The Orioles officially announced Samuel Basallo’s contract extension at a press conference yesterday, with several players in attendance along with Basallo, GM Mike Elias, and team chairman/CEO David Rubenstein. Among the many topics addressed was Rubenstein’s desire to make such events a fairly regular occurrence, as the owner showed interest in extending more members of the Orioles’ young core.
“The Orioles’ ownership group is really well capitalized and we have the resources to do these kind of deals,” Rubenstein told Steve Melewski and other reporters. “It takes two to do deals, but we thought this was a perfect one, for the first one of this type….We have a lot of other talented people on the team who we hope will ultimately want to spend their entire career here or want to spend long-term arrangements with us. We’re committed to doing more of these as soon as we can.”
Basallo’s deal represents an intriguing turning point for an organization that more or less eschewed long-term extensions for years under previous owner Peter Angelos. As MLBTR’s Contract Tracker indicates, Adam Jones’ six-year extension from May 2012 was the last long-term extension signed by the Orioles. Other multi-year deals within the last 13 years were short-term pacts to cover arbitration years, plus there was the unusual circumstance of the three-year extension signed by J.J. Hardy just a few weeks before he was set to hit free agency in the 2014-15 offseason.
Even as the Orioles amassed a wealth of young talent in their recent rebuild, extensions didn’t follow. This naturally could’ve been a product of the ownership turmoil the organization was going through for much of that period, and Rubenstein’s group only bought the team in early 2024. It should also be noted that such O’s building blocks as Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, and Jackson Holliday are all represented by Scott Boras, whose clients have traditionally passed on signing early-career extensions.
Still, it was noteworthy that the Orioles didn’t lock up even any of the non-Boras clients until Basallo (who is repped by CAA) this week. The fact that the O’s didn’t spend much overall during the first full offseason of Rubenstein’s tenure also created concern amongst Baltimore fans that things weren’t going to change under the new regime, and the discontent only grew when the Orioles stumbled to a losing record after two seasons in the playoffs.
Management can now point to Basallo’s extension as proof that the club is willing to both keep its cornerstone players in place, and to spend the money necessary to make those deals happen. The catcher’s deal is also an example of how quickly contract talks can escalate, as Elias said negotiations began exactly a week ago, on the same day Basallo was called up from Triple-A to make his MLB debut.
Could more extensions be coming soon? Henderson didn’t comment on whether or not his camp had already had any talks with the O’s, but expressed a willingness to consider any offer and stated that “the No. 1 thing for me is being on winning teams.”
Henderson’s price tag is about to jump considerably, as the shortstop will enter the first of three arbitration years this coming offseason. His pro career has already seen Henderson bank a little over $8MM, counting his MLB minimum salaries, his $2.3MM signing bonus from the draft, and roughly $3.4MM from the pre-arbitration bonus pool. Between this bit of financial security already and escalating arb salaries, Henderson may have already made enough to feel comfortable in betting on himself all the way to free agency, like so many Boras clients. While the three years of remaining control mean that the Orioles aren’t exactly under the gun to extend Henderson, he’ll only get more expensive the closer he gets to the open market.
Adley Rutschman also declined to comment on any extension talks between his reps at Wasserman and the Orioles, simply telling the Baltimore Banner’s Danielle Allentuck and other reporters today that he was happy to see Basallo rewarded. The fact that the O’s made such a hefty commitment to a young catcher like Basallo naturally led to speculation about Rutschman’s future, and whether or not Basallo has now supplanted Rutschman as the team’s long-term choice behind the plate.
As one might expect, right now the Orioles believe there’s plenty of room for Rutschman and Basallo to operate in tandem. Yesterday, interim manager Tony Mansolino told reporters (including Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun) that the O’s could have both players in the lineup in a catcher/DH capacity, or Basallo could play first base. “The fact that Sammy is so versatile, that’s going to help that a lot…Any time you have two guys that can catch at a high level, on a big league team, you have a massive advantage over teams that don’t,” Mansolino noted.
