The Orioles opened the 2024 MLB draft Sunday night in familiar fashion, pulling from the college hitter ranks with each of their three Day 1 picks.
Executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias has yet to draft a pitcher in the first round during his Orioles tenure. That trend continued with vice president of player development and domestic scouting Matt Blood leading the club’s draft effort for the first time since being promoted over the offseason.
With the team drafting 21 players over three days, here’s every pick the Orioles have made this year. This will be updated throughout the draft.
1st round, 22 overall: OF Vance Honeycutt, North Carolina
Baseball America big board rank: 13 | MLB Pipeline: 22 | ESPN: 25
The Orioles used their first pick on Honeycutt, one of the most polarizing prospects in the draft. Honeycutt has big-time raw power, impressive speed and a defensive skill set that could allow him to stick in center field. The big knock against him is his hit tool, particularly his high strikeout rate. Honeycutt represents a new project for the Orioles’ player development staff, which has a track record of working with this profile.
“It’s absolutely something he’s going to have to work on,” Blood said in a news conference Sunday. “It’s something that we feel like with our player development system and the people that we have here, it’s something we’re going to be able to work with him on and help him along. But he does so many things well that the strikeout rate, going along with everything else that he does well, it made for a great bet on him.”
1st round-PPI, 32 overall: SS Griff O’Ferrall, Virginia
Baseball America: 115 | MLB Pipeline: 38 | ESPN: 26
Ten picks later, the Orioles were back on the clock with the pick they received for Gunnar Henderson winning American League Rookie of the Year in 2023. They took O’Ferrall, leadoff hitter for the Cavaliers over the last three seasons. O’Ferrall doesn’t hit for much power but has strong bat-to-ball skills and profiles as a steady defender up the middle.
“He’s a gamer,” Blood said. “He’s a really good baseball player. He can impact the game defensively, on the base paths and he just wreaks havoc with his bat — ton of line drives, a ton of contact. He’s a really tough out. He’s the kind of guy that fans are going to love, and I think that’s what you see when you see him play.”
2nd round, 61 overall: C/1B Ethan Anderson, Virginia
Baseball America: 59 | MLB Pipeline: 78 | ESPN: 85
Baltimore finished its Day 1 slate by taking Anderson, a switch hitter with a bat-first profile. O’Farrell’s teammate at Virginia posted a 1.001 OPS for his college career, boasting a strong walk rate while limiting strikeouts. The Orioles plan to develop him as a catcher. While that is his primary position, he didn’t play there much until his junior season because he was blocked by upperclassmen.
“He has a very interesting and exciting offensive profile — gets on base a ton, makes a lot of quality contact,” Blood said. “He’s a switch-hitter and can do a lot of things to impact the game on the offensive side. The defensive side, he wasn’t able to catch as much this year as he probably would’ve liked, and we’re looking forward to helping him develop into that role with us.”
3rd round, 97 overall: OF Austin Overn, Southern California
Baseball America: 85 | MLB Pipeline: 131 | ESPN: 125
Overn was the Orioles’ first selection of Day 2, in which they’ll make seven more picks. A draft-eligible sophomore, Overn played both football and baseball at USC but gave up football after his freshman year.
The 6-foot, 175-pound Overn played center field for the Trojans and possesses elite speed. He led the team with 17 stolen bases last season, and his 19 triples are second most in USC history. The left-handed hitter posted a .270/.349/.461 slash line and added eight home runs in 2024 before starring in the Cape Cod League, which helped him get a last-minute boost on public draft boards.
“We liked him all year,” Blood said Monday. “He was a target of ours coming into this draft season. I know his head coach very well. So, I’ve sort of been on him for a while and seeing him perform in the Cape this summer has just made it even more of a — similar to the Draft League — just more comfort in being able to get him where we were able to select him. So, yeah, I would say that the Cape helped but this was not a player that we were not on before the Cape and we were very much in on him at the very beginning.”
4th round, 127 overall: RHP Chase Allsup, Auburn
Baseball America: 241 | MLB Pipeline: NR | ESPN: NR
The first pitcher to land with the Orioles in this year’s draft is Allsup, an imposing right-hander listed at 6-2, 235 pounds with a fastball that hits triple digits. He posted a 5.11 ERA and 1.525 WHIP across three seasons with Auburn, struggling with his control but showing swing-and-miss potential with 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
Allsup, 21, has a four-pitch mix and has the build to stick as a starter if he can harness his control long term. Should the Orioles help him with his location, Allsup has tremendous upside with a slider, changeup and curveball helping him against both right- and left-handed hitters.
“Big, strong guy from Auburn who throws hard,” Blood said of Allsup. “Has above-average stuff. He’s the guy who our group sort of identified as maybe an under-valued player in the industry, a player that we felt like we could work with. We sort of all along targeted him in this range, and we were happy to see he was still available and he was the top guy on our board at that time, so we grabbed him.”
