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.
BALTIMORE -- Every year, there are top prospects who Orioles fans are clamoring to see. They want the future stars to reach the big leagues for their first opportunities to shine.
In 2022, it was, “When will Adley Rutschman and Grayson Rodriguez get called up?”
In 2023, it was, “When will Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad get called up?”
In 2024, it was, “When will Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo get called up?”
Now, in 2025, it has often been, “When will Samuel Basallo get called up?”
The answer for Basallo: Not quite yet, but potentially soon.
“There’s a plan in place for him right now. You guys don’t know what it is, and we’re not going to tell you. But there’s definitely a plan in place,” interim manager Tony Mansolino quipped over the weekend. “[General manager] Mike [Elias] is thinking about him every day. Our front office is really smart. There’s a lot that goes into those decisions.
“We talked earlier in the year about knocking the door down. It feels like he’s starting to do that in a lot of ways.”
Basallo (the Orioles’ top prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 9 overall) missed the first six games of Triple-A Norfolk’s second half due to right oblique discomfort. The 20-year-old Dominican catcher returned last Friday in emphatic fashion, going 5-for-5 with two doubles, one home run, two RBIs and two runs scored at Lehigh Valley.
After going 1-for-5 on Sunday, Basallo is batting .280 with 13 doubles, 20 homers, 50 RBIs and a 1.009 OPS over 64 games for Norfolk this season.
“The obvious is the box score, that’s the hitting. What you’re not seeing is the catching. There’s no catching in the box score, so that’s still a really important piece for us,” Mansolino said. “We’ve got to have catchers that are great catchers. They affect 13 [pitchers]. They affect the defense here. They affect the whole team every night.
“His development right now is probably mostly coming on the catching side. The bat’s probably ahead of that. But all reports are that the catching’s massively going up."
It became quite clear over the past month that Baltimore’s plan for Basallo never featured the potential for a big league callup prior to August. The O’s had four catchers on the injured list in early July (Rutschman, Gary Sánchez, Maverick Handley and Chadwick Tromp) and brought in two from outside the organization (Jacob Stallings and Alex Jackson) rather than promote Basallo before they believed he was ready.
Perhaps the situation would have been different if the Orioles had been having success. But as they slid further out of postseason contention in recent weeks, they didn’t want Basallo’s first taste of The Show to come out of need instead of preparedness.
“You don’t want to make a callup decision around a prospect that important because of an emergency if you can avoid it,” Elias said in late June. “So that’s where that landed.”
At that time, Elias also reiterated he hopes Basallo becomes “part of the 2025 team.” It could be easier for that to happen in August or September.
The O’s are unlikely to make a push