The Orioles’ farm system may not carry the same shine it did earlier in the decade, but the organization has still added some real pitching volume after back-to-back losing seasons. Anthony Eyanson, Joseph Dzierwa and Caden Hunter sit in the club’s Top 5 on MLB Pipeline, and Luis De León showed real promise out of the bullpen late in 2026. Behind that group, Baltimore still has more arms in the pipeline, even if some of them are working through uneven seasons.
Juaron Watts-Brown is one of the pitchers whose stock has gone the other direction. Baltimore got him from the Blue Jays in the Seranthony Dominguez deal, and at the time he was Toronto’s No. 10 prospect. Less than two years later, MLB Pipeline no longer has him in the Orioles’ Top 30.
He did give the Orioles a strong first look in 2025. Over his first seven starts in the organization, the right-hander went 1-3 with a 3.82 ERA for Double-A Chesapeake, striking out 43 and walking 12 across 35.1 innings.
2026 turned into a much rougher ride. Watts-Brown began the year on the injured list, then made three rehab outings at Frederick before returning to Chesapeake on May 1.
From there, the results were much less encouraging: a 1-7 record and a 5.76 ERA in 14 starts for the Baysox. He had just one scoreless outing and seldom got through five innings.
While other starters in the system were making noise, the 24-year-old couldn’t keep pace.
The run prevention was ugly, but the swing-and-miss stuff still showed up. Watts-Brown struck out 74 batters in 59.1 innings at Double-A, though he also issued 25 walks.
Baltimore still moved him along anyway. By the end of July, the Orioles sent him to Triple-A Norfolk.
The numbers there were rougher still: 10 appearances, including seven starts, and a 1-4 mark with a 10.22 ERA. He piled up 41 strikeouts over 37 innings, but he also walked 37 hitters and gave up 10 home runs.
A walk an inning is not what the Blue Jays had in mine when they selected Watts-Brown in the third round of the 2023 draft. It’s not what Baltimore envisioned when they acquired him two years ago.
But the strikeout numbers remain attractive. Nobody is confusing Watts-Brown with a rotation candidate in 2027, but there’s no reason to give up on the guy either.
Watts-Brown should be back in Norfolk’s rotation next season. The Orioles may have more than five starters capable of handling those spots, but minor league staffs are always flexible, and Baltimore should still be able to carve out innings for him. The California native still has a path to the majors if he can straighten things out.
His first look at High-A was rocky for a short stretch, but 2026 was the first extended dose of adversity he has faced in pro ball. Now it comes down to adjustment. For Watts-Brown, trimming the free passes is the obvious place to start.
In Other News...
Orioles Face One Defining Question In Any Win-Now Trade
The Orioles are heading into the offseason with a familiar fork in the road: add a few role players and trust their young core to keep growing, or push chips in on a bigger move that changes the shape of the roster right away. Baltimore has enough talent in place to make the win-now argument feel real, which is why the conversation keeps circling back to impact middle-of-the-order bats and the cost that comes with them.
One name that naturally fits that kind of swing is Ketel Marte, a switch-hitter whose recent production and contract situation make him one of the more intriguing trade possibilities on the market. But the path from interest to actual deal is complicated, especially if Baltimore had to part with a premium young piece such as Jackson Holliday to get there, and any serious pursuit would still depend on a final layer of approval before the Orioles could turn the idea into reality. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Get One Painful Reminder Of How Empty This Season Feels
The Sporting News rolled out its major league baseball awards, and for the Orioles it served as a small but pointed reminder of how little has gone right this season. Pete Alonso was the clubs lone selection, earning a spot on the American League All-Star team at first base while the rest of the honors went elsewhere, including Will Venable for AL Manager of the Year, Kevin McGoncigle for Rookie of the Year and Yordan lvarez for Comeback Player of the Year.
It is not exactly a shocking outcome for a team that has spent much of the year searching for reasons to celebrate, but it does underline how thin the Orioles' individual award case has been. The bigger BBWAA awards are still due in November, yet there is little sign that another Baltimore name will surface when those ballots are revealed. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Face A Rotation Decision After A Fragile 2026 Season
The Orioles spent much of the 2026 season trying to find a steadier answer in the rotation, and the final numbers reflected a group that was useful but rarely airtight. Baltimores starters finished 17th in ERA at 4.24, a middle-of-the-pack mark for a team that ended up 79-82 and never fully solved the issue of how to piece together reliable innings from night to night. Trevor Rogers was one of the more important arms in that mix, while Kyle Bradish remained a central part of the long-term picture after agreeing to a five-year extension.
Bradishs year did not stay on track for long, though, and the Orioles also saw uneven stretches from Shane Baz and Brandon Young as they tried to sort out what the staff should look like going forward. Rogers future is now part of that bigger discussion, with Baltimore weighing how much continuity it can preserve after a fragile season that exposed both the rotations promise and its limits. [Read more 🡒]