The Orioles announced that they have selected the contract of top prospect Adley Rutschman. Anthony Bemboom has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Of course, this is a day that baseball fans in Baltimore and elsewhere have been looking forward to for quite some time. Even before he was a member of the Orioles organization, Rutschman was tantalizing the baseball world with his performance at Oregon State, shooting up draft boards and considered by many to be the top player available in the 2019 draft. Baseball America, for instance, gave him the #1 slot that year, with their report noting that the switch-hitting catcher had essentially every skill necessary to succeed going forward. Hitting for average, hitting for power, taking walks, strong arm, good receiving and blocking, he had all the tools except speed, which is hardly surprising for a catcher. “He is the best catching prospect since Buster Posey in 2008 and Matt Wieters in 2007,” their report concluded.
Although there were reports that the O’s were considering other players with the first overall selection in the 2019 draft, such as Bobby Witt Jr., Andrew Vaughn and JJ Bleday, it never seemed like there was much chance of anyone usurping Rutschman. When the big day finally rolled around, Rutschman was indeed the first player off the board.
Due to the struggles of the big league club, Rutschman instantly became the light at the end of the tunnel for Baltimore fans. The Orioles finished last in the AL East in both 2017 and 2018, and were in the process of repeating that feat when Rutschman was drafted in 2019. They somehow slipped past the Red Sox and into fourth place in the shortened 2020 season, but were back down in the basement in 2021, and also posted the worst record in baseball again (tied with the Diamondbacks). That means they have the first overall selection in the draft yet again this summer. With nothing inspiring happening at the big league level, all hopes were pinned on the stars in the farm system that would make up the next great Orioles team, with Rutschman being front and center.
Baseball America ranked Rutschman the fifth-best prospect in all of baseball in 2021, then bumping him up to #2 last year and #1 this year. He’s also considered the best prospect in baseball by FanGraphs, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniels, and The Athletic’s Keith Law.
It’s been an atypical rise through the minors for the 24-year-old. It started out normal enough, with Rutschman getting into 37 games in the lower levels of the Orioles’ system in the months after the draft. But the pandemic wiped out the minor leagues in 2020, meaning he wasn’t able to play in any official organized games. But that missed season didn’t slow him down any, as his 2021 proved the hype was for real. In 123 games between Double-A and Triple-A, he hit 23 home runs and produced an overall batting line of .285/.397/.502, walking at a 14.5% rate and striking out only 16.6% of the time. That all adds up to a wRC+ of 144, or 44% better than league average.
The Orioles did little to block his path to the big leagues this offseason. The catchers who got playing time behind the plate in 2021 were all jettisoned from the roster. Pedro Severino, Austin Wynns and Nick Ciuffo were all outrighted at season’s end and Chance Sisco was claimed off waivers by the Mets. There was a time in the offseason that the club actually had no catchers on the 40-man roster, although they eventually signed Robinson Chirinos to be in the mix.
Once the new collective bargaining agreement was agreed to and the lockout ended in March, it seemed there was a chance Rutschman could crack the Opening Day roster. The new CBA featured incentives to try and discourage teams from holding their best prospects down in the minors at the beginning of a season in order to manipulate their service time and gain an extra year of control over their services. Unfortunately, Rutschman suffered a triceps strain in mid-March that put him on the shelf for a few weeks, ending any chance of him being ready for the season opener. After recuperating from that injury, he made his 2022 debut in the minors on April 26 and has spent the past four weeks getting back into game shape. In 19 games this year across three different levels, he’s hitting .309/.427/.515, 159 wRC+, walking in 13.4% of his plate appearances while striking out in just 8.5% of them.
There are about 137 days remaining in the season, meaning he will be unable to accrue the 172 days necessary to count as a full year. There is a provision in the new CBA that grants a full year of service time to the top two finishers in Rookie of the Year voting, though it will be difficult for Rutschman to take that path now, given that his competitors in that race have a six-week headstart on him. Jeremy Pena has already produced 1.8 fWAR, while other prominent rookies like Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodriguez have 0.8 fWAR during their first MLB seasons.
Assuming Rutschman isn’t able to catch up and finishes this season with less than a year of service time, the O’s will control his services through the 2028 season, though he does have a very good shot at qualifying for arbitration after the 2024 season as a Super Two player. (The Super Two cutoff moves from year to year but has only been above 2.137 three times since 2009, with the last instance coming back in 2012.) Now that he’s reached the big time, the club will be hoping that he and the other prospects that are still to come will help the Orioles start turning the page from rebuilding to competing over those coming years.
