The 2018 season for the Baltimore Orioles was one many baseball fans would like to forget.
It was the ending of an era, one that saw manager Buck Showalter and GM Dan Duquette bring winning and competitive baseball back to Charm City. Unfortunately, the last ride would end in a disappointing 47-115 record, the worst record that season by 11 games.
During the season, stalwarts Manny Machado, Zack Britton, Jonathan Schoop, Darren O’Day and Brad Brach were traded away for a plethora of prospects, signifying that the end of this run was here and 2019 would usher in a new era, team, coaches and front office.
The Orioles easily secured the first overall pick in the 2019 draft and were ready to launch a full-scale rebuild that would see three full seasons with 100 or more losses (2020 was the 60-game COVID season). During those seasons, the O’s would have the No. 1 overall pick twice (2019 & 2022) and the No. 2 overall pick (2020) in between. In 2021, the Birds would select at the five spot, securing a four-year run of top five picks.
The Orioles hired draft guru Mike Elias to be the new executive vice president and GM in November of 2018, the start of one of the biggest rebuilds in the franchises history. What many didn’t know is that it was also the last rebuild earmarked by top draft picks for a team announcing that it was going to lose and lose a lot over the next few years.
Over those four drafts, the Orioles secured Adley Rutschman (2019), Heston Kjerstad (2020), Colton Cowser (2021) and Gunnar Henderson (2019). Rutschman kicked off the rebuild and a consecutive streak of No. 1 overall prospects that the league may never see again.
Starting with the 2022 draft, a lottery was implemented to try and help keep teams away from tanking to gain top picks. Not to say that you won’t gain a top pick with losing, but being guaranteed the top pick in the draft is no longer associated with having the worst overall record.
The Orioles were the last team that secured the top overall pick by having the most losses in the league.
Now, to say a team still can not build through the draft would be false. In fact, Elias has proven, from his time with the Houston Astros and the Baltimore Orioles, that many gems are meant to be found throughout the draft.
The Orioles found current star Gunnar Henderson, who was drafted No. 42 overall, outside of the first round. Names like Jordan Westburg (No. 30 overall), Joey Ortiz (No. 108 pick) and Coby Mayo (No. 103 overall) all have become top 100 prospects, with Henderson being a former No. 1 overall prospect (2022).
Again, the idea of the lottery was to help stop teams from tanking to secure top talent. It’s a system that has been implemented in the NBA and NHL and, for the most part, has helped to steer teams away from fielding lower-end talent to comprise a team.
This is not a sure fire system, as the team with the worst record is assured more opportunities to win the top selection, but as the 2024 draft lottery proved, even the slimiest of chances means a team can come out on top.
The Cleveland Guardians had just a two percent chance of securing the top pick and defied the odds by winning the lottery for the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2024, the organization’s first top pick in franchise history.
While the Orioles developed the top farm system in baseball three years and running through losing and low-tier free agents, the days of guarantees are over. Just think. The O’s maybe wouldn’t have been able to select the likes of Rutschman and Holliday if the draft lottery had been implemented just a few years earlier.
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