2 The Bigs

By Matt Castagna: Feb 23, 2024

In recent years the Orioles Scouting & Development team has dominated the competition. Each year you can guarantee that a new Oriole prospect will sit atop the rankings (Rutschman, Henderson, Holliday). With a majority of their top-tier prospects already at, or close to the bigs, I want to highlight a player who will look to lead the next Orioles crop of a talent.

Enter Mac Horvath.

A 2023 2nd-round pick, Mac is a prospect to keep an eye on. He was selected as a 3rd Baseman, but the Orioles already have a ton of depth at that position. Mac could very well slot into the Right Field position moving forward. He already has experience in the position as he played there at both the University of North Carolina and the Cape Cod League. Horvath has a unique profile that has long intrigued scouts with his raw power/speed combination that is hard to come by. He may still have a few years of development before reaching the bigs, but Mac has HIT the ground RUNNING. In 22 games in Rookie/A/A+, he hit a combined .321/.455/.603 with an OPS of 1.058 and had 5 HR & 14 SB. Here’s an absurd stat. 30% of his fly-balls were hit out of the park. Quite the loud production for a player who jumped straight from the college circuit to pro ball.

While he has power and speed, some evaluators are weary of his ability to hit a major league fastball. This was shown in his 27% K-Rate across 52 at-bats at High-A. On the brightside, he’s still consistently a tough at-bat. He had an even 27% BB-rate as well. He’s not necessarily chasing much, more just needs to adjust to the advanced pitching. So we’re not too concerned about it, as the best-in-class Orioles development team will work on his adjustments. With the continual Orioles prospect call-ups, Mac Horvath is someone we’re excited to track through the system!

Being a 2023 draft selection you can find Mac Horvath’s Bowman 1sts in the 2023 Draft set. As much fun as it is to rip, hobby boxes are too expensive right now ($550) so I would direct you to the singles market. Where on average you can get a color (#’d) autograph for around $65-$75 to start your collection.