Could the Orioles' 2021 draft class already be better than anyone thought? Their hitting coach breaks down the progress.
It's early still, but the group of college hitters at Aberdeen that represent the top players in the Orioles' 2021 draft class are showing signs of growth that bode well for their futures.
It’s barely a month into the minor league season, and Aberdeen hitting coach Zach Cole is encountering one of those good problems, the kind that exemplifies what type hitters and personalities the Orioles sought and drafted in what could be a seminal 2021 draft class.
“I have guys that will come in that are like, ‘Hey, let’s have a meeting. How do I get better?’” Cole told me last week. All he can tell them is they’re doing a pretty good job, and before long, it will look even better. The same can be said of their entire group.
That draft class, led at the top by fifth overall pick Colton Cowser, burst onto the professional landscape in 2021 as a group that climbed from the Florida Complex League to Delmarva together and showed the kind of bat-to-ball ability and pitch selection that collectively defined the Orioles’ draft philosophy. They are a relentless bunch, with tough at-bat after tough at-bat, and have shown over their professional career that no late lead is too large to overcome.
Ten of the 21 players selected were hitters from four-year colleges, and as a group in 2021, those 10 batters had a .780 OPS with 17 home runs, a 13.7% walk rate and a 21.7% strikeout rate in 1,086 total plate appearances.
There hasn’t been any let-up this year. The 2021 draft class has an .826 OPS with nine home runs, an identical 13.7 percent walk rate, and an elevated 26.2% strikeout rate in 461 plate appearances this year, with leaps forward from Connor Norby, John Rhodes, and Donta’ Williams all promising at this early stage.
Separate those top four picks out, even without factoring in the injured competitive balance round pick Reed Trimble, and the quartet of Cowser/Norby/Rhodes/Williams has an OPS of .884 in 2022 — over 100 points better than they had a as a group last year.
That progress, plus the continued belief in Cowser atop the draft despite uncharacteristically high strikeout rates, have some within the organization wondering whether the class might even be better than they thought a year ago.
Cole sees a path to that being the case.
“The guys are really buying into everything we do,” he said. “They’re using all their resources from coaches, whatever it is that we have in-house, and they’re all-in on everything, and they’re just ready to attack it and improve themselves. This group is an absolute workhorse.”
In our conversation last week, Cole, who worked with the group last year in Florida before getting this full-season assignment, broke down the early-season performances of the four top picks at Aberdeen, hitting on what they’re trying to accomplish this season and how those development goals are playing out early in the season.