight were clocked at 98.9, 99.2 and 99.8 mph, resulting in a fly ball from Dodgers leadoff hitter Mookie Betts.

That’s when he decided to turn up the heat.

Rodriguez concluded an eight-pitch at-bat against Freddie Freeman by getting him to ground a 101-mph fastball to third baseman Ramón Urías. Six of his pitches exceeded 100 mph in the inning. He didn’t top 99.3 during his first stint with the club.

This wasn’t the same version of Rodriguez. Not until he came back out for the sixth.

Twice handed three-run leads, Rodriguez couldn’t record an out in the sixth and watched from the dugout as Chris Taylor hit a grand slam off Bryan Baker in the Dodgers’ 6-4 victory over the Orioles before an announced crowd of 21,956 at Camden Yards.

Enrique Bradfield Jr. received Mike Elias’ cell phone number last night from his agent and decided to show the same aggression that he does on the basepaths.

Bradfield wasn’t going to wait to hear from Elias, who made the Vanderbilt outfielder the 17^th overall pick in the draft. He took control of the situation, much to Elias’ amusement.

“I took that as, ‘Hey, let me give him a call,”’ Bradfield said this morning on a video chat with the media. “So, I went ahead and dialed the phone and gave him a call.”

Elias noted last night how a deep pool of collegiate position players delayed Bradfield’s selection and kept him on the board for the Orioles.

“It was a lot of emotions, especially for my family, just being there, kind of just waiting, getting phone calls, trying to see what was going to be the best decision for me,” Bradfield said.

The amateur draft resumes this afternoon with the third through 10^th rounds. The Orioles have nine selections, including a Round 3 compensation pick, the 100^th overall, for failing to sign Oklahoma State pitcher Nolan McLean last summer.

The Orioles are choosing 86^th overall, 100^th, 118^th, 154^th, 181^st, 211^th, 241^st, 271^st and 301^st.

They are thrilled with the results at Nos. 17, 53 and 63.

Picking later than ever under executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias, the Orioles grabbed Vanderbilt center fielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., North Carolina outfielder Mac Horvath and Florida State strikeout machine Jackson Baumeister – a good nickname when you’re a pitcher.

“Ecstatic,” director of draft operations Brad Ciolek said on a video call.

The Orioles apparently had a need for speed in the first round of the draft.

They used the No. 17 overall selection on Vanderbilt outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., 21, a left-handed hitter who Baseball America grades an 80 runner and fielder.

Bradfield stole 130 bases at a 90.9 percent success rate in 191 games. He batted .311/.426/.447 with 31 doubles, 11 triples, 15 home runs and 108 RBIs.

Also appealing to the Orioles is the 14.7 percent walk rate, compared to a 13.5 percent strikeout rate. He made contact at an 87 percent rate this season.

The power is lacking, with Bradfield given a 30 grade as more of a line drive hitter.