The 2025 season was as trying a year as Adley Rutschman has ever experienced.
Coming off a poor second half in 2024, the two-time All-Star and 2019 No. 1 overall draft pick set out to re-establish himself among the league’s best catchers. Instead, his offense slipped even further and a pair of oblique strains forced him to the injured list for the first time in his young career. Rutschman did grade out well behind the plate for his framing and blocking but continued to struggle limiting the running game despite his elite arm strength.
Complicating matters is the presence of fellow backstop Samuel Basallo, the No. 9 prospect in the sport by Baseball America’s rankings who signed an eight-year, $67 million extension last summer to cement his place in the Orioles’ long-term plans. Basallo, 21, played catcher and first base in the minors, but the offseason addition of Pete Alonso is expected to limit most of his playing time opportunities to behind the plate and DH.
Rutschman, who turns 28 years old on Friday, is still expected to command the lion’s share of the starts at catcher, simply because he’s an above-average defender and Basallo is still very much unpolished with the glove. However, the organization brought in a fresh set of eyes with first-year manager Craig Albernaz, himself a former catcher, and his coaching staff. How the playing time shakes out will hinge on who proves it on the field.
“We’ll see in spring training,” Albernaz said at the Orioles’ Birdland Caravan last month of whether he expects any roster battles leading up to opening day. “Our guys have put in a ton of work in the offseason and they’ve made changes, they’re trying to get better. So, we want to see where they’re at and kind of go from there. Hopefully, we have competition all over the field. That’s a good thing. It means our guys are competing and getting better.”
Ahead of pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training next week, The Baltimore Sun is breaking down the Orioles’ roster position by position, examining its biggest questions and parsing through the depth chart to identify who will help the club attempt to make it back to the postseason after it fell short last season.
First up, here’s a look at where the catcher position stands.
Opening day candidates
Rutschman and Basallo are locks to form the Orioles’ catching tandem this season. The question is how they divvy up the starts and whether they need a third catcher to do it. In years past, Rutschman started around 100 to 110 games behind the plate and about 45 at DH to get his bat in the lineup as much as possible. That left 60 or so starts for his backup.
Yet Basallo is no traditional backup. The Orioles will look to give him ample opportunity to establish himself at the major league level, especially because his winning the American League Rookie of the Year Award would net them a 2027 draft pick. As a result, he’s the leading candidate to see the most time at DH amid a crowded group that includes Alonso, Ryan Mountcastle, Tyler O’Neill, Dylan Beavers and Coby Mayo.
With Rutschman a switch-hitter and Basallo left-handed, the Orioles project to run out a hefty number of lineups this season with both of their catchers included. It puts them in the rare position of needing to consider whether they should roster a third backstop on the bench. Not only would it offer insurance in case their starter gets hurt, but a true backup would also allow Albernaz to use them as pinch-hitters on their days off.
The Orioles only have the two catchers on their 40-man roster, so they would have to pull from their yet-to-be-announced list of nonroster invitees to fill the spot. Maverick Handley, who played 16 games last season amid Baltimore’s avalanche of catcher injuries, cleared waivers after being designated for assignment when the Orioles signed Alonso; he’s expected to be in camp this spring after impressing defensively in his short stint.
Other internal options include Creed Willems, a fringe top-30 prospect in their farm system, and Sam Huff, who signed a minor-league deal with the club in January. The Orioles had veteran Alex Jackson under team control heading into the offseason but they traded him to the Minnesota Twins ahead of the nontender deadline.
Biggest question
The Orioles need the Rutschman of old again, plain and simple. As much as they would love for Basallo to reach his full potential as a rookie, he’s likely to experience some kind of learning curve before he gets there. Not to mention the Rutschman of old was worth over five wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, in both 2022 and 2023.
It’s a far cry from the value the Orioles have gotten from their franchise catcher since. Rutschman has accrued just 3.9 WAR over the past two years, hitting .240 with a .696 OPS. While his lack of power has been apparent, Rutschman’s true superpower — his on-base skills — has subsided as well. His .369 OBP across 2022 and 2023 ranked 12th best in the majors among qualified hitters. Rutschman’s .314 mark since, the result of a decline in walk rate, would be 90th if he had enough plate appearances to qualify.
Perhaps injuries were to blame. Rutschman never disclosed a specific injury affecting him in 2024, but his numbers tumbled after he was hit by a pitch in the hand at the end of June that season. He then was just starting to get into a groove when the first of his oblique issues cropped up last year.
Projections are still bullish on Rutschman. FanGraphs’ ZiPS model sees him capable of reaching 4.7 WAR in 2026, second on the team behind shortstop Gunnar Henderson (5.7). After all, the Oregon State product was the consensus No. 1 prospect in baseball for a reason, and he’s already made good on that potential before with two seasons in which he garnered down-ballot AL Most Valuable Player Award votes.
But for the first time, the Orioles have a clear backup plan in case Rutschman can’t rediscover his MVP-caliber form. Whether he bounces back in 2026 will go a long way in determining the future of the catcher position in Baltimore.
X factor
What exactly can the Orioles count on from Basallo this season?
He looked good doing it, but the young catcher finished last year’s crash course in facing major league pitching with a .165/.229/.330 slash line and four home runs in 31 games. ZiPS sees him taking a step forward, projecting him to tally 2.3 WAR as he hits .238 with 25 homers and a .762 OPS in 122 games. That would be a smashing success by all accounts, and a result that scouts have seen him capable of achieving for years.
Basallo will likely have to earn everyday at-bats early, particularly against left-handed pitching. The Orioles don’t have many ways for the right-handed Mountcastle to play consistently and they could wind up platooning the two of them at the DH spot to begin the season. But Basallo’s ceiling is as high as anyone’s on the roster and a fast start could cement the Dominican native as a regular in the lineup within months, if not weeks.
It comes down to his ability to translate the raw power of his 6-foot-4, 180 lb frame into production at the MLB level. Basallo has a free-swinging approach that leaves him susceptible to high strikeout totals, but his propensity for finding the barrel makes up for it by producing gaudy exit velocities. His 23 home runs in Triple-A last season ranked eighth in the International League and every player ahead of him was at least four years older.
With his extension signed, there’s no drama over whether Basallo will be on the major league roster. He’s proven all can in the minors and will get his chance to play an important role in helping the Orioles compete in the relentless AL East. Rookie of the Year is certainly within reach if he can live up to his lofty prospect status, and it’s well within the realm of possibility he’s hitting in the middle of their lineup come October.
Have a news tip? Contact Matt Weyrich at [email protected], 410-332-6200, x.com/ByMattWeyrich and instagram.com/bymattweyrich.