Not one, but two pitchers. Mike Elias is trying out something new in this 2025 Draft.
The Orioles continued on through the first day of the 2025 MLB Draft by making their second round, CB round B, and third round picks. Across those selections, the O’s ended up with these players:
- Joseph Dzierwa, a left-handed pitcher from Michigan State
- JT Quinn, a right-handed pitcher from Georgia
- RJ Austin, an outfielder from Vanderbilt
Dzierwa has become the highest-drafted pitcher of the Mike Elias tenure as Orioles general manager. They’ve never used a second round or earlier pick on a pitcher until now. Dzierwa is listed at a massive 6’8”. The MLB Network quickly described him as “a weird, strike-throwing lefty” – weird being a reference to his arm slot and the fact that he succeeds without high velocity; according to Baseball America, he maxed out at 95.
The Draft telecast speculated that the Orioles may have a plan to bump the velocity, noting that the O’s did pass on several pitchers with immediately better stuff.
MLB Pipeline, which rated Dzierwa as the #74 player in the class:
Dzierwa’s size and arm angle help him hide the ball well and create deception without compromising his ability to throw strikes … he can pinpoint his entire arsenal wherever he wants, pounding the strike zone and also working the edges well. He offers a high floor as a near-certain starter and could fit in the middle of a rotation if he can find a reliable breaking pitch.
Across 15 starts in his junior season for the Spartans, Dzierwa struck out 104 batters in 91.2 innings while walking 22 batters. He only allowed four home runs. As ever, pro competition will be tougher, and it will get tougher every level he climbs up the ladder, but this is an interesting profile, with better results as a college pitcher than Jackson Baumeister, the previous highest Elias-drafted pitcher.
Quinn, selected with the competitive balance round B pick, makes it two pitchers in a row for the Orioles, with high round picks. It can be done! There were higher-rated pitchers available, including LSU’s Anthony Eyanson, and an Illinois high school pitcher named Jack Bauer, who is named after Kiefer Sutherland’s character from 24. Rankings like MLB Pipeline and BA had him more in the third- or fourth-round, though as the analysts will tell you, it’s harder to separate players the farther down you get.
The first two years of Quinn’s college career were at the University of Mississippi, where he had massive command problems. Transferring to Georgia for his junior year, he did much better, tossing 36 innings between relief and rotation roles. He struck out 49 batters while walking 16, and also went off to play some games in the Cape Cod League, striking out 25 batters in 14 innings.
Baseball America on Quinn:
The 6-foot-6, 210-pound righthander has long intrigued scouts with his size, arm strength and unique operation on the mound. He throws from an over-the-top slot with funk in his delivery, which adds natural deception that helps his power stuff play up … Command and control remain questions—he’s an erratic strike-thrower whose stuff can outpace his feel—but the velocity, breaking ball quality and unusual angle give him intriguing upside.
With Dzierwa’s delivery getting highlighted as weird and this scouting capsule noting a “unique operation” for Quinn, it does seem like the Orioles, in finally using a couple of high picks at once on pitchers, have decided to go with tall guys whose pitching doesn’t look like everybody else’s but have found success with that so far. I’m glad to see them try something different. One can guess this may be a slight underslot signing to round up a few hundred thousand bucks for one of the earlier picks, either Ike Irish or Wehiwa Aloy.
Austin is a three-year player for Vanderbilt, one of the premium college programs in recent years. He heads into the pro ranks after a junior season where he batted .257/.353/.383 over 59 games. This is not a player who has as much readily-apparent offensive upside as players taken by the Orioles earlier in the Draft, which is about what you’d expect by the time you get around to the third round or later.
At FanGraphs, where Austin wasn’t a rated prospect but was notable enough to get a scouting report, they wrote:
Super quick hands, can manipulate the barrel while putting all of his undersized body into his swing. Posted a 90% in-zone contact rate and a 105 mph EV90 the last two years, both a standard deviation better than the college average. Has played all over the field in college but was mostly in center in 2025, where he looked fine. … Speedy utility type.
The EV90 reference is a player’s 90th percentile exit velocity. This is not the first player the Orioles have drafted this year who is getting praise for his contact. It might not work out any better than last year’s first round pick of Vance Honeycutt, but it’s certainly something different.
The slot values for these picks are:
- #58 overall – $1,598,100
- #69 overall – $1,223,800
- #93 overall – $826,400
This concludes Day 1 of the Draft for the Orioles. Rounds 4-20 will take place starting at 11:30am Eastern on Monday.