With Rutschman injured to start the year, the club selected Bemboom’s contract, pairing him with Chirinos as the club’s catching duo. In 22 games on the year, he’s hit a meager .115/.207/.212. Since he’s out of options, the club had little choice but to designate him for assignment in order to make room for their star prospect. Bemboom will likely hit the waiver wire in the coming days and see if there’s another club in the league that’s interested in his services.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
At long last…
Orioles vs Pirates in at least two World Series in next ten years :-0
Both teams paying for tickets to sit and watch
Nah… both orgs loaded with young talent and gonna be relevant again by 2023/24.
It doesn’t matter how much talent the pirates acquire bro. Their ownership group is pathetic. They do not want to win. They want to make money.
EVERY owner wants to make money. Don’t ever think otherwise. These guys only got where they are because they wanted to make money.
These are always the dumbest comments? Doesn’t everyone on this site want to make money? Aren’t all of your decisions to maximize your personal wealth as well?
Maybe, but how often have people said that about these franchises in the last 30 years? They’re frequently “loaded” with prospects and yet here we are.
“We Are Family” vs “Thank God I’m A Country Boy”: The Long Awaited Sequel
Prospects are just that,prospects.
They do not matter unless they make it in the big leagues.
The Pirates will have better players soon and more depth,but their starting pitching will still be no better than average,and will not nearly be deep enough to compete with the money teams for the WS.
Small market teams really have no chance for a WS unless a Steve Cohen buys them.
This isn’t the 1970’s anymore.
Im not talking about it in simple terms. I mean their ownership group is in it for the money only. Huge difference. Jim Crane did not buy the Astros to make money. He wants to win. Sure he doesn’t want to lose money. But he’s a billionare who isnt afraid to spend.
Aren’t all of your decisions to maximize your personal wealth as well?
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I don’t mind the complaints if the owners massively under-spend what their attendance suggests they should. But I get the feeling that some of these “fans” haven’t bought a ticket in years, but then complain that the owner isn’t spending enough of his money.
Nothing wrong with wanting to make money but it is a problem if you only want to make money and you don’t care about a half empty stadium because pocketing revenue sharing gives you a profit anyway.
It always is and was a business but some owners just don’t care much about the quality of their product because revenue sharing keeps them afloat.
@astros agreed, some owners want to try to win by spending money..Same with Fowler/Seidler group in San Diego. They are spending over 200 million on a roster to get fans into the seats. They want to win more than anything for the city.
If he wants to win so bad what’s the reason he didn’t resign Carlos Correa? George Springer? Garrett Cole? Popping off like usual.
So being stupid with your money means that you want to win? I think that being smart with it means more and is more long lasting. Not cheap…smart. There’s a fine line between them. How’s the Hosmer and Myers contracts working out? Being stupid with your money will handcuff future spending.
because we are still winning without them – how ’bout that?
One Championship in 60 years and that one is tainted with a cheating scandal. How ‘bout that? Championships are the only things that count. Would the Astros had won again if Crane wasn’t so cheap?
George Springer has been nothing but hurt while in Toronto, Jeremy Peña is supposed to be a stud and is ready at SS. The one player you could make a case for is Gerrit Cole, but Cole is not as dominant as a Yankee as he was as a Pirate or Astro. So was Crane wrong in letting them go? Look at the team, they have been perennial contenders and are leading the AL West yet again this year. Clearly they know what they are doing….
The stros have a 162MM payroll on the field right now. That’s not exactly hugging the poverty line.
@FeverPitch, I loved this comment, well done.
Not, he meant playing
Yes, they are manipulating the system to make money. AS YOU WOULD. You all talk like owners should lose tens of millions every year to get “you” a championship. If the economics of the market don’t support it, you can’t do it. Maybe the market just shouldn’t have a team? Owners are making smart business moves as the players do as well. Your comments are naive.
Your assumptions about what other people would do in terms of money make you sound naive, I’m afraid.
Pirates will never challenge for a World Series unless their ownership actually decides to spend… I don’t care how good your pipeline is, you have to be able to supplement it with outside talent.
They will, but it’ll never be a consistent challenge. Best case scenario is that it will be like the Royals in 2014-15. And that is if EVERYTHING works perfectly like it did for KC. Otherwise, neither the Pirates nor the Orioles will ever be much more than fodder for the rest of baseball.
Hiflew- I think that you are right and wrong.
Small market teams can be competitive if run properly.It is just that they will go in cycles.The low years do not have to be pitiful like they have been since the 2019 all star break for the Pirates.
But I agree with you otherwise.You have to hit it at the exact right time to win a championship,and you have to be lucky.
They cannot afford the superstars that the money teams get on a regular basis.
