O's top prospect eager to get back behind dish

This story was excerpted from Jake Rill’s Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox. This version was written by MLB Pipeline reporter Ben Weinrib, who is based in Nashville, Tenn.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Samuel Basallo isn’t quite ready to return behind the plate just yet. But the Orioles’ top prospect is itching to get back out there and could be ready to fulfill his massive potential with his imminent return to catching.

The 20-year-old slugger has been limited defensively after dealing with right elbow inflammation during Spring Training. He served only as the designated hitter for Triple-A Norfolk during the first month of the season -- also missing three weeks with a hamstring strain -- and resumed playing first base approximately every other game on April 29.

MLB’s No. 16 prospect has been catching bullpen sessions for about a week and doing daily catching work on the side. He’s throwing to bases consistently as the club is working on getting his arm into game shape.

Basallo’s return behind the plate will likely bring a sense of normalcy for him as well, since he’s spent nearly two-thirds of his games in pro ball at catcher and hadn’t DH’d before 2025. Playing the field makes him feel like he's "actually playing the game" and not just going out there, getting his swings in and heading back to the dugout.

“Sometimes when you're just hitting, you're just focusing on hitting, and when you're out on defense, you’ve got to leave it in the dugout if you didn’t have the result in that one at-bat,” Basallo said via fundamentals coach Felipe Alou Jr., who translated. “It keeps me focused on the game when I'm involved in all areas.”

Of course, that’s not to say that Basallo has struggled at the plate. Through 20 games, he's slashing .232/.316/.449 with four home runs. However, the team knows that he has much more in the tank -- and you can hear as much, with the loud contact he makes.

Despite being the youngest player to start the season at Triple-A -- he won’t turn 21 until Aug. 13 -- Basallo has posted some of the best exit velocities on the circuit. He entered Monday night tied for fifth among Triple-A players with at least 50 plate appearances in adjusted exit velocity (94.2 mph) and eighth in barrels per plate appearance (12.8%).

“We're trying to get him to understand that that's just as important as your batting average,” Tides manager Tim Federowicz said. “But like I said, he's a young kid. He just wants to see the numbers on the scoreboard go up, which is tough. So, we're working through that with him and just trying to get him to understand: You hit the ball hard, even though it's out, it's still a quality at-bat.”

The Orioles have good reason to believe that his power will translate into results soon. He has one of the highest expected slugging percentages in the farm system and ranks 23rd across Triple-A with a .521 xSLG.

This season, Basallo has a better understanding of expected hitting statistics, which are based on quality of contact, giving him a measure of relief when the results aren’t where he wants them to be yet. He doesn't want to fall into his tendency to expand the strike zone when his hard-hit balls don't drop in for hits.

“Obviously it feels good to know it,” Basallo said through Alou. “At the end of the day, we're humans. You want to see some results. But I mean, if everybody's telling [me] that things are where they're supposed to be, just keep it up, keep trusting the process and, eventually, some more results are going to start showing up.”

Not only will Basallo have a renewed sense of normalcy when he dons catching gear in games again, but he’s also eager to show off the work he’s done behind the plate. The Dominican Republic native has worked closely with Federowciz, an eight-year big league catcher.

Basallo is large for a catcher at 6-foot-4, but Federowicz has helped him work on his knees more and make adjustments to help his quickness. His size and long limbs prevent him from getting as close to batters as a smaller catcher can, but they’ve created workarounds and are working to get him lower, in general.

“It's just going to be a lot better once he gets in games and we can actually see,” Federowicz said. “I want to see how he interacts with the pitchers and executes a game plan.”