Rutschman has two arbitration years remaining before he is scheduled to hit free agency following the 2027 season. As Weyrich notes, extending a player who has had some Major League success is much trickier than extending a player like Basallo right at the start of his career, so locking up Rutschman would represent another spending frontier for the Rubenstein ownership group. There’s also the question of whether or not the Orioles still view Rutschman as worthy of a long-term investment, considering how his numbers have declined at the plate over the last two seasons.
Good for the O’s. Hope ownership of the also talented young A’s takes the same approach though fans remain skeptical, whether the team plays in Sacramento or Vegas🤨
There is a large Gap between Fisher and any of the more competent owners in the game of baseball.
Fisher should have never been allowed to buy the A’s. Fisher should have been forced to sell the A’s a long time ago.
like the McCourt’s were forced to sell the Dodgers.
If Selig, Manfred and MLB Ownership makes such bad business decisions like forcing the A’s out of one of the richest TV and Fan market s in the country to a much smaller, much less lucrative baseball market like LV, then many would question their business judgment and decision-making process.
TV revenues are falling. ESPN and other Sports Networks are looking for MLB to “take a big haircut” on future TV deals.
Add up all the A’s revenue sharing over a few decades, (while operating in one of the richest sports markets in the country, the A’s 400M relocation fees waived, the continued A’s subsidies expected for years in LV, MLB’s contribution to a proposed new LV stadium etc..,, MLB maybe a negative 1.0B-1.6B in MLB monies thrown away to Fisher and the A’s?!
Fisher brings nothing to the table and should have been booted off the Owners bus a long time ago.
If you saw the movie “Major League”, Fisher is like that Indians Owner trying to strip the franchise to the studs, drive the fans away from the Cleveland ballclub and then move the team, cash in and sell for maximum profits.
Fisher is a lifelong Giants fan and former investor who was previously, strongly connected to the SF Giants.
Can you fault fans if they wondered if Fisher the Giants, Selig and Manfred may have intended all along to let the coliseum fall into disrepair, fire sale all the A’s players as each group of new players became a contending team and the players became more expensive, intending to create a baseball monopoly for the Giants in the SF Bay Area and openly trying to ruin the A’s financial viability in the SF Bay Area to force them to move?!
Fisher has proven by his actions that he does not give two sheets about the fans, the A’s, and/or major league baseball etc…
Fisher looks at the A’s as a business to milk and pocket all the revenues and strip the assets (players and team) down to the studs when each new group of players become arbitration eligible.
Commissioners like Selig and Manfred and clueless Owners are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs for MLB.
The upcoming lockout/strike appears to be another lousy business decision that will drive fans/paying customers away in droves..
I can understand where you’re coming as an A’s fan from but MLB revenues are at an all-time.
forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2025/01/27/mlb-revenue…
Increased revenue is great, providing their expenses aren’t rising at a faster rate
@foppert3
Expenses are for sure rising as well as the median MLB player salary figure keeps going up. The point is the sport is healthy contrary to what @Sportfan0000 has been espousing. He’s misdirecting his anger of Fisher and other low payroll clubs towards the entire league.
Cool. Yeah. Just a friendly reminder revenue doesn’t tell the full story. I’m guessing their jet fuel bill has changed a bit as well.
I few of them don’t act like they are financially healthy.
Fisher has been more successful than about half the owners. How many teams make the playoffs more often than he does?
The point was that revenuesa re peaking and may face a serious financial correction in the years to come.
The Rooker extension has worked out nicely but the Butler contract looks like a miss so far. It’s so frustrating to watch him play like those 2 months last year were a mirage.
Gonna be weird when Bolte/Perez come up and Butler is the 5th best OF on the squad but the only one with a contract.
I wanna see the FO get ahead on some of these pitchers. Give Morales, Jump, Perkins and Arnold contracts so our starting pitching is set for the next 6+ years.
The A’s FO are greenlit to give those pitchers their contracts… For other teams to take on in exchange for prospects in the next 6+ years
I can’t wait for this team to move to Vegas so we can get some new fans and hopefully new discussions that don’t constantly devolve into the same old, boring Fisher Fisher greedy greedy slop. Yawn!
