The Orioles announced that they have signed veteran catcher Jacob Stallings to a minor league deal. He had been released by the Rockies earlier this month. He will presumably head to Triple-A Norfolk in the near future.
The move is clearly a response to the club’s catching corps taking a couple of recent hits. Adley Rutschman hit the injured list due to an oblique strain a few days ago. Maverick Handley was called up to replace him but then he himself was injured when he collided with Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Yankees in a play at the plate. Handley was placed on the concussion IL yesterday with Chadwick Tromp selected to the roster, joining Gary Sánchez to form the club’s current catching duo.
Stallings, 35, signed with the Rockies this winter on a one-year deal with a $2.5MM guarantee. That didn’t pan out, as he hit .143/.217/.179 in 93 plate appearances and got released in early June. However, he is a veteran with a solid defensive reputation in roughly a decade in the big leagues. His bat was also in good form as recently as last year, when he hit .263/.357/.453 for Colorado.
Since the Rockies released him, they are on the hook for the remainder of his salary. If the O’s call Stallings up at any point, they would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for whatever time he spends on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Rockies pay. For now, he’ll give the O’s some experienced non-roster depth. If they need further catching reinforcements at any point, he’ll be able to provide them with a veteran backstop on the cheap.
Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images
Not that basallo doesn’t need to work on the catcher position but they really don’t want to even get a look at him in the bigs just yet. You understand to a degree and the O’s have been playing a lot better of late. Still going to take a lot to dig out of the hole this year though.
He won’t be up any sooner than whatever the date cutoff is so that he retains his rookie status for ‘26. But I agree with you.
Sanchez also really needs to work on the catcher position.
Lmao after tonight holy smokes xD
No kidding. The first play last night the ball was there in plenty of time as the runner wasn’t near the plate. That play has to be made. The second one was on Gunnar. Again, no excuse for a bad throw as there was plenty of time also to make that play. Take those 2 runs away and Morton gets a win he deserves along with the O’s.
The O’s are that desperate they grab a guy the Rockies cut? Ouch.
Personally I’m probably a bit of an oddball for the teams I like, I was born in MD and lived there for over half my life so I’m going to be an O’s guy. But I always liked the Rockies and the A’s players from back in the late 90’s – early 2000’s onward. Guys like Eric Chavez, Zito, Swisher, Galarraga, Castilla, Larry Walker and Todd Helton. You are right though it do look suspect when you grabbing catcher depth from a franchise that is unfortunately right now in disarray.
Jacob Stallings likes listening to Tom Waits while in line at the DMV