The Orioles don't miss on premium athletes anymore, and their latest swing is about as premium as it gets. Baltimore signed 7th overall pick Eric Booth Jr., an 18-year-old outfielder out of Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, buying him out of his Vanderbilt commitment with a bonus that basically matches slot value to the dollar.
1st-rder Eric Booth Jr. signs w/@Orioles for $7,324,700 (slot 7 value minus $2,500). Mississippi prep recruit, fastest player in @MLBDraft, 20-HR upside too. @VandyBoys recruit
The number itself tells you how the front office views him: $7,324,700, just $2,500 shy of the full 7th-pick slot value. Teams don't hand out that kind of money to prep bats without conviction, and Booth's calling card is impossible to fake. He's graded a 70 run tool on the 20-80 scouting scale, the fastest player in this year's draft, reportedly getting from home to first in a shade over 4 seconds and clocking a 6.27 60-yard dash on the showcase circuit.
This isn't just a track star who happens to play baseball, either. Booth hit .481 with 5 home runs and a .669 on-base percentage as a senior at Oak Grove, and scouts see real over-the-fence pop to go with the speed, the rare 20-homer, plus-run combo that makes teams dream about a true five-tool center fielder. His father, Eric Booth, was a 34th-round Blue Jays pick in 1993 who played college football at Southern Miss, so the bloodline for athleticism checks out.
Signing him away from Vanderbilt matters too. Booth was a legit college commit, not a lock to sign, which is part of why the O's had to get close to slot to lock him up before he had a chance to reconsider Nashville. For a farm system that's already been the envy of the league, adding a top-of-the-scale athlete at this price is another chip in a rebuild that's produced names like Adley Rutschman and Jackson Holliday.
Context matters here: Booth's $7.3 million bonus is reportedly the third-largest in franchise history, trailing only Holliday and Rutschman. That's the company the front office is putting him in before he's played a single professional inning, and it says everything about how the org is prioritizing tools and ceiling with this pick.
Now the fun part starts. Booth heads into short-season ball as a teenager with a plus-plus run tool and legitimate power projection, which is the exact profile that turns into a top-100 prospect fast if the hit tool comes along. Baltimore's system has been a national story for building through the draft and turning premium athletes into big leaguers, and Booth is the latest test case.