Evaluating the Orioles 2019 top prospect list, aka on the therapy couch over Yusniel Diaz

Nine prospects from the Orioles' teardown trades went right onto their top prospect list. The extent that was right is ripe for reflection.

In the summer of 2018, the Orioles traded Manny Machado, Kevin Gausman, Darren O’Day, Zack Britton, and Jonathan Schoop for a haul of prospects that jolted what was one of the game’s worst farm systems.

It has not proven to have as much long-term benefit as anyone would have hoped, and that makes looking back at the Baseball America prospect list I put together that fall all the more frustrating to look at.

With Yusniel Diaz ranked No. 1, there’s obviously a large shadow over the entire thing. There’s not a lot to like about the entire top-30, if we’re being honest, but it’s not clear that adding the new players in prominent positions up and down the list was actually wrong considering the lack of alternatives. 

This was quite a time for the Orioles, what with the front office and coaching turnover and all the hard work that came after it. But in the fall of 2018, this is what it looked like, for better or worse.