The Orioles' flurry of high pitcher draft picks are a natural progression of the holistic pitching program they've built largely without them

Without, as Mike Elias said, "a big sexy group of pitching prospects," the Orioles have built a draft-and-development machine they believe can produce big leaguers all the same.

The Orioles broke form to begin Monday’s second day of the MLB draft in taking pitcher Logan McLean in the third round, the highest pick used by the organization on a pitcher since Mike Elias took over ahead of the 2019 season. And that was just the beginning.

With five pitchers taken in the first 10 rounds, the Orioles topped their total from the first ten rounds of the last three drafts combined. Even without using high picks, though, the Orioles’ still honed and developed a process for scouting, evaluating, and ultimately developing pitchers that informed Monday’s mound restock.

The preceding few years didn’t, as Elias put it, allow them to “come away with a big, sexy group of pitching prospects.” They probably won’t leave this draft with one either.

But they have raised the stakes in using five second-day picks on a process that involves stakeholders from all over the organization to help identify the kinds of pitchers the Orioles under director of pitching Chris Holt believe they can develop into big leaguers, and now that process is starting to warrant some attention.