Orioles’ Farm System Ranks No. 1 Again Entering 2024
Image credit: Jackson Holliday (Mike Janes/Four Seam Images)
The Baltimore Orioles have the top farm system in baseball right now. We are as confident as we can be in that ranking.
Even releasing this list less than 12 hours after the Orioles traded away multiple highly-regarded prospects to acquire Corbin Burnes, the Orioles’ remain clearly the top farm system in baseball.
2024 Talent Rankings
We rank every farm system in baseball entering the season.
Feel free to file this away, or print it out and bury it in a time capsule. We’ll see if we are correct 30 years from now. But there are few times in the 20+ years I’ve been involved in Baseball America’s organizational talent rankings where we’ve had a team that was so clearly viewed as the best farm system in baseball.
We had no significant debate over whether the Orioles were No. 1. It was unanimous among the staff. In our conversations with front office officials and scouts, there was widespread agreement.
This is the second consecutive year that the Orioles have ranked No. 1 in our organization talent rankings. It’s the third consecutive year that the Orioles have had Baseball America’s No. 1 prospect. Baltimore has built a farm system that is churning out top prospect after top prospect.
Baltimore came into last year with Gunnar Henderson as the No. 1 prospect in the game and the favorite to be the AL rookie of the year, while Jackson Holliday was getting ready to play his first full season. A year later, Henderson’s the reigning American League rookie of the year, Holliday is the No. 1 prospect in baseball and a favorite to be the 2024 AL rookie of the year, and Samuel Basallo is now sitting higher on the list than Holliday was coming into last year.
| 2023 Top 100 Orioles | 2024 Top 100 Orioles | ||
| Rk | Player, Pos. | Rk | Player, Pos. |
| 1 | Gunnar Henderson, SS | 1 | Jackson Holliday, SS |
| 6 | Grayson Rodriguez, RHP | 10 | Samuel Basallo, C |
| 15 | Jackson Holliday, SS | 25 | Coby Mayo, 3B |
| 41 | Colton Cowswer, OF | 34 | Colton Cowser, OF |
| 75 | DL Hall, LJHP | 41 | Heston Kjerstad, OF |
| 76 | Jordan Westburg, SS/3B | ||
| 93 | Connor Norby, 2B | ||
| 95 | Joey Ortiz, SS | ||
Henderson, Grayson Rodriguez and Jordan Westburg graduated in 2023, but the Orioles have seen Basallo leap from off of the 2023 Top 100 to No. 10 this year and Coby Mayo went from unranked to No. 25. Colton Cowser moved up slightly and a healthy Heston Kjerstad now ranks No. 41.
Is the Orioles’ farm system better now compared to a year ago? After trading DL Hall (No. 93 on the Top 100) and Joey Ortiz, probably not. Last year, the Orioles placed eight players on the Top 100 Prospects list. This year the team has to settle for five players on the Top 100. But all five rank in the top 50. Last year, the Orioles had four players in the Top 50 and four in the 75-100 range.
Baseball America has ranked organization’s talent since 1984. From 1984-2021, the Orioles had never cracked the top five. Now they’ve been fourth, first and first in the past three years.
If the Orioles are first, the rankings behind them are much more complicated and difficult to sort out. Well, at least they were until the Burnes trade.
We already had the Brewers’ ranked second in our organization talent rankings before the trade, but the deal makes that ranking even firmer. If the Orioles stand off by themselves in the talent rankings, the Brewers are the top of a very compact group battling for that second spot. But the acquisition of a sixth Top 100 Prospect for the Brewers on a farm system led by Jackson Chourio provided a little more separation from the rest of the top five.
When we produce our talent rankings, we use a blend of prospect valuation formulas to set up an initial ranking, and then we as a staff gather to use a human touch to try to best fix any issues where our views of how the teams line up disagrees with the valuations.
Our valuations weigh heavily toward rewarding teams with elite prospects. Depth is useful, but teams win by producing stars, which are much harder to find and develop than a player who can be a useful regular or role player for a few years.
That’s driven who we’ve ranked No. 1 in recent years, and we feel like the logic holds up well.
Here’s a look at who was Baseball America’s No. 1 farm system in each of the past 10 years.
| Year | No. 1 Farm System | Elite Prospects Who Have Made MLB Impacts |
| 2023 | Orioles | Gunnar Henderson, Grayson Rodriguez |
| 2022 | Mariners | Julio Rodriguez, George Kirby |
| 2021 | Rays | Wander Franco, Randy Arozarena, Shane McClanahan |
| 2020 | Rays | Wander Franco, Shane McClanahan |
| 2019 | Padres | Fernando Tatis Jr., MacKenzie Gore, Chris Paddack |
| 2018 | Braves | Ronald Acuna, Austin Riley, Max Fried |
| 2017 | Braves | Dansby Swanson, Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuna, Max Fried |
| 2016 | Dodgers | Corey Seager, Julio Urias, Cody Bellinger |
| 2015 | Cubs | Kris Bryant, Jorge Soler, Kyle Schwarber, Gleyber Torres |
| 2014 | Pirates | Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon, Josh Bell |
The Orioles this year have star talent at the top of their system, but also excellent depth. Baltimore is one of two teams with two top 10 prospects (along with the Rangers), but the Rangers’ next best prospect would rank sixth on the Orioles list, and the Rangers’ fourth best prospect would struggle to crack the Orioles’ Top 10. Texas still ranks third because it’s incredibly valuable to have potential stars, and Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford both fit that description.
The Brewers sit firmly at No. 2 on our list. But there are also cases that can be made for the Rangers, Cubs and Tigers. There’s a lot of solid and impressive farm systems battling for the second spot.
But when it comes to who’s No. 1, there was little doubt.
