April 26: Huff is back with Baltimore on a minor league deal, per his MLB transactions tracker. Roch Kubatko of MASN first reported the possibility of Huff returning to the organization.
April 25: Huff has cleared waivers and elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment, per Jake Rill of MLB.com.
April 21: The Orioles announced Tuesday that catcher Sam Huff has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to catcher Adley Rutschman, who’s returning from a brief stay on the 10-day injured list due to a minor ankle injury.
Huff was just selected to the big league roster last week. He appeared in three games with Baltimore, going 2-for-9 with a double, an RBI and five strikeouts in nine plate appearances. With Rutschman back from the injured list, however, the O’s can turn catching duties back over to their Opening Day tandem of Rutschman and prospect Samuel Basallo.
Huff, 28, signed a minor league deal with the O’s in January. The former Rangers top prospect has now played in parts of six big league seasons and slashed a respectable .246/.299/.427 with a dozen homers in 281 trips to the batter’s box. That’s roughly league-average offense, by measure of wRC+, and more than 10% better than the standard catcher. However, Huff’s output has come in spite of a colossal 36.3% strikeout rate. He’s needed a .354 average on balls in play just to get to league-average with the bat. As such, he’s highly unlikely to sustain his current pace.
On the defensive side of things, Huff has solid framing grades in his limited major league work. He’s struggled with blocking balls in the dirt and controlling the run game. The former seventh-round pick has just an 18.5% caught-stealing rate in his career and has been charged with eight passed balls in 527 innings behind the dish.
Baltimore will have five days to trade Huff or place him on outright waivers. (The latter seems likelier.) Waivers would be another 48-hour process, so the outcome of today’s DFA will be known within a week. If he clears waivers, Huff could be assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk, where he hit .156/.250/.168 in 36 plate appearances before being summoned to the big leagues. However, since he’s previously been outrighted in the past, he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.
A lot of these bats need to wake up. Hopefully adley can pick up where he left off.
💯
Last night’s game, and the whole road trip, is tough to watch. JJ can only do so much, and Adley was the one other guy that seemed locked in early. Well, Ward too.
Agree. I’d love to see Adley return to the level of lift he gave the 2022-23 Orioles.
I’m fine if they shift Basallo to backup Adley, and 1B/DH, Jackson to 3B and Mayo to the bench. Mayo has looked lost. Cowser is also not showing any development and they’ve stopped giving him fastballs near the plate.
Thornton Mellon — Poor Cowser; gets exposed to relentless off-speed and no fastballs for weeks. Then as soon as he makes the adjustment for off-speed by CLE series, the league quickly starts attacking him with fastballs…and he can’t hit those anymore.
Baseball tough. Hang with ’em, Cowser.
Agree on Sammy. Less bat breaking, more baseball breaking.
Love our bullpen. Elias has a knack for Relief arms. Cano getting back to form wasn’t something I had much hope in, given the last 2 years, but hey, he too looks better than before.
O’s – for the bullpen I’m a little concerned about early workload. 4 guys with 11 appearances and 2 with 12 in the first 25 games. Some of that is extra off days but that happened last year and then by Memorial Day they got fried.
I wouldn’t mind seeing starters go 6 or 7 and then Albert finishing a game or two with 2-3 IP, or bring up Povich to pitch 3-5 innings of long relief off a busted start. I cringe when I see them use 6, 7 pitchers so many times.
lol I’m glad you inspired Mayo for at least 1 AB xD
Scruff – Yeah I’ve been all over Mayo too and got 2 texts after the home run both saying it hasn’t landed yet. Mayo pulverized a meatball. Up and over the plate.
The book on Cowser is breaking stuff especially low and away. If you risk a fastball, keep it outside. He is always trying to pull (although today he had an exception to that and got a hit from it)
Agree with O’s also w/ Elias being able to find those bullpen guys from nowhere. Rico Garcia this year. Cano isn’t 100% back to his top but he’s closer to that than he is to the 2025 disaster form for sure. It’s too bad that Elias can’t seem to work the same with starters – good ones cost money.
I’m sorry but Bassitt looks washed. His pitches are not moving or breaking at anywhere close to what last year’s looked like. The Royals aren’t the ’27 Yankees and he was getting hit.
Adley certainly performed well yesterday with his 2 HR 6 RBI game! Loved seeing that!
Huff puff Huff puff
Huff, huff, pass..
At least he’s not headed to the DL
With as many baserunners KC had last night the game could have been over early. Our guys are not playing up to their potential. Is it the coaching both pitching and hitting or are the players just not prepared? The only starter in last night’s game with a decent BA was Taveras. Maybe last year wasn’t Hyde’s fault?
At some point the players need to play up to their talent level. My Giants need to do the same. Managers and coaches can only do so much.
Jeremiah Jackson is hitting .296 and Taylor Ward .293. In today’s game that is quite better than decent! Taveras is at .341. If he qualified, he would be tied for 3rd in all of baseball. Exceptional, not decent!
@ Curt Yeah a lot of people don’t even realize that the league average is around the .240s range these days.
Who cares about batting average anymore? OPS tells you who the good hitters are.
Sam left in a Huff.
option Foster and Cowser and bring up Weston and Bradfield
I dont like Enns dont understand why they signed him for 2 years
getting akin and kittrwdge back this weekend should help
Cowser needs to be optioned
The advantage to optioning Cowser is that he would get regular at bats at Norfolk, against righties and lefties. However, I don’t see that happening with Johnathan Rodriguez and Weston Wilson on the roster.
Neither Weston or Bradfield are on the 40-man, though we do have an opening. I don’t believe either would be considered ready by management, particularly when Tyler O’Neil, Kittredge, and Akins could return this weekend.
Enns is signed to a 1-year contract with a team option. Not a 2-year gurantee. No harm.
Guy sucks. Get off the team