The Orioles announced this afternoon that catcher Adley Rutschman is being placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left oblique strain. Catcher Maverick Handley was recalled to the majors to replace Rutschman on the roster.
The news comes after Rutschman was a late scratch on Friday due to what the Orioles termed at the time as “abdominal tightness.” Manager Tony Mansolino told reporters (including Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun) that Rutschman went for an MRI this morning. Evidently, that round of testing revealed a strained oblique for the switch-hitting backstop. A two-time All-Star and decorated hitter currently in the midst of his fourth season in the majors, Rutschman is hitting just .227/.319/.372 with a 100 wRC+ that clocks in as precisely league average.
That could be construed as very concerning given that Rutschman also suffered a down year (104 wRC+) in 2024, but the good news is that Rutschman’s underlying performance (.350 xwOBA) substantially outstrips his actual production (.309 wOBA) so far this season. He’s walking more than last year, sporting the best barrel rate (8.6%) of his career, and his paltry .247 BABIP is certain to increase if given time. More concerning than his offensive numbers is that he’s been rather pedestrian behind the plate defensively this year according to advanced metrics, but defensive metrics are notoriously fickle and it wouldn’t be a shock to see those numbers recover over the long-term either.
Of course, Rutschman will now need to get healthy and return to the field in order to make good on those projected improvements. It’s not yet clear exactly how long Rutschman is expected to miss, though oblique strains can be quite difficult for position players to bounce back from quickly due to the rotational nature of hitting. Even fairly mild strains can often take upwards of month of recovery, so it wouldn’t be a shock to see Rutschman out of commission until after the All-Star break. In the meantime, it’s clear that the Orioles will lean on a tandem of Gary Sanchez and Handley. Sanchez has made it into just 17 games this year after dealing with injuries of his own, but his slashing a respectable .217/.298/.433 (101 wRC+) with 32 homers in 598 plate appearances dating back to the 2023 campaign. Handley, meanwhile, made his big league debut earlier this year and has hit just .075/.136/.075 in 15 games as a big leaguer.
Handley’s lackluster performance will naturally create some attention on top catching prospect Samuel Basallo, who has long been considered one of the best prospects in the entire game. Mansolino largely shut down the idea that Basallo could be an option to come up any time soon, however. As noted by Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner, Mansolino said that he hopes to see Basallo “absolutely destroy Triple-A in all facets of the game” before joining the big league club, and that he’ll be on the radar for a big league call-up once he “knocks the door down.”
It’s hard to argue that Basallo isn’t already knocking on the door pretty strongly, at least from an offensive perspective. The 20-year-old has an absurd .266/.374/.589 slash line with the club’s Norfolk affiliate this year, good for a 151 wRC+. He’s hit 15 homers in just 46 games while walking at a phenomenal 14.4% clip. With that being said, he’s only caught 15 games this season after dealing with hamstring and elbow issues early in the year that cost him games and limited him to DH even when he was healthy enough to play. Given that reality and Basallo’s shaky grades behind the plate defensively from some scouts, it’s not necessarily a shock that the Orioles would want to see a larger sample of their top prospect’s work behind the dish before promoting him to the majors.
Probably injured himself trying to hide his signs from the cheating Yankees.
Hard to steal signs with pitch com you sad lonely person.
Any time something like this happens, my first question is how long the guy was trying to play through it. They’ll never tell us, but there’s always several guys that seem like they’re trying to play through injury.
Basallo: .963 OPS overall. Last 11 games: .357/.449/.714.
Handley: 3-for-40 as a big leaguer.
[Nice work Orioles.
You don’t know what is good
The Mav’s Specialty is his catching and controlling the game….I don’t care if this man hits ZERO!!!! He is a tremendous help to the entire pitching staff
Did you even bother to read the article. He may be ready–may be–offensively, but he’s a far cry from being ready defensively.
Basallo reminds me of Gunnar. Actual position is hitter. Os need to keep guys like these healthy. Move Gunnar to 3rd and minimize Basallo’s time as a backstop.
Pretty sure they know what they are doing and have knowledge on their players that vastly exceeds anyone else’s.
The last two players that were brought up when seemingly ready – Holliday and Mayo, ended up going back down to straighten some things out. Holliday was a completely different player when he came back up and Mayo’s multiple trips have provided minimal incremental improvement but not anywhere in line with expectations yet.
We know Basallo is good, let him get more than 15 games behind the plate this season before any serious consideration of bringing him up. While they need offensive production, the defensive game and handling the pitching staff are more important from the catcher position right now.
I suspect Basallo will see late season action. One, to preserve an option year, two, to evaluate him for a ’26 roster spot and three, keep him ROY eligible for ’26. Of course if he “absolutely mash(es)” sooner than that he may force thier hand.
There is nothing lackluster about the Maverick…he can’t hit worth a lick…but i think he can improve…and even if he hits zero….Maverick is a magician behind the plate….I sincerely mean that and look forward to seeing him as backstop
He will improve the Oriole pitching staff markedly
You guys would know better than me, so I’ll take your word for it. Just need a second catcher in my dynasty league and waiting on Basallo. 🙂
I do like that his BB% is up from 8.6% to 14.4% over last year, and he’s striking out less in AAA than he did in last year’s smallish sample size.. I thought we’d see him since he’s on a heater lately, but given his age and defensive development needed, I can see keeping him down longer.
Here comes everyone chiming in about the need to promote prospects quickly. We tried this with holiday and mayo and it blew up in our face. This isnt a contending year, so we can take our time with basallo. Let him marinade longer so when he does come up he sticks.
Call him in September if only to give him a cup of coffee and to evaluate him at the big league level.
Maaaan, I’d love for the Padres to work a deal for Adley. Wonder what it would take considering his last couple of years..
It would take an absolute haul to convince the Orioles to trade him.