5th round, 160 overall: C Ryan Stafford, Cal Poly
Baseball America: 202 | MLB Pipeline: 175 | ESPN: 209
The Orioles took their second catcher in the first five rounds with Stafford, a 5-10, 180-pound junior who started 172 games over his three-year college career.
Stafford hit .368, slugged .568 and threw out just over 33% of attempted base stealers last season en route to being named second-team All-Big West for the second consecutive year. A lack of size might prevent him from sticking at catcher or hitting for power as a professional, but his contact skills and proven durability are a plus.
6th round, 189 overall: SS DJ Layton, Charlotte Christian HS (NC)
Baltimore dipped into the high school player pool for the first time this year in the sixth round, taking Southern Mississippi commit DJ Layton. Last year, the Orioles didn’t take a single prep player until the 15th round and none of the three high schoolers they drafted signed with the club.
They’ll hope Layton is a different case, and precedent supports it: Only one high school player drafted with a Day 2 pick last year didn’t end up signing. Layton participated in the Future Stars Showdown as part of the All-Star Game festivities in Arlington, Texas, this week and showed solid contact skills with the ability to hit the ball to all fields. He also pitched an inning on the mound, though his future with the Orioles is almost certainly as a position player.
“DJ is a young, very athletic, switch-hitting shortstop from Charlotte, North Carolina,” Blood said. “He’s a great kid with a lot of tools, and we feel like there’s upside to his game when it comes to coming into our organization and helping him get stronger and helping him offensively, while continuing to build his defensive skill set.
“So, where we got him, we felt like this was a really good bet for us, and I’ll give credit to our scouting department and the people who put a lot of work in on this kid, to get to know him and his family and the coaches at his high school. The whole room was ecstatic when we were able to get him in that round.”
7th round, 219 overall: LHP Carson Dorsey, Florida State
Baseball America: NR | MLB Pipeline: NR | ESPN: 167
Dorsey is just the second pitcher the Orioles have taken through eight selections. In the left-hander’s only season with Florida State after transferring from Gulf Coast State Community College, he made 11 starts and 11 appearances out of the bullpen with a 4.71 ERA in 72 2/3 innings.
Dorsey, who was also drafted in 2022 but did not sign, and the Seminoles reached the College World Series this season, and he was a big reason. He allowed one run over 8 2/3 innings in a win in Florida State’s regional, then went seven innings and allowed just three runs in an elimination-game victory over Virginia. He touts a four-pitch mix, led by a fastball that reaches 94 mph.
8th round, 249 overall: C Colin Tuft, Tulane
Tuft transferred to Tulane last summer after two years at Virginia and dominated the American Athletic Conference, slashing .279/.437/.509 with 12 home runs and 13 stolen bases. The 21-year-old was buried on the Cavaliers’ depth chart behind Orioles second-round pick Ethan Anderson but appeared in 60 of his 62 games at catcher with the Green Wave in 2024.
Listed at 6-3, 206 pounds, Tuft has the frame to stay at catcher but does have experience in the outfield as well. He’s the rare catcher who spent most of his time hitting leadoff thanks to his agility, strong plate discipline and speed on the base paths.
“Definitely not a particular focus, just happened to be the players we really liked in those spots,” Blood said of drafting three catchers in the first eight rounds. “They were the ones at the top of our board each time, and we were happy to get them.”
9th round, 279 overall: RHP Jack Crowder, Illinois
Crowder, the third pitcher chosen by the Orioles, posted a 4.88 ERA with 80 strikeouts in 16 starts and 90 1/3 innings last season, all career bests. He ranked in the top 10 in the Big Ten in WHIP, strikeouts and opponent batting average.
The right-hander has three pitches: a fastball that averages 93 mph and tops out at 95, a low-80s slider and a mid-80s changeup. He pitched a career-high eight innings and allowed just one earned run on five strikeouts and three hits in Illinois’ lone postseason victory last season.
10th round, 309 overall: RHP Christian Rodriguez, Cal State Fullerton
After three years at Cal State Fullerton, Rodriguez pitched for the Frederick Keys in the 2024 MLB Draft League and posted a 3.92 ERA and 1.385 WHIP with 45 strikeouts and 12 walks in 39 innings. He dealt with injuries throughout his college career but has an imposing stature at 6-6, 223 pounds.
Rodriguez entered the transfer portal after the 2024 season and announced his intention to head to Hawaii in June. The Orioles will look to change his plans eastward and sign with the ballclub to forego his final two years of NCAA eligibility. His selection comes with a slot value of $179,200.
“He has performed well there and we recognized that and it gave us more confidence to select him where we did,” Blood said of Rodriguez’s performance with Frederick. “So, I would say that for some players, going into the Draft League and playing well helps their visibility, helps teams collect more reliable data and ultimately be more comfortable with selections.”
11th round, 339 overall
12th round, 369 overall
13th round, 399 overall
14th round, 429 overall
15th round, 459 overall
16th round, 489 overall
17th round, 519 overall
18th round, 549 overall
19th round, 579 overall
20th round, 609 overall
This story will be updated.