The whole basis of MLB has to change for this to change.Sadly,that will never happen.
Rays are a good example of a team that is ran effectively without spending a ton. So are the A’s. The Royals did it with prospects for a couple of years and are in that cycle.
The Pirates had prospects, didn’t let them fully mature and made bad trades as they sent them packing. Cole, Glassnow, Tailon…return? Bad management.
The Rays signed Morton 4-5yrs ago to $15M AAV. And signed Franco to a huge contract. They have graduated from non-spenders like the Pirates.
And since you seem uninformed, look up the return for Taillon before you throw Cherington under the bus
Different management.
It’s Pittsburgh!! Curious how much you’d like them to lose for you to have a championship? Maybe 50 million? 100 mill? You can either draft young and hope for your four year run before the next rebuild or you can lose millions and millions to go for it. As a business owner in a market like Pittsburgh what would you do with YOUR money?
Pittsburg could at least spend the revenue sharing they receive instead of pocketing half of it…. After all, the whole purpose of sharing is for more competitive balance, not more competitive bank accounts……..
What would be the point of buying high priced free agents at this point when you have young players who need ML experience?
Do you think that that would make them competitive with teams like the Yankees?
I never said high-priced FAs, did I? But, to say you have young talent is a joke. You’re the laughingstock of the NL.
Completely non-competitive for years, literally, & your team has free money to spend, every season, to improve your team; but, instead the owner chooses to pocket that free money and you’re defending that, man? Yikes.
How about just a few guys who can play to win a couple times per year? Too much to ask? The Pirates are *the* reason a specific provision was put into the contract that teams had to spend new money every year in order to receive the ~$100M in free money from the other teams.
I feel bad for you as a fan. I can’t believe you’re not upset at that.
There are other expenditures besides payroll. Just because it isn’t spent on payroll doesn’t mean the money isn’t being spent. Bills gotta be paid regardless if you get a gate of 1.5 million or 3 million. Chartered flights aren’t cheap and neither are training facilities and rehab facilities. Then of course, you have to be charitable and give to charity or you look like a pariah.
YC-Kingbum is correct below.
Your team has been bathing in money for so long that you have no idea as to how most of the rest of the teams have to operate.
The payrolls of the top three teams are absolutely obscene.Well more than a quarter of a BILLION dollars each..The Yankees should be winning every three years.
There is young talent in the minors for the Pirates.It just won’t be good enough to ever win a WS.MLB is grossly slanted to the big money big market teams.
As bad as the Pirates have been for three years several teams have been just as bad for 5 or 6.Why aren’t arrogant Yankee fans like you picking on them as the “ laughingstock” of baseball.
And no,not all Yankee fans are arrogant.
The Pirates spent when they were good.They will again if and when they become a good team again.Then you can direct your rants to the Reds or another small market team since you are poed that the Yankees have to pay money to lowlife teams like the Pirates.
So, no the money solely designated for a competitive roster is repurposed to keep the buses running and the lights on?
C’mon, man. You guys know better than that. The Pirates are adding to their net profit with their free improvement monies from teams like the Yankees/Dodgers.
If it’s that bad, force a sell. He should not own a team he needs charity to run.
Each team has its own issues, but the Pirates are the worst offenders and have been for a long time under Nutting. It’s not arrogance. In fact the arrogance stems from the fans that assume a franchise valued at $7B having a $250M payroll is obscene and therefore should cater to the Pirates by allowing them to tank every single year, while pocketing revenue designed to be added to their roster so they can compete.
But, I don’t care, personally, it’s your terrible team. I just want to see baseball better, not worse, man. It’s nothing against you fans. I just think you’re being taken.
I think that you do not know what you are talking about.
It does seem that you are genuine in thinking that Pirate fans are getting screwed.
But I await your answer to the following question.
What specific free agents should the Pirates have signed and for how much money?
YC- I knew that I would get crickets from you.You think that you know a lot about other teams but you really do not.
I’d bet a lot of money this doesn’t come to pass
Time for some not-so-random drug testing here at MLB Trade Rumors?
Terrier1980: Not sure about twice in the next decade, however it’s ALREADY HAPPENED twice in a previous decade. They played each other in the 1971 & the 1979 World Series. Both were won by the Pirates.
Lol…. that was the basis of my original comment. Two great franchises, much maligned, about to rise together again.
Orioles have a lot of competition just to get to the playoffs in their division. Pirates will be competitive for a 1-2 year window, then trade everyone before paying them.
Exited for this. And then Hall and Rodriguez. Once the Os start playing in free agency (probably this offseason and then more in 2023-2024 perhaps I can start watching competitive games again
Where did you leave?
