When you’re bad, really, truly, worst-in-the-league bad, at least you get the consolation prize of picking #1 in the draft the next year. The 2021 Orioles were that bad, riding their horrible collection of pitchers to a 52-110 record. Their reward was that in the 2022 draft, Mike Elias got a second chance to grab a top talent at the very top of the draft.
The rules have changed now. Anti-tanking protocols negotiated into baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement mean that there is a draft lottery for the top six picks, and the Orioles could not be in the lottery for three years in a row.