Orioles target college hitters, including two Virginia products, on Day 1 of MLB draft

The Orioles have a type, and they landed three of them on the first day of the MLB draft.

Baltimore loaded up on college hitters in the first and second rounds Sunday, along with their prospect promotion incentive selection that occurred between the rounds.

After taking North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt with the 22nd pick of the draft, the Orioles doubled up on Virginia players: shortstop Griff O’Ferrall and catcher Ethan Anderson. The pair of Cavaliers both played huge roles in Virginia’s 2024 season.

Baltimore selected O’Ferrall with the No. 32 pick, which they received because shortstop Gunnar Henderson won the American League Rookie of the Year award. Anderson was taken at No. 61 in the second round.

“We’re extremely excited about this group,” said Matt Blood, the Orioles’ vice president of player development and domestic scouting. “We’ve got three guys that are quality baseball players with a lot of skills and also incredible makeup. All three of these guys are players that their coaches rave about on and off the field. And so not only did we get some high-level baseball players, but we also got some really good people.”

Honeycutt headlines the class, and for good reason. He combines speed, power and stellar defense in the outfield. Honeycutt hit 28 homers and stole 28 bases in 2024, and he’s a two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year.

But Baltimore’s next two picks, O’Ferrall and Anderson, are as intriguing.

O’Ferrall’s power doesn’t jump off the page. He hit five homers during his junior year at Virginia with 20 doubles, but he plays shortstop at a high level, starting every game at that position all three years at Virginia. O’Ferrall earned a Rawlings Gold Glove Award this year for his work at shortstop.

The 21-year-old makes up for a lack of power with plate discipline and bat-to-ball skills. He set Virginia’s single-season hit record as a sophomore with 108, and no Cavaliers player recorded more career hits in a three-year span than O’Ferrall’s 270. And, after posting a .324 average in 2024, he earned the Brooks Wallace Award, given to the country’s top shortstop by the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

“He’s a gamer,” Blood said. “He’s a really good baseball player. He can impact the game defensively, on the basepaths 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 gonna love, and I think that’s what you see when you see him play.”

Part of what stands out about O’Ferrall is that he walked 22 times and struck out just 24 times in 284 at-bats. He also joins Washington Nationals stalwart Ryan Zimmerman as the only Virginia players to record more than 90 hits in two seasons.

Anderson can play catcher and first base, and he was one of three Virginia players to start all 63 games this season. He hit .331 with 20 doubles and eight homers. The switch hitter earned first-team All-ACC honors, and he was one of 16 finalists for the Buster Posey Award, given to the best college catcher in the nation.

But Anderson only played 24 of his 63 games at catcher, which Blood said was less than “he probably would’ve liked.” Blood said the Orioles will help “him develop into that role with us” as they aim to focus his development as a catcher rather than first baseman.

“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 prospect promotion incentive program — which enabled Baltimore to receive another high draft pick — was put into place as part of the collective bargaining agreement signed between Major League Baseball and the players union in 2022. Its first use was this year, with the Arizona Diamondbacks taking outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt from Kentucky with the No. 31 pick before the Orioles turned Henderson’s monster rookie year into another middle infield prospect.

The Orioles still have two more days of draft picks ahead. When asked whether the Orioles would target pitching, Blood said Baltimore is “looking for the best player available at each pick and sometimes that’s gonna be a position player, sometimes it’s gonna be pitchers.”

For now, the best players the Orioles deemed available were college hitters, so they took three on day one.