Inside Joseph Dzierwa’s Rise Through the Orioles’ System
Just Baseball's No. 92 prospect discusses his adjustment to professional baseball and the changes he's made to his arsenal to find success.
Last season, the Baltimore Orioles were poised for a successful MLB Draft, as they possessed six picks in the first two rounds — four of which were first-round selections.
The players selected early by the Orioles have gone on to have scorching-hot starts to their careers. Ike Irish was slugging in High-A before a meniscus injury ended his season; Caden Bodine and Slate de Brun have blossomed with the Rays after being key pieces in the Shane Baz trade, and Wehiwa Aloy has already hit his way to Double-A.
However, the prospect with arguably the biggest rise of them all has been left-hander Joseph Dzierwa, the 58th-overall pick in 2025. Dzierwa has had a tremendous first professional season, resulting in him landing as the No. 92 prospect on our most recent Top 100 list. In fact, he’s the only Oriole selected in 2025 to be included in this edition of the rankings.
The journey to this point for Dzierwa has been a string of carefully calculated developmental decisions guided by the Baltimore Orioles, and each one has paid off tremendously so far.
With Dzierwa seemingly only scratching the surface of who he could become, he has quickly become a coveted piece of the next wave of Orioles baseball.
Dzierwa’s Early Success
Dzierwa’s journey to becoming a coveted pitching prospect began all the way back in Spring Training, with an electric outing in the 2026 edition of the Spring Breakout Game. In his appearance, he struck out eight Boston Red Sox hitters across three scoreless innings — including Just Baseball’s No. 3 prospect, Franklin Arias.
Following this stellar outing, Dzierwa’s professional career began with a dominant 40.2-inning stretch in High-A, as the Orioles felt confident enough in his stuff to have him skip Low-A altogether. During this span, Dzierwa struck out 50 batters, posted a 2.21 ERA, and flashed front-end stuff throughout.
This 40.2-inning stretch was all the Orioles needed to see from Dzierwa to know he was ready to successfully make the jump to Double-A. His combination of control, finesse, and stuff made him an uncomfortable at-bat for opposing hitters, and that continued once he made the jump.
Through 59.1 Double-A innings to this point, Dzierwa has struck out 66 batters, posted a 2.28 ERA, and walked just 6% of hitters. In every sense of the expression, Dzierwa hasn’t skipped a beat since making the jump, as he’s continued to flash front-end stuff.
Oftentimes, when making this transition, pitchers have to rework their plans of attack. However, in Dzierwa’s case, that hasn’t been necessary.
“Not really in attacking guys,” Dzierwa said when asked about whether or not he had to change his plans of attack. “The misses get hit a little bit harder, and the approaches are a little bit better, and so I think if you just focus on hitting spots, you’re fine.”
With Dzierwa’s success at Double-A coming without much difficulty, it came as no surprise when he received an invite to the 2026 MLB Futures Game, a huge honor reserved for the top prospects around the game. It was further validation that his breakout was significant and should not be taken lightly.
In fact, he was the first Orioles pitcher since Alex Wells in 2018 to participate in the Futures Game, further proving the magnitude of this honor.
“Yeah, it was pretty cool,” Dzierwa said about the experience. “It was pretty packed, which was kind of cool. And then just being around all those guys was really fun.”
Dzierwa was limited to facing only one batter in an effort to squeeze in as many prospects as possible, but he still made an impact. He got Just Baseball’s No. 15 prospect, Rainiel Rodriguez, to fly out to left field, putting the cap on a great day for the 22-year-old.
Developing and Refining His Arsenal
While Dzierwa’s rise to the top may have seemed like it happened overnight, the underlying story is much bigger than that. During his college days at Michigan State, much of his value came from being an uncomfortable at-bat for opposing hitters, using deception to help him succeed in the Big Ten.
Even though Dzierwa still comes with a funky arm angle that’s difficult for hitters to pick up, his stuff has improved drastically since entering professional baseball.
During his college days, Dzierwa’s breaking balls often lagged behind the rest of his arsenal. However, that is no longer the case, as they’ve quickly become a strength for him.
“The breaking balls have gotten a lot better since college,” Dzierwa said when asked about the message from the Orioles developmentally. “I really didn’t have any two defined breaking balls in college, and so now, like having two, it’s pretty helpful.”
With two defined breaking balls now at the center of his arsenal, Dzierwa is able to attack hitters with a deeper bag of offerings. He’s able to routinely keep hitters off balance and unsure of what’s coming next, which has been tremendously helpful for the left-hander.
However, the newly defined breaking balls aren’t the only area where he’s drastically improved. His velocity has ticked up quite a bit, as he went from sitting in the low-90s during his final year of college to now being able to dial his heater up to 95 MPH — an important jump that has allowed him to dominate hitters.
“I think a little bit of everything,” Dzierwa said regarding the reason for his velocity uptick. “Pitching side, like strength side, too. I mean, I’ve gained 15 pounds since college, and so I think that’s kind of contributed to most of it, but there’s still some on the pitching side as well.”
Standing at 6-foot-8, 200 pounds, gaining weight and adding more force to his frame is an important step in velocity progression. This is something that has proven successful time and time again for pitchers across the league, and it seems as though the former second-rounder is the next example of this.
Arguably the biggest reason for Dzierwa’s success, though, is his changeup. It’s a tremendous parachute offering that plays well off his fastball due to its 10 MPH velocity separation from his heater. On top of that, it has roughly 10 inches of vertical separation from his four-seamer as well.
“I think just moving my fastball around each side, and executing it,” Dzierwa said regarding his changeup’s success. “I know where to miss and when to miss. And I think that’s kind of been a big part. Sometimes when I get hurt, it’s missing in the wrong spots.”
Essentially, Dzierwa’s heater and changeup work together to craft a perfect tunnel, which is why fastball location is such a huge reason for his changeup’s success. If he’s able to work from one side of the plate to the other with his heater, he’s able to throw his changeup off of that more effectively, making it even tougher for hitters to pick up.
When asked if he’s had to rework his arsenal to hide the changeup more, Dzierwa said, “I mean, I throw it a ton. So, as those two breaking balls have become a lot better, I think it makes the changeup a little bit better, too.”
Once again, with a deeper arsenal, Dzierwa can use every pitch to help the others play up, which has honestly been the story of his breakout campaign. With more velocity, a deeper pitch mix, and a more refined arsenal, all of his offerings benefit, as it becomes trickier for hitters to pick him up while in the box.
While we’ve only seen Dzierwa toss 100 professional innings to this point, they’ve been dominant and indicate a very successful career could be ahead of him. As he continues to work his way through the Orioles’ pipeline, it’ll be important to keep an eye on how he uses his pitches to help his entire arsenal play up, as this has been a huge contributing factor to his breakout.
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Written by
Jay Staph, a huge baseball fan and stat nerd, founded and ran his own baseball writing website, BSBWrites, at just 16-years-old. With focal points around prospects,…