BALTIMORE \u2014 The Baltimore Orioles have added four new prospects to their minor league farm system.<\/p>\n
On Saturday Major League Baseball began its 2026 First-Year Player Draft.<\/p>\n
With the seventh overall pick, the Birds selected center fielder Eric Booth Jr. out of Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.<\/p>\n
The O’s took another center fielder in round two, choosing Ty Head from North Carolina State.<\/p>\n
In round three the club selected right-handed pitcher Dominic Voegele from the University of Kansas.<\/p>\n
Despite already drafting a pair of center fielders in Booth and Head during the first three rounds, Baltimore went to the well a third time with Kevin Roberts Jr. out of Jackson Prep School in Flowood, Mississippi.<\/p>\n
Booth, 18, finished his senior year in high school going 37 for 77 at the plate with a .481 batting average. <\/p>\n
Throughout his four-year prep career, Booth batted .441 at the dish.<\/p>\n
While only hitting five home runs in his final high school season, Booth won a Home Run Derby competition held in San Diego’s Petco Park last year. He also ran the quickest 60-yard dash (6.33 seconds) at the East Coast Pro showcase last summer.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old Head, meanwhile, showed some pop by blasting 14 home runs in college, but batted just .291 at the plate, while displaying some speed with 26 stolen bases.<\/p>\n
Selected 46th overall, Head was picked ahead of where most experts slotted him to go.<\/p>\n
Head was rated the number 53 amateur prospect by Baseball America, while MLB Pipeline listed him 60th entering the draft.<\/p>\n
The Orioles again appeared to reach in their selection of Voegele, a 21-year-old who posted a robust 5.85 ERA during his junior year in college.<\/p>\n
Scouts seemed to be encouraged by Voegele’s strikeout potential as he fanned 120 batters in 97 innings.<\/p>\n
Prior to Saturday’s draft Voegele was ranked 195 in Baseball America’s amateur rankings, and 205 by MLB Pipeline. The Orioles felt he was worth og the number 82 pick.<\/p>\n
Rounding out day one of the draft, the franchise dipped back into the Mississippi high school pool picking Roberts Jr.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old slashed .396 at the plate with 10 long balls during his senior year.<\/p>\n
Although unable to pitch last season due to injury, Roberts is considered a two-way standout due to his 9-1 record and 3.05 ERA on the mound.<\/p>\n
Each player still needs to sign before officially becoming a member of the Orioles.<\/p>\n
The Draft concludes throughout Sunday with rounds 5-20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE \u2014 The Baltimore Orioles have added four new prospects to their minor league farm system. On Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[92978,92979,143,47,2538,5,92980,47579,92977,4,89046,23849,125,1909],"class_list":["post-749958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-baseballamerica","tag-ncstate","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-america-2026-draft","tag-birdland","tag-dominic-voegele-mlb-pipeline","tag-mlb","tag-mlbdraft","tag-opacy","tag-orioles","tag-warriors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116908338936591211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}