Kailen Hamson’s path to the Orioles already reads like the kind of story baseball likes to hand out when it wants to feel good about itself.
He’s a left-hander from Brisbane, Australia who crossed the world in 2021 as a teenager and landed at Three Rivers College in Missouri with a two-hour drive from the airport still fresh on his mind. He’s got the arm talent scouts love, the kind that shows up in a mid-90s fastball and a slider that can spin past 2900 RPMs. And he’s the sort of pitcher Baltimore had in mind as a possible bullpen weapon when it took him in the 8th round of the 2025 MLB Draft.
The upside is obvious. So is the problem.
Hamson just finished his first full minor league season with Single-A Delmarva, and the raw stuff came with plenty of swing-and-miss. In 67.1 innings, he struck out 72 batters, building on the kind of dominance that helped him pile up 127 strikeouts in 82.2 innings as a senior at the University of the Cumberlands in 2025.
But the control never showed up with it. He walked 69 hitters in 2026, a brutal 9.2 walks per nine rate, and added 11 wild pitches for good measure.
He also allowed 76 hits, finished with a 6.82 ERA and a 2.153 WHIP.
That’s a rough line for any pitcher, especially one the Orioles are trying to shape into a bullpen arm.
Still, the organization isn’t treating one ugly season like a verdict. Forrest Herrmann, the Orioles’ director of pitching, said the club sees more than the numbers.
“It's really good stuff from the left side, very unique delivery and operation,” Herrmann told MLB.com. “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.”
That belief is part of why Hamson got the call to the Peoria Javelinas in the Arizona Fall League. It’s another chance to work, another chance to face top-level hitters, and another stage for the Orioles to keep sorting out what they have.
The command issues haven’t disappeared there either. In 3.1 innings this fall, Hamson has walked six and struck out four.
He’s still early in the process, though, and there’s at least one left-handed example the Orioles can point to. Milwaukee Brewers pitcher DL Hall spent his first six seasons in Baltimore’s system, battled command issues of his own, and has since become an important part of the Brewers’ pitching staff.
That doesn’t mean Hamson is headed down the same road. It just shows there’s still time for a pitcher with his arm to put the pieces together.
If he does, the Orioles may wind up with exactly what they drafted: a dangerous left-handed reliever with enough stuff to make the wait worthwhile.
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