@NineChampionships it gets repeated cause it’s true LOL same with the fire sales and rebuilding cycles every 5 years with Billy Beane and Bob Melvin to cover for him. Glad to know you’re “for Fisher”.
Nothing will change as long as Fisher is the owner.
Fisher is worse than the McCourts.
The discussion of Fisher’s incompetence and “gaming”. “rippingoff” the system”will continue until MLB forces a sale of the A’s to competent, well funded ownership….LV fans are not thrilled to get Fisher either, Even the Mayor of LV says t hey would take an expansion team instead of the A’s as would be appropriate for such a small market and small new stadium project.
Nevada legislature also included an expansion team clause in their funding legislation because of the very shaky ownership situation with Fisher who has so far, not come up with his share of the financing in LV.
Is that poster employed by Fisher? his employees or vendors? MLB? MLB’s vendors or affiliates? The SF Giants or their employees or vendors? We have seen this kind of BS before with posters affiliated with players, their agents, ownership, mlb etc defending the indefensible.
Most reasonable fans agree with you 1,000%
And y’all just prove my point. Any discussion about A’s baseball gets derailed by folks obsessed with the owner. It’s real weird. Y’all need to find a new hobby.
You have no real argument left, “NineChampionships”, it’s weirder to be ignorant and to stand up for an owner like this, that’s for sure.
“Y’all” is also a clear sign to not engage with you or whatever opinionated contrarian argument you have as well.
Topics will be derailed, players will still get traded for being in their prime, the front office will still be sitting on their thumbs, and people will still call out the A’s.
Stay obsessed with the owner, we’ll cheer the A’s until their situation improves
At the end of the days, how do the A’s compare to the LAA, WS, Os, TO, Mets, Miami, PT, Rox, etc.?
Better, especially since A’s fans refuse to spend a nickel.
The A’s owner and team refused to spend, bootlicking Brady.
A’s fans spent plenty of nickels and dollars when they had ownership that actually cared about the fans and did their best to be competitive like when Walter Haas Jr (Levis) owned the team and the A’s broke MLB attendance records for playoffs games at the Coliseum. Some of the Wolfe owned teams drew large crowds also.
It was the Fisher regime that mismanaged the A’s, refused to spend money keeping up the stadium, extending star players, using advertising and marketing like most MLB ballclubs to keep the stadium full of fans etc..
And, arguably, that was part of Fisher’s business plan to tank the A’s attendance to use it as an excuse to relocate the team.
The only reason the West Sacramento A’s made any extensions is because they were forced to spend money or lose Fisher’s only source of income, revenue sharing.
Yes! It is Fisher continuing his grift of MLB, the A’s and Fans
Fisher by his actions is not qualified to be an MLB Owner.
They could have built one of the best stadiums in the league for the A’s in the Bay Area with all the money they flushed down the toilet subsidizing Fisher’s grift of MLB and the A’s.
Who else would be cornerstone players to lock up, if not westburg, henderson, and holliday? I dont trust adley. No one else has really developed.
Cowser, Greyson, Kremer, Mountcastle, Bautista, Mullins, Santander – they can/could have all been approached for extensions prior to free agency or trades. I’m not making a case for or against any of them, simply listing other names that would have qualified for extensions.
Obviously, of the group remaining that I listed, the team would probably prefer to lock up Cowser and potentially Kremer. Greyson and Bautista have serious injury concerns that likely tabled any discussions. You obviously want to get as many of the big 4 – Henderson, Holliday, Westburg and Adley – as possible, I’d say Westburg is the most likely of that group to sign and extension. You have to put some sort of serious offer out there for Henderson and if he decides to pass then you’d want to maximize his value for a haul in a trade – reminds me of the Nationals and Soto situation, it’ll suck but he ultimately made his decision and the organization got a lot of talent in return.
Holliday is established?
He’s young and still has loads of potential but has yet to get within a stones throw of league average, either at the plate or with the glove. I agree about Westburg and Henderson, but Holliday feels like a guy they at least have a chance of extending. Not saying they will, but there’s a chance.
