On Friday evening, the Orioles filled up their 40-man roster with six Rule 5 draft-eligible prospects who will all hopefully find their way onto the next good Orioles team. It feels like a good sign for the future that there are as many prospects worth having on the 40-man roster.
In about a year’s time, unless something comes along and tosses the entire baseball calendar out of whack, the Orioles will be facing another set of 40-man decisions with next year’s wave of eligible players. For the most part, that means high school draftees from the 2017 draft and college draftees from the 2018 draft.