NEW YORK -- A day after a wild collision at the plate on Sunday afternoon resulted in an early departure for Maverick Handley at Yankee Stadium, the Orioles catcher was placed on the 7-day concussion list on Monday. To take his place on the roster, catcher Chadwick Tromp's contract was selected from Triple-A Norfolk.
Handley exited the O’s 4-2 loss in the series finale against the Yankees in the bottom of the second inning after he was hit hard by Jazz Chisholm Jr., who scored from second base on DJ LeMahieu’s two-out RBI single. Gary Sánchez entered the game at catcher for Baltimore.
As Chisholm was heading for home, Handley moved up the third-base line to catch a throw from left fielder Colton Cowser. Chisholm initially tried to avoid the tag before knocking Handley, who went airborne and spun fully around.
Handley was checked over by head athletic trainer Scott Barringer and interim manager Tony Mansolino before coming out of the game. After the contest, Handley’s “full body” was being evaluated, per Mansolino.
“He got hit pretty hard,” Mansolino said. “You haven’t seen stuff like that in a long time. After the Buster Posey rules of taking out catchers at the plate, you don’t see that. The difference there, too, is Mav’s running full speed at a guy that’s flying down the line, so it’s very scary.”
“I hope he’s OK,” shortstop Gunnar Henderson said. “That’s a scary, scary situation there.”
Sánchez caught both Friday night and Saturday afternoon because All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman went on the injured list with a left oblique strain prior to Saturday’s contest. Handley was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk as the corresponding move.
The Orioles have had 22 players spend time on the IL this season, including 11 who are currently sidelined.
At some point this year, Basallo could get his first taste of the big leagues. Especially if Baltimore falls far enough out of the postseason picture that it pivots to playing more young players with the long-term future in mind.
However, the Orioles don’t have that mindset at the moment. They’re 33-44, but they still believe they can climb up the standings.
“I know we’re not out of playoff contention by any means,” said right-hander Bryan Baker, who gave up three runs (two earned) in the eighth inning. “There’s still a lot of baseball left, and it’s a game of momentum, so I think we’re going to get rolling and turn things around and look back in a few months and laugh at where we’re at right now.”
It was a bit of a disappointing road trip for the O’s, who split a four-game series with the Rays and then dropped two of three against the Yankees. They lost multiple winnable games, such as Wednesday’s 12-8 loss to Tampa Bay (which they led 8-0 in the second inning) and Sunday’s finale in the Bronx.
Baltimore took a 2-0 lead over New York in the top of the first inning via an RBI single by Ryan O’Hearn and an RBI double from Colton Cowser. However, the bats went silent as the Orioles were blanked the rest of the way.
There were some highs during the week, but they were accompanied by more lows. Handley and Rutschman weren’t the only players to get hurt this weekend, either, as infielder Jordan Westburg is day to day after spraining his left index finger on Saturday.
Now, the O’s must go home and regroup for a six-game homestand that begins with the opener against the Rangers on Monday. Then, they’ll again face the Rays next weekend.
“We played a lot better than 3-4 [this week],” Baker said. “I think we probably should have been 5-2, kind of let a few get away from us. We’ve got to clean a few things up and execute and put away games. 3-4, we’d like to be better than that, especially in-division, against a couple good teams. We’ll rebound and get to work tomorrow.”