The Baltimore Orioles are no strangers to being able to produce a number of homegrown stars.
The franchise has a rich history of being able to develop their own talent and turn them into world-class baseball players, with many of them having been able to be recognized by Major League Baseball’s wider community.
With five different Hall of Famers having come through the farm system in Baltimore and becoming some of the best to have ever played professional baseball, as well as many others that could be argued to be just as deserving of the accolade, there will be one man that will be hoping he can follow in their footsteps and have a successful career in today’s game.
Adley Rutschman has recently been called up by the Orioles to participate in MLB this season, with the franchise hoping that he will be able to hit the ground running and become their next homegrown star. Of course, he has plenty of role models and stories that he can look at and perhaps try to channel in what he will be hoping will be a long and storied career.
However, which of these iconic figures could be considered the best homegrown stars to have come out of the Baltimore Orioles farm system? Let’s take a look at a few names and highlight why they have been chosen.
Cal Ripken Jr.
When thinking of one of the biggest homegrown stars for the organization, Cal Ripken Jr was always going to be a name to appear at the top of the list. Despite being drafted in the second round as the No. 48 overall pick in 1978, the Baltimore native made his team proud as he managed to play in MLB just three years after being selected before going on to have a stellar career. He managed to obtain two MVP awards, as well as becoming a World Series champion, thus thrusting him into one of the legendary players of the entire sport!
Naturally, if Rutschman is able to replicate the same kind of performances that Ripken Jr. managed to achieve, those that will participate in baseball betting whenever he plays will be feeling rather confident that they will be able to get the outcome that they wager on, as the rookie would have every chance of being a huge star for the Orioles.
Eddie Murray
Perhaps one of the very best first basemen that the Orioles have ever had, Eddie Murray is a homegrown star that Baltimore can boast about. He is just one of seven players who have 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, and reached MLB in 1977 when he was 21 and earned the AL Rookie of the Year honor that year.
A third-round pick from a Los Angeles high school, he spent 13 seasons in Baltimore in a career that spanned 21 seasons where he became an eight-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove winner, and a World Series Champion.
Brooks Robinson
Having only just recently moved from St. Louis, the Orioles were starting a new life in Baltimore and it would seem they got one of their very first moves right after acquiring Brooks Robinson as an amateur free agent before the beginning of 1955 MLB season. He played in the League as an 18-year-old and went on to play his entire 23-year career with the organization as he became a Hall of Famer.
Mike Mussina
Mike Mussina was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019, with the right-hand pitcher being argued to be the best starting pitcher to have ever been drafted and developed through the Orioles’ farm system. During his 18 seasons in the MLB, he proved to be a very reliable and consistent pitcher, with the ten years he spent at Baltimore going 147-81 with a 3.53 ERA. Whilst with the Orioles, he also achieved each of his five career All-Star appearances, as well as four of his seven Gold Glove Awards.
Final Thoughts
Admittedly, there are some big names to have missed out on this list – including Jim Palmer, Manny Machado, Boog Powell, and others – however it could be argued that this list could go on forever. The four that have been mentioned above, though, were simply too hard to omit from a list that details the best homegrown stars that the Baltimore Orioles have been able to produce.