Huh?
Let’s hope he’s more Posey and less Weiters, who still had a nice career just never lived up to his #1 overall prospect ranking. I suppose very few actually do (see Profar, Jurickson). Rutschman and Witt ended up being a hell of a 1-2 in the 2019 draft
Matt was seeming to finally figure it out in the beginning of 2014. Then needed Tommy John and was never really the same overall.
Vaughn is not top shabby as a 3 right now.
As bad as the Orioles are, what’s the rush, man?
He’s already 24 and not much more to prove in the minors, got to give the fans a reason to come out to the park.
I think his pun went over your head
I’ll give you that one, because I picked up “rush man’ on exactly the right day. There are not a whole lot of catchers out there.
Like so many other prospects, he will probably struggle this year. Even Mike Trout struggled when he came up.
Great pun. The poster of the first response should be ashamed
Yes, ashamed because we’re all not at witty as you…
I did not get it either as I am not familiar with him and I would have pronounced the t.
He is ridiculously ashamed I can tell, trying to hide it with his sarcasm. It’s pathetic.
Not really, pathetic is being a keyboard warrior rebel without a cause.
His name reminds me more of someone who owns a hedge fund….
Finally, a reason to watch the O’s again. Still need a 3B (what’s Manny up to?), a SS, a 2B, 2+ SPs, and the ability to get on base.
Still love my hometown team but its been painful to watch.
We have a SS despite yeterday’s poor performance. Our next SP1 will be here in July. Our next 2B will be here in late June, our next 3B will be here next spring. And there are reinforcements behind them.
Mateo is a utility guy. Fine enough to play 3 days a week but not the full time answer.
Rodriguez and Hall were 2 of the 3 SPs I believe in so far. Zimmerman is the 3rd. Means is a question mark going forward and Lyles will be dealt in 2 months. I am good with seeing some of the other pitchers work it out in the majors though.
2B? Do you mean Vavra? Hopefully hi injury does not slow his production down. Or is it Hall?
3B? I was thinking Mayo in a few years but are you going with Henderson?
I believe in Mateo. And yes, I was thinking Vavra and Henderson.
Ironic that Rutschman’s call up comes on the birthday of another former first round catcher by the Orioles: Matt Wieters.
I hope this is the start of a great career for the Rutschman, and something the entire Orioles’ organization and fan base can get excited about.
Both 1st round draft picks by the Orioles, both ranked as the game’s #1 prospects when called up. Wieters had a decent career, but Orioles fans expected more. They seem to be expecting even more from Rutschman, who arrives in the majors a year older than Wieters was.
Interesting coincidence today is Wieters’ birthday.
Remember Matt Wieters Facts? No one could live up to those expectations.
Chuck Norris could live up to every Matt Wieters Fact.
We all do realize that if he’s Wieters 2.0 the O’s got a heck of a player. And it’s MUCH more likely he’s SwiHART 2.0.
Orioles fans did not expect more. The O’s hype train promised us more. “Switch hitting Jesus.” “Mike Piazza, but he’s also a great catcher.”
I am not expecting anything from “the Flying Rutschman,” He’s a top pick. He should be good. But the draft and prospects are a shot in the dark and you won’t know what he can do until he does it at the major league level.
Orioles going to have a dynasty for a decade. Look forward to multiple championships in Baltimore.
Charm city does not have that much charm.
Here’s hoping he isn’t just another minor league star who couldn’t cut it in the majors. Best of luck, kid!
Congrats Orioles fans I think a new era in Oriole baseball has arrived this guy is not just a heck of a baseball player he’s a winner.
At the very least you have a well above average defensive catcher but with the way he controls the strike zone doesn’t swing at a lot of pitches out of the zone and makes good contact he should be at least an average offensive player. He has a chance to be a special player though a switch hitting catcher then is above average defensively and probably above average offensively. As a Red Sox fan I’m jealous.
He’ll be a Red Sox once free agency arrives.
Exciting to finally see this kid with all the hype surrounding him. I hope he pans out. It’s been a long time since there’s been an excellent catcher on both sides of the ball – add in the fact he’s supposed to be good on both sides & he’s a switch-hitter & the kid’s a unicorn.
Anyway, I hope the kids does well & we see some exciting baseball with some great catching.
First exciting prospect to hit the Orioles since Manny Machado. Hopefully he escapes the HoF expectations better than Wieters did
Wishing the kid a long, successful, and healthy career! Best of luck!
So what will his nickname be, A-Rut? Doesn’t sound so good.
Can he wear #15 and be “AR-15” ?