Orioles Draft: Eric Booth Jr. selected at #7 overall

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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - AUGUST 09: General Manager Mike Elias of the Baltimore Orioles watches the Orioles Hall of Fame ceremony before the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Athletics at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 09, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) | Getty Images

The Orioles have kicked off their 2026 draft class by choosing a talented high school outfielder, Eric Booth Jr. from Mississippi. The lefty-batting Vanderbilt commit is almost certainly not going to go to college now. This was one of the top five or six players in the draft class and the Orioles got him at 7. For now, that looks like a win.

There are exciting words to be found in scouting reports on Booth, praising his speed, his contact ability, his potential to develop into a 20-25 home run hitter who can steal a lot of bases and play a solid center field. The Orioles are surely imagining that is the outcome they will be able to develop out of Booth, or else they would have chosen someone else.

There are also concerning words to be found in scouting reports on Booth, particularly regarding his swing. This is from FanGraphs on Booth. Keep in mind, this site liked Booth: He was the #6 prospect on their board, with an up arrow as the draft approached. Even so, this is what they said about him:

Booth is a unique, fascinating, and difficult-to-parse prospect, with premium tools and a very strange swing that might not enable him to hit as it is currently constituted. … Booth is one of the more exciting and volatile prospects in this draft, and his future might be dictated by who picks him up, as a team with good player development might turn him into a top-of-the-order monster.

I emphasized the bolded passage because that’s apparently what it’s going to come down to on whether this guy is successful in the Orioles organization. Can they make the weird swing into a productive swing? The recent track record of the Orioles developing hitters does not leave me feeling positive about this. Outside of three solid picks among their top two in 2019 and 2020 – Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg – they have been floundering in trying to develop players into stars or even solid regulars.

Even the three success stories have had their own hiccups without delivering consistent quality play. But then there’s the likes of Heston Kjerstad Coby Mayo, Colton Cowser, Jackson Holliday, Dylan Beavers, and others who have yet to make it out of the minors who have fizzled beyond what the Orioles hoped in taking them. They are going to have to do better with Booth.

This is how the board played out before the Orioles made their pick:

1. White Sox – Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA
2. Rays – Grady Emerson, SS, Tex. HS
3. Twins – Vahn Lackey, C, Georgia Tech
4. Giants – Jackson Flora, RHP, UC Santa Barbara
5. Pirates – Derek Curiel, OF, LSU
6. Royals – Zion Rose, OF, Louisville

There were some indications in the final wave of mock drafts from prospect writers that the Orioles might actually take a pitcher if Flora fell to them at #7. We will never know if Mike Elias would have actually grabbed a pitcher with his top pick if Flora had been available.

The draft board ahead of the Orioles played out in such a way that they had their pick of players who were generally thought to be in the top six or so of draft prospects in this class. Curiel and Rose were consensus reach picks by those teams, possibly to set up overslot strategies later in the draft. That gave the Orioles the opportunity for any of Booth, high school shortstop Jacob Lombard, or Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress, the 5-6-7 players on MLB Pipeline’s draft board.

The slot value that the Orioles have in their pool from this pick is $7,327,200. This pick is looking like it’s going to be a slot pick without much funny business. Booth was generally ranked 5th or 6th in prospect rankings. He fell by maybe one or two slots to make it to the Orioles. Those guys usually get pretty close to the slot value. The O’s don’t have enough picks to do anything creative.

I feel better about this pick than I would have done if the Orioles had chosen either Lombard or Burress. Lombard came with even bigger “is this guy actually going to hit?” questions than Booth does, and Burress seemed like the kind of pick that everyone would agree was perfectly safe but would have proven disappointing in the end. It’s tough to hit on MLB draft picks, even when you are picking at 7.

How are you feeling about this pick? Vote in our poll below:

The Orioles do not select again until pick #46 in the second round. A lot of good talent is going to come off the board in between their picks. Hopefully, the Orioles make the most of Booth so we don’t have to regret that they didn’t pick someone else.

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