Orioles' Vance Honeycutt: Headed to Baltimore

The Orioles have selected Honeycutt with the 22nd overall pick in the 2024 First-Year Player Draft.

Honeycutt is very athletic and does a lot of things extremely well, but his hit tool is quite poor for a first-round talent. He had a 67.9 percent contact rate and 27.5 percent strikeout rate as a junior for North Carolina, and it's a testament to how good his other tools are that he was even a consideration on the first night of the draft. Honeycutt improved his strikeout rate as a sophomore, but his production slipped significantly, and then it shot back up this year while he hit 28 homers with 28 steals in 62 games. Even if his stellar center field defense gets him everyday at-bats in the big leagues, the expectation should be that he hits for a damaging batting average while flashing tantalizing power and speed.