The Orioles and fourth-rounder Coby Mayo have agreed to a deal, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Mayo – the 103rd pick – will earn a bonus worth $1.75MM, which is well above the $565,600 recommended value of his selection. Notably, the Orioles lead the majors with a $13,894,300 bonus pool.
A high school third baseman from Coral Springs, Fla., Mayo had committed to the University of Florida before signing with the Orioles. Mayo didn’t wind up in the top 100 of Keith Law of The Athletic or MLB.com prior to the draft, but FanGraphs (No. 67) and Baseball America (No. 79) are more bullish on the 18-year-old. FanGraphs notes Mayo has “surprising bat control for size,” while BA credits him for his “raw power,” “solid zone recognition and a mature approach at the plate.” There are some questions as to whether the 6-foot-5, 215-pounder will stick as an infielder in pro ball, but the Orioles do view him as “strictly” a third baseman, Joe Trezza of MLB.com tweets.
With Mayo under wraps, the Orioles still have five other picks to sign, including second selection Heston Kjerstad and 30th choice Jordan Westburg.
The O’s appear to have saved their draft with their over slots in the 4th and 5th. I was getting worried prior to those picks. I still would’ve liked to have snagged Fulton, Kelley, or another SP in the 2nd.
It was a strange Draft for them. Elias clearly has a Plan.
I will give him the benefit-of-the-doubt…
It was very strange that they only took one pitcher and that was the last pick of the night.. They must have some Pitching talent lined-up w Koby Perez in the International Market.
If I remember correctly last year he drafted mostly pitchers. I’m fine with him brining in position players.
Orioles didn’t draft a pitcher in the first 10 rounds last year, I believe. He only got 6 picks this year. The system’s strength is the pitching anyway. It would’ve been nice to grab another top arm but I suppose Elias was more keen on this strategy. It’ll take quite a few years to really know if it was a good one.
The orioles have a slew of potential back end starters in the minors. He traded Bundy for 4 arms as well. So I suppose he felt okay not selecting any.
The opposite, actually. The O’s didn’t take a pitcher until the 8th round and took 19 pitchers vs 22 position players. The year before in 2018 they took eight pitchers in the first ten rounds.
Hey haven’t seen you on Roch in awhile but could have missed it, take care
Even if they have international pitchers lined up, those guys are 5-6 years away from helping the big league, if they do. College pitchers are 2-3 years.
The orioles have a number of near MLB ready backend type arms. If they weren’t looking at front of the rotation types—it makes perfect sense that they passed all together.
Passing on Kelley was a surprise to me. At least it looks like they have a plan, something this organization seems to always lack.
Take Martin and don’t worry about over slots later. Poor strategy. None of those guys will turn out better than Martin in all likelihood.
This ladies and gentlemen, is what uninformed ignorance looks like.
no, it’s what the truth looks like.
Lol
If you’re so smart, how come you’re a commenter on MLBTR and not a baseball executive? I’ll trust Mike Elias over you 100% of the time.
Hi Master Chef….why so snarky this morning??
Unlike you, I didn’t say anything nasty.. In fact, why don’t you GFY….
Mayo might be the steal of the draft. I was surprised he wasn’t selected before the fourth. Triple-digit exit velocity (102), enormous power, plate discipline, a strong arm (97), speed for his size, and solid defense to boot. He’s a multi-tooled player and most of the tools are loud.
Baltimore did great getting this guy in the fourth. Be excited if you’re an Orioles fan.
I think it was the signability that scared teams off. I like the pickup.
I think signability was the culprit, but some teams had the room. Seattle, for example, likely could have snagged him in the third. They ended up with zero prep players and won’t likely use all of their slot money to sign the players they ended up with.
Baltimore scouting and management deserves a lot of credit. They stole this draft, in my opinion. Kjerstad was one of the best bats available, though he wasn’t getting much attention. Baumler and Servideo were solid selections as well.
I think the chair is a fine idea, but I don’t know who’s this joe mayo is. And frankly it sounds made up!
Oh great so now I have to buy the chair all by myself!
Cocktail off the speaker!!
Not being as high on Martin as the rest of Western Civilization, I wasn’t at all surprised Elias opted for Kjerstad. 10 years from now, he’ll probably have as much impact value as Martin, and he was a lot cheaper. It looks like Elias played this lottery pretty well.
He’s leading a decent rebuild effort. Ya, he could be more aggresive, but he’s got both the MASN mess and absurd defered contracts to deal with.
On first glance, you gotta love what the Cards (big surprise) and Indians did the past couple of days. The D-backs, as always, were sneakily good….the Yanks did pretty well too.
Isn’t Davis the only deferred contract?
No Cobb has deferred money as well but a total of $5.3 million per year for both for a few years starting in 2023 isn’t a game changer.
I’m not as enamored by Martin either. Dansby Swanson comp doesn’t get the juices flowing. I actually wanted Lacy.
Some people have compared Kjerstad’s short season breakout to JJ Bleday’s. I like this pick especially since it helped us nab 2 over slots
Thanks, Orioles! We do appreciate the penny-pinching and will annoy you with Austin Martin for years to come!
We like the effort 14yearoldbaseballfanatic. And while the Orioles have been cheap lately, they used a draft strategy by taking guys who are cheaper at the top in order to get better guys in the later rounds. Its an often used strategy. Doesnt make them cheap in this regard
Enjoy Ryan Flaherty 2.0 with Martin
He’s better than that.
Martin is probably as far from Flaherty then you can get as a fellow infielder.
I seem to recall another can’t miss Vanderbilt IF named Dansby Swanson, yeah, he’s been torturing the NL East out of the 8 hole for quite a while.
I can’t imagine being able to find 8 hole SS anywhere else.
Also Pedro Alvarez lol
One pick doesn’t change a franchise. Six might though.
dont tell the Adley or Torkelson superfans that
Assuming players get signed. I consider the winners of the Draft to be: 1: White Sox. 2: Cardinals. 3: Blue Jays. I saw a lot of Oriole games last year and their biggest problem is pitching. Except for Means, Cobb and Givens there is not a major leaguer caliber arm on the staff.
Blue Jays #1 easily.
White Sox May end up with two starting pitchers.
And the strength of their rebuilt farm system is … pitching. Which is why Elias is leaning hitter heavy now,.
The Orioles do have some decent prospects in the minors. Mostly AA and below. Players that just got drafted aren’t going to be in the majors for 3-5 years, so drafting pitchers isn’t going to help the Orioles in the short run
Asa Lacy probably could have been ready ASAP (no pun intended)
Teams often go into a draft with a focus, but they rarely, if ever, draft for need with their first couple of picks. Virtually nobody in this draft is likely going to step onto a MLB team and immediately start producing, with Meyer possibly being the exception.
That said, Baltimore’s pitching needs may already have some answers on their farm. Rodriguez and Hall are excellent prospects. Lowther and Baumann are promising as well.
They didn’t need to worry about focusing on anything other than going after the best players available and they appear to have done just that.
I’m not even an Orioles fan, but I really admire what they did.
The problem for Baltimore is they are further behind Tampa Bay, Toronto and the Yankees then when the season ended last year. I understand sometimes you take a step back, but look what those teams have done since the season ended. Toronto’s Draft, Tampa has the Number One Prospect and the Yankees have Cole ( not to mention the Number five rated Farm System)
that’s why im skeptical about Baltimore going forward. they still have a lot of work to do and as you said, you’ve got at least 3 teams that figure to already be in contention when Baltimore would want to be back to doing so, and I wouldnt count the Sox out either after they clear the books a bit.
With their park, I’d draft bats too and buy/trade for established ground ball pitchers. Hitters stock in Camden will be higher than a pitchers stock.