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Center fielder Slater de Brun, chosen by the Orioles with the 37th overall pick in this year’s draft, draws comparisons to Arizona’s two-time All-Star Corbin Carroll based on his tools and stature.
There’s also got to be a musical comp for de Brun, who’s a duel threat as a baseball player and musician/producer.
The 5-foot-10 de Brun carries big aspirations on and off the field. He goes by “Lil Slayyy” when he’s in music mode, putting out country singles like “Break My Heart” and “Find Me a Bar” – the irony, of course, being that he’s too young to get served.
“Music is like an outlet for me, it’s a creative outlet for me, and it helps me get my thoughts not on paper but out of my head,” he said last week at Camden Yards. “Also, I like when people listen to my music because it shows that I’m like a vulnerable person. I’m not just a baseball player but I’m more than that. So I think it probably brings more people around me, I would hope, and that’s why I like music.
“We have time on our hands right now in the afternoons in Sarasota, so there’s a lot of extra time in professional baseball and you’ve got to fill that doing productive things, and for me, that’s a very productive thing.”
The Orioles didn’t map out an extensive offseason plan for Ike Irish, their first pick in the 2025 amateur draft. He was able to determine necessary areas of improvement just by visiting Camden Yards last week.
Put a bunch of major league players around a 21-year-old in his first professional season and it becomes clear.
“I think it’s the big things, like you’ve got to get more physical,” he said during a media scrum in the Orioles’ dugout. “Just for myself, standing around these big leaguers, I’m a little smaller than they are, so get a little more physical. And then just fine-tune the talent and get better in all aspects of the game, because I have to.”
Irish obviously didn’t let his draft status go to his head.
The Orioles had four draft picks within the top 37 and chose Irish 19th overall out of Auburn University, thrilled that one of the top hitters in the draft fell to them.
Only the top two minor league affiliates are playing regular season games at this point in the summer, so the Orioles brought their first four draft picks to Camden Yards yesterday – Ike Irish (19th overall), Caden Bodine (30th), Wehiwa Aloy (31st) and Slater de Brun (37th).
The group visited the clubhouse, weight room and other areas of the ballpark, took batting practice and watched the game from a suite. Smiles and waves accompanied their introductions to the crowd after the first inning.
Irish shared his early impressions of Camden Yards with the media while sitting in the dugout.
“The warehouse is pretty sick,” he said.
Maybe he can aim for it in a few years.
The Orioles have signed all of their 2025 draft picks within the first 10 rounds.
The overall total grew to 14 out of 24 today with center fielder Slater de Brun, the 37th selection out of Summit High School in Oregon.
de Brun, 18, was the fourth of seven first-day picks for the Orioles, and his selection was lauded by the draft media experts. He batted .370/.586/.603 with nine doubles, one triple, two home runs, 26 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 29 games during his senior season.
The Oregon native is a left-handed hitter, 65-grade runner and 60-grade fielder, and the Corbin Carroll comps were prevalent leading up to the draft.
Only one of them can claim to be an aspiring musician who goes by Lil Slayyy” and has put out country singles like "Break My Heart" and "Find me a Bar.” de Brun can afford to buy a round for the house, but he isn’t old enough to partake.