He’s 21 years old and has an OPS of .691, where an “average” hitter would typically sit somewhere in the .700s. So that’s pretty preposterous to claim that he has not come within a stone’s throw of league average, especially when accounting for how young he is.
Westburg feels extendable to me. Henderson could dream on a half-bil payday if his platform year goes right, and spending long term on Adley wouldn’t be efficient even if they like the catcher duo over the next couple seasons. But Westburg should rate only mid-20MM/szn over a reasonable term. 7/175 with some hedging built in? That’s nothing in today’s game.
Rogers is probably the next man up for an extension.
Os need to spend money and invest in legit pitching. They do that, then it shows the core infielders the Os will go out and spend what is necessary to win. No sense in Gunnar or others locking themselves into a long term commitment to an organization that so far proves year after year they are frugal and cut corners on filling out a pitching staff. Hopefully this extension is a sign things are really changing for the Os.
Sure they could have locked up some on the past. For as much grief as ownership has received for not locking up players in the past, how foolish would have extensions to any of those players you listed look today? Greyso amd bautista are wrecked injury prone. Mountcastle and cedric are on the downturn. Kremer really isnt anuthing special aside from making his starts. I might have been interested in santander given his consistency prior to this year. Cowser, maybe though ill remind everyone hes had only 1/2 a year of good production between the two hes been in the majors.
Again, I wasn’t making a case for any of them. The question was what other players could they have signed, I simply provided a list. I’m well aware of the issues surrounding each player and cases for or against each one but that wasn’t the question.
Seriously, other than the listed boras clients, who else is core? Cowser? Maybe. I would have thought mayo but hes not proven to be anything but a AAAA player.
It was great luck for the Orioles that they didn’t extend their top prospects/young players after the ownership transition two winters ago. Rutschman would have been a big overpay while Rodriguez and Holliday would have been disasters.
The right thing for a mini market like Baltimore is to copy Tampa and trade em after year 5.
Only thing Holliday has established is that he has been a flop so far. Not Henry Davis levels of flop but you expect more from a former num 1 overall pick.
A 20 yr old in the Majors is considered a flop? I think peoples expectations are just a tad delusional.
Holliday has a 93 OPS+ and 0.7 WAR this year. Slightly below average but no where near a bust. Your hyperbole is not serving you well.
In this case bust is a subjective term that is way too early to call him anyways. If a number one prospect like Holliday puts up a career worth of numbers that he is currently producing, he is absolutely a bust. Doesn’t mean bad player, but certainly a bust relative to expectations.
JD-Absolutely correct. People use subjective terms as absolutes. He’s hardly even a disappointment. They bought him up at age 20, and very few players succeed at that age. As a RS fan, I’d gladly trade for him.
Absolutely. He could take over for Story.
Cracks me up when people call a 21 year old a bust. Hell, he could be mediocre for three or four more years and still would be a young prospect. Give this poor kid some time for crying out loud.
Give him time.
Holliday’s numbers are great for a 21`-22 year old rising star.
Mountcastle is old for the group, but from Rubinstein’s perspective he’s young. Perhaps given his recent circumstances he’d entertain a two or three year deal to avoid arbitration.
If the team is willing to take on some risk, they’ll never get guys like Kjerstad, Bradish or Vance Honeycutt to sign cheaper than they can get them now.
Same is probably true for Adley. He rebounds to form, his cost sky rockets. The whole “you’re the next Matt Wieters” narrative plays into a more team friendly contract if they were to lock him up.
Just hope they don’t go all crazy on extending Mayo. He’s just not doing anything right now. Until he does, pass.
Imho adley is gone the dude will not sign extension, but some of those young players will hopefully holiday will sign long term.
There no reason not to discuss extensions that allow them to reach free agency prior to their age 30 seasons. If anything it allows the team to extend their current window of opportunity a couple years. Every pro athlete has to consider injury risk when a team is offering long term guaranteed money.
Huge mistake if this is the plan. The White Sox tried this a few years ago. A promising young team went to crap as they lost their drive. Keep them hungry and fighting for arbitration increases.
