Despite Corbin Burnes’s Cy Young pedigree, Kyle Bradish’s Cy Young caliber 2023 and John Means impeccable resume, it is almost an undeniable fact that Grayson Rodriguez is the Orioles starter with the highest ceiling. After all, when you’re starting playoff games at 23 while throwing 100-mph fastballs past major leaguers, that speaks to something special.
When Burnes was 23 he was a rookie reliever who couldn’t even sniff the Milwaukee bullpen. Bradish spent his age-23 season at the Bowie alternate site after the minor league season was lost to the pandemic. And Means at 23 was struggling his way through 18 starts with the Baysox and looked far from a major league rotation.