The path from an airport ride in Missouri to the edge of pro baseball has not been a straight one for Orioles prospect Hamson, but it has been moving in one direction all the same.
When he first arrived in the United States for Three Rivers College, the trip felt like a mistake. The drive from the airport alone was enough to test his patience, and he told his father he planned to stay just six months before heading back home. His father pushed him to ride it out.
“We had like a two-hour drive from the airport,” said Hamson. “I called [my] dad on the way and said, ‘Hey, I’m here for six months and then I’m getting out of here.’
He said, ‘Oh, just stick it out. You’ll be all right.’
And I’ve been all right. But it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows.”
Hamson had come from Australia, where baseball is still a niche sport in a country dominated by rugby and cricket, even as the national team’s success at the World Baseball Classic in 2023 and ‘26 has helped raise the game’s profile. After high school, with Covid creating a roadblock and the international free-agent market not producing an opportunity, he kept chasing the dream by taking the JUCO route to Poplar Bluff, Missouri, nearly 9,000 miles from home.
He arrived at Three Rivers with plans to play both outfield and left-handed pitcher. But after he struggled at the plate during the fall, he committed full-time to pitching and never looked back.
“I always had the vision,” said Hamson. “If I'm at this place in JUCO, I've sacrificed being away from family - I'm making it to The Show, no matter what.”
Those two years in Missouri changed more than his baseball life. Hamson met his fiancée there, and after initially wanting out, he eventually bought land in the state.
To keep his Major League hopes alive, though, he had to move on. His numbers at Three Rivers included 84 strikeouts in 50 1/3 innings across parts of two seasons, but also an 8.94 ERA. Even so, the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., came calling.
The NAIA stop turned into a breakthrough. After a solid first season in 2024, Hamson broke out in 2025 with 127 strikeouts in 82 2/3 innings, drawing scouts to his games and becoming both the school’s highest ever selection and its first player taken in the Draft since 1992.
“It keeps me humble all the time,” said Hamson. “It inspires other guys that the NAIA is not just the boot of college baseball.
It's still a platform. I carry it everywhere.”
Now, Hamson is carrying that journey into the Orioles’ system and into the Arizona Fall League with the Peoria Javelinas. The AFL has long been a place where prospects get a preview of what might come next, and he has leaned into that chance.
Baltimore selected him in the eighth round of the 2025 Draft and told him they saw a future for him in the bullpen. He didn’t resist. Embracing that role has let him attack hitters with everything he has, and the early returns have included a fastball sitting at 93-96 mph in his first three AFL outings.
He has also leaned on the pitch that helped make him such an intriguing lefty in the first place. Scouts have long pointed to his “feel for spin,” and he has already snapped off multiple sliders that topped 2900 RPMs.
The command, though, has still been part of the growing process. During the regular season, he struck out 72 batters in 67 1/3 innings, but also issued 69 walks.
“It's really good stuff from the left side, very unique delivery and operation,” said Forrest Herrmann, the Orioles’ director of pitching. “Development isn’t always linear.
… He had a lot of ground to cover from his time in the college ranks and his upbringing in the game of baseball before that. But the skills took a huge step forward.”
Hamson is still working his way through the Orioles organization, but the bigger horizon remains in view. He is also following the international calendar, with the 2028 Summer Olympics next on his list. And if he ever has to choose between reaching the majors or representing his country, that decision would be anything but simple.
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