There’s a reason Baltimore Orioles fans kept hearing Luis De León’s name every time an Arizona Fall League box score hit their timeline. In a league where hitters usually have the upper hand, the 21-year-old lefty showed up hammering the zone and daring everyone to hit him. Most of them couldn’t. By the time the dust settled in Arizona, De León had gone from “interesting arm in a deep system” to “why wouldn’t this guy be in the 2026 conversation?”
For an organization that’s already graduated wave after wave of position-player talent, De León represents the exact kind of lottery ticket Mike Elias needs to hit on: a low-cost international signee who suddenly looks like a real big-league weapon.