Inept at developing hitters but yes you’re messing with human nature drive by removing incentives for higher productivity.
Westburg as example already has a ton of IL time-you want him to prove he’s not injury prone and earn more in ARB with team/player goals aligned.
*Braves another-they won WS adding some FA vets who got hot moreso than its “core” (like Acuna who was out). Now they have a lot of content contract extension players on IL or underperforming/losing. Unknowable, but would Albies have been better last few seasons if he didn’t feel like he locked in a bad deal too quick?….which turned into not a bad deal if player cares less as a result.
Darn. Was hoping westburg could be a long term target. But didnt know he was with Boras
The most important thing Rubenstein said: “It takes two to do these deals.” Remember that this offseason as well, folks.
Play them up to 1-2 years before free agency.
Give them your best offer.
If they decline, then trade each of them who refuse extensions for some top, young, cost controlled talent in multiples and keep reinforcing the core.
Find the players who want to be in Baltimore long term and extend as many of the young impact players as you can.
Most of the Boras repped players want to go to the free agent auction. That is why players sign with Boras to be auctioned off in free agency to the highest bidder.
So locking up Basello and attempting to extend others will be the excuse given for not going out and getting this team some actual starting pitchers.
“The Orioles’ ownership group is really well capitalized and we have the resources to do these kind of deals,”
I don’t think Rubenstein will make this statement if he doesn’t intend to spend this offseason.
You mean like dropping 8.5 mil on Gary Sanchez and 16.5m on O’Neill, and 15 mil on Morton and Sugano.
It isn’t about spending. It is about WHERE they allocate their funds. The Orioles have always skimped on pitching, blaming the market being far too strong, and then they overpay for the scraps that nobody else wanted.
Elias and the Orioles have focused on acquiring, drafting and trading for young, cost controlled starting pitching.
Most of their last two MLB draft picks have been used on starting pitching. Their deadline trades sent veteran players out and received lost of young pitching back in those deals.
Mike Elias is re focusing the Orioles Front Office efforts on finding and getting cost controlled young pitching to match up with their young core of position players.
Please, most of what they just traded for is lower tier prospects that won’t be helping this team, if ever, for a few more years. Same with the draft picks. They banked on Grayson to be an ace, and see how that turned out? If they want to make a serious run and not make the mistakes of old, they need to get some serious pitching while they still have this younger, talented core.
And if the player and agent(s) are not interested in extending, and if certain players are getting closer to FA, then the Orioles team must deal those players for bunches of players who can be cost controlled for 5-6 years at least.
Baltimore is not NYC or Boston or LA or Chicago.
To stay competitive long term, some hard choices will need to be made which players to keep and which players to deal away.
They should try to extend Rogers. He’s been elite this season, and they gave up a blossoming stud in Kyle Stowers to get him.
If I’m Adley or Gunnar, I want to see if I can regain 2023 to early 2024 form before I extend, regardless of my agent. Gunnar hit 43 HR between ASB 2023 and 2024, but only on pace for 20 now (he has improved defensively). Adley hasn’t hit in about 200 games now but used to project at a .270-.280, 25 HR a year guy. Both would stand to gain hundreds of millions over a contract if they do this.
Holliday would be the best option to extend given he’s in his first full year. Westburg will probably be the most likely. I’m hesitant given the sheer # of injuries but if he ever plays a full season certainly .280/30 HR is possible.
Let’s not forget that even Ubaldo put up Cy-like #’s for half a season. I’d rather see a full season of Rogers starts first, but certainly if I’m Rogers I try to maximize on 2025 results.
If I’m the Orioles I wait on Cowser. Bradfield is pending, Beavers could be good. Cowser strikes out WAY too much. Also too soon to tell on Mayo.
Mountcastle is a no. In fact, if they can’t trade him before the arb deadline I would non-tender. Mayo and Basallo can handle 1B and they can always try to find another O’Hearn type for much cheaper to work in 1B/DH/OF. Mountcastle will probably arb at $10M which is way too much for too little.