SARASOTA, Fla. -- More than any prospect in baseball, Adley Rutschman is the face of his franchise.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 Draft, Rutschman went to an Orioles club that has lost 223 games across the past two seasons, the fourth-worst total ever in the Majors over a two-year period. In the American League East, with two financial juggernauts in the Red Sox and Yankees and two clubs stocked with young big league talent, Baltimore is at least a few years from being able to contend.

As a result, the Orioles and their fans are focused much more on the future than the present. The second No. 1 overall choice in team history, following Ben McDonald in 1989, Rutschman is a switch-hitter with Mark Teixeira upside at the plate, Gold Glove potential behind it and makeup off the charts.

Rutschman has a history of living up to expectations, capping a breakout 2018 sophomore season at Oregon State by winning Most Outstanding Player honors at the College World Series. He responded to the heat that came with entering last year as the consensus top Draft prospect by batting .411/.575/.751. He said he isn't feeling any pressure to carry Baltimore back to relevance.

"It's been about the same as last year, being the top prospect out of college. It's kind of similar to that," said Rutschman, 22. "I think the biggest thing is just making sure I'm staying on the same process that I always have been, and that's just going out and playing to my God-given ability every day and working as hard as I can to be the best player I can."

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Signed for a Draft-record $8.1 million, Rutschman batted .254/.351/.423 between three levels in his pro debut last summer and likely will start this season in Class A Advanced. He said he's working on learning the pitchers in the organization and improving his game-calling skills. He's also enjoying a greater exposure to analytics in pro ball than he had in college, which is helping him identify the strengths of his pitchers and refine the efficiency of his swing.

If service-time considerations weren't a factor, Rutschman might be ready for Baltimore before the end of 2020. First-year Orioles farm director Matt Blood said it's too early to think about timetables but acknowledged that there aren't many rough edges to Rutschman's game.

"We're still getting to know him," Blood said. "We've identified some little things here and there that we want to take a look at but he does a lot of things really well. We want to make sure he continues to do them really well. If there are areas we can help him tweak or improve, that's icing on the cake.

"We want to continue to empower him to have great strike-zone discipline and to hit the ball hard. He's a very skilled catcher and a great leader. All of those things are exciting."

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Camp standouts
Ryan Mountcastle has been the system's most consistently productive hitter since signing for $1.3 million as the second of the Orioles' two first-round choices in 2015, but he also has sought a long-term defensive home for much of that time.

Mountcastle spent his first four seasons at shortstop and third base even though his below-average arm gave him little chance of manning either position in the Majors. While winning the Triple-A International League MVP Award in 2019, he spent the first four months at first base and most of August in left field.

Baltimore's left-field job appears open, and Mountcastle has been splitting Grapefruit League starts with Dwight Smith Jr. He got off to a 7-for-16 start at the plate and has outperformed Smith while showing that he can play decent defense in the outfield.

"He'll be fine in the outfield and hopefully hit like he always has," Blood said. "He's a big, strong kid who has been open-minded to whatever has been asked of him."

On the Minor League side of camp, shortstop Darell Hernaiz has continued to open eyes. One of the youngest players in the 2019 Draft, he didn't turn 18 until six weeks after he signed as a fifth-rounder out of Texas preps. His athleticism and instincts make him a factor on both sides of the ball, and there's some sneaky power in his 170-pound frame.

"He's exciting to watch," Blood said. "He's strong and explosive at the plate. He's toolsy, athletic and young."

Prospect we'll be talking about in 2021
While Rutschman has drawn most of the attention from the Orioles' 2019 Draft crop, their second selection comes with a high ceiling as well. Signed for an over-slot $2.3 million in the second round out of an Alabama high school, Gunnar Henderson batted .259/.331/.370 in Rookie ball last summer, numbers that only hint at his potential. He has drawn physical comparisons to Corey Seager, consistently barrels balls and spent his pro debut at shortstop.

"I think he'll hit for both power and average," Blood said. "He'll play shortstop and third base this year. He was one of my favorite kids in high school when I was working with USA Baseball, very humble, very polite and a hard worker."

Something to prove
The Dodgers paid a $15.5 million bonus and a matching amount in penalty tax to sign Yusniel Díaz as a Cuban defector in November, envisioning him as an outfielder with the potential for solid or better tools across the board. He homered twice in the 2018 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game and was putting up the best numbers of his career in Double-A that season before Los Angeles made him the centerpiece of a five-player trade package for Manny Machado.

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Since the deal, Díaz has batted just .257/.337/.446 with 11 homers in 123 games, missing time with hamstring and quad injuries. He makes contact, but he has yet to show he can make an impact at the plate or on the bases. He also now looks like a right fielder after playing center earlier in his career.

Díaz faces a big season in 2020, when he'll play in Triple-A for the first time. He may have a hard time cracking Baltimore's lineup if a rejuvenated Austin Hays and Mountcastle claim spots in the outfield this year alongside Trey Mancini.