Held the weekend before the MLB All-Star Game each year, the All-Star Futures Game is a showcase of some of the most talented players in the minors — and the showcase aspect means that, while everyone gets a chance to stand out, the stage can be crowded.

The Orioles’ two representatives — former first-round pick Enrique Bradfield Jr. and high-octane reliever Keagan Gillies— are well equipped for such an environment. The speedy Bradfield and the hard-throwing Gillies have been doing as much in the Orioles system for a while.

“We’re super excited for Enrique,” Orioles Director of Player Development Anthony Villa said. “Extremely talented player, and we’ll say a player who may not be your traditional prospect, right? He can impact the game in a variety of ways, and his impact with the bat is probably the least of all the amazing ways that he can impact the game.

“And that’s not a knock on the offense. He continues to improve and it’s actually been pretty exciting what he’s flashed at the plate, but the defense just is that good and the baserunning creates that amount of chaos, and it really is just amazing to see how speed can just transform a game.”

Bradfield, the Orioles’ first-round pick (17th overall) in 2023, missed nearly a month early this season with a hamstring injury but has fared well at Double-A Chesapeake after finishing 2024 well there. He has a .714 OPS with as many walks (21) as strikeouts at the level, and he has 13 stolen bases in 15 tries.

A year ago, between High-A Aberdeen and Double-A, he swiped 74 bases in 87 chances and had a .729 OPS. Although Bradfield makes great contact and controls the strike zone well, his offensive development hinges more on hitting line drives and keeping the ball off the ground, allowing him to get on base better and utilize his speed.

Villa noted that that’s what Bradfield did in this year’s spring breakout game. Bradfield led off the game with a line-drive single, ended up at third when he forced an errant pickoff throw from the pitcher, then scored on a wild pitch.

“Just a really exciting player, built around speed,” Villa said.

Gillies, Bradfield’s teammate with Chesapeake, has less buzz but is plenty deserving. The Orioles’ 2021 15th-round pick had a 0.81 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings in 2023 to get on the prospect map but struggled in 2024 in Double-A. Back again for a third go at the level, Gillies has a 1.15 ERA with a 0.57 WHIP and 34 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings.

“This is a guy that has absolutely dominated Double-A,” Villa said. “Come into the game, leverage situations, shutdown innings. Nasty fastball, nasty splitter. A chance for him to showcase his stuff and the growth he’s continued to have.

“Shoot, he could get one hitter, and you’re going to see mid- to upper 90s and just a disgusting splitter. Maybe he’ll throw the slider, too. But you’re just going to see put-away stuff. It wouldn’t take four or five innings to showcase it, for you to start to feel like you see why this kid is pretty effective. Right from the get-go, he’ll put people away.”

Gillies, 27, is the first pitcher to represent the Orioles in the Futures Game since Marcos Diplán in 2021. Last year, top prospect Samuel Basallo was the Orioles’ lone representative, with Jackson Holliday and Heston Kjerstad appearing in 2023, Gunnar Henderson in 2022 and Adley Rutschman and Diplán in 2021.