Before the 2024 season started, the Orioles player who was seen as the most likely Rookie of the Year candidate was Jackson Holliday. A month into the season, with Holliday having been called up, played ten games, and sent back down, he’s not looking like he’ll be the one to make it two years in a row for Orioles ROY contenders. At least for now, there is another, with Colton “The Milkman” Cowser dazzling in the season’s early weeks to lead all AL rookies in Fangraphs WAR to date.
For the draft pick obsessives out there, Cowser meets the criteria that would grant the Orioles a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick at the end of the first round next year, same as the team is getting in this year’s draft due to Gunnar Henderson winning ROY a year ago.