In taking Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman with Monday’s first overall pick of the Major League Baseball draft, the Orioles added a potent switch-hitting bat at a position that has rarely made its way into the draft’s top five selections in the past two decades.
Paired with Joey Bart, the San Francisco Giants’ No. 2 overall pick in 2018, the Orioles’ drafting of Rutschman marked the first time since 2007-2009 that a catcher was among the first five players off the board in consecutive years. The outcomes of those three picks — the Orioles’ Matt Wieters, the Giants’ Buster Posey and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Tony Sanchez — are examples of the wide-ranging results of highly drafted catchers, of which there have been eight since the Minnesota Twins took Joe Mauer with 2001’s No.