The Orioles’ farm system isn’t what it used to be, and that was always the plan. Baltimore boasted baseball’s best collection of minor league talent for three straight seasons from 2022 to 2024, including the sport’s No. 1 prospect each year from Adley Rutschman to Gunnar Henderson to Jackson Holliday. Entering this season, the Orioles have fallen precipitously in prospect rankings — down to 17th of 30 MLB teams, according to Baseball America — after promoting and trading several top prospects last year. Still, the system has big names at the top and depth throughout, including a larger presence from Latin America thanks to the club’s efforts in the international market as well as high-strikeout pitchers as a result of the organization’s player development operation.

Ahead of the minor league season, which begins Friday when Triple-A Norfolk hosts the Durham Bulls, here’s a list of 10 Orioles prospects to watch this year. This is not a traditional list of the best prospects in the system, though the following players will be listed in the order of their rank by Baseball America. Instead, this list of prospects — only ones who have yet to make their MLB debuts — is a compilation of intriguing players worth keeping an eye on this season.

Catcher Samuel Basallo

Does this one even need an explanation?

Basallo is perhaps the best left-handed hitting prospect in baseball, and he’s proved it during spring training. Entering the 2023 season, Basallo wasn’t close to sniffing top 100 lists. Two years later, he’s near the top of all of them, ranked 14th on Baseball America’s and fifth by Fan Graphs.

How well Basallo, 20, plays at Triple-A Norfolk, a level at which he’s only appeared in 21 games, could determine when he arrives in Baltimore, whether that’s late in the 2025 season or early in 2026. Continuing to improve defensively — both behind the plate and at first base — will be key for Basallo, whose power bat is ahead of his glove.

OF Vance Honeycutt

The Orioles selected Honeycutt, who had perhaps the loudest tools of any player in the draft, 22nd overall last summer, and his first full season of professional baseball will be a pivotal litmus test for a player with significant questions about his profile.

Honeycutt, 21, dominated at North Carolina while showing off his plus speed, power and defense — totaling 65 homers and 76 stolen bases in three years. However, he struck out 26.2% of the time, a concerning rate that likely caused him to fall in the draft.

Honeycutt only played 13 games between Low-A Delmarva and High-A Aberdeen, so how he adjusts to minor league pitching will be worth tracking.

OF Enrique Bradfield Jr.

No prospect in the Orioles’ farm system has a wider range of opinions from public rankers than Bradfield. The 2023 first-round pick isn’t on MLB Pipeline, FanGraphs or Baseball America’s top 100 lists, but Baseball Prospectus, The Athletic and the ZiPS projection system all have him inside their rankings. In fact, he’s ranked as high on Baseball Prospectus’ top 100 (No. 46) as Coby Mayo, seen as a bona fide elite prospect, is on FanGraphs’ list (No. 45).

It’s not surprising to see this split given Bradfield’s profile, which through one lens is that of an elite prospect while through a different lens is that of a fifth outfielder. Bradfield might have the best combination of speed and defense in the entire minor leagues, but his bat — particularly his ability to create the type of contact needed to succeed in the major leagues — remains a question mark.

If he hits anything like he did in Double-A Bowie last year — slashing .287/.395/.396 with more walks than strikeouts — he’ll silence some of the concerns about his offensive profile.

OF Dylan Beavers

Beavers, the No. 33 overall draft pick in 2022, put up excellent numbers in 2023 — a .288 average and an .850 OPS — but he took a step back last season with a .241 average and a .756 OPS.

This spring, Beavers has looked closer to the promising prospect he was in 2023, showing off his controlled, compact swing and his line-drive bat path. He’ll open the year in Triple-A with an outside chance of reaching the big leagues. But how he performs in 2025 could determine whether the Orioles see him as part of their future in the outfield.

RHP Michael Forret

The Orioles have yet to take a pitcher in the first round of the draft during the Mike Elias era. They might not need to if they keep finding arms like Forret in the later rounds.

Forret, a 13th-round pick in 2023, made his professional debut last year and raised eyebrows with his stuff. Between Aberdeen and Delmarva, Forret posted a 3.88 ERA and a 28.8% strikeout rate.

RHP Nestor German

Two rounds before the Orioles drafted Forret, they selected German out of Seattle University. The 23-year-old posted sparkling numbers in the minors last year — a 1.59 ERA and 0.937 WHIP between Delmarva and Aberdeen — to zoom up to No. 11 in the Orioles’ organizational rankings, according to Baseball America.

While his 31.4% strikeout rate is impressive, pairing it with a stellar 5.9% walk rate is what makes German an intriguing arm to watch this season as continues to climb up the ladder.

RHP Trey Gibson

Despite Forret and German’s success, the best pitcher from the 2023 class might be someone the Orioles didn’t even draft. Baltimore signed Gibson, a 6-foot-5 righty, out of Liberty after he went undrafted.

Last year, Gibson impressed with his mid-to-high 90s mph fastball and plus slider, striking out 30.3% of batters with a 3.72 ERA between Delmarva and Aberdeen.

RHP Keeler Morfe

No pitcher in the Orioles’ farm system has a better fastball than Morfe, an 18-year-old the club signed out of Venezuela in January 2023. Baseball America grades his fastball, which averages high-90s and can reach 100 mph, as a 70 on the 20-to-80 scale. What makes that even more remarkable is that he’s generating that velocity with his listed height at 5 feet 8, though it’s possible he’s grown a couple of inches since that measurement.

Morfe pitched so well in the Dominican Summer League last year — 38 strikeouts in 22 innings with a 0.82 ERA — that he was promoted to Delmarva to end the season. Morfe is years away from the big leagues, but the stuff is as impressive as anyone on Baltimore’s farm.

OF Jordan Sanchez

The Orioles signed Sanchez out of Cuba in December 2023, and he dominated DSL competition last summer. While that’s partially due to being 18 years old — most first-year DSL players are 16 or 17 — the numbers are eye-popping nonetheless: .333 average, 1.037 OPS and 21 extra-base hits in 38 games.

Ranked No. 23 in the Orioles’ system, Sanchez will have an opportunity to prove himself in 2025 with Delmarva, where the 19-year-old could begin the season or end up after another stint in rookie ball.

RHP Edgar Portes

Portes is the lone player on this list who does not appear inside Baltimore’s organizational top 30 by Baseball America. The Orioles signed Portes out of the Dominican Republic in 2019 — the first international class after Elias and Koby Pérez, the club’s vice president of international scouting, took over — and his swing-and-miss stuff has led to success in the lower minors.

Last year, Portes posted a 3.34 ERA in 94 1/3 innings for Aberdeen while striking out 28.9% of batters, though he posted a poor 11.9% walk rate. His future could be as a reliever given his slider is his primary pitch, according to Baseball America, and he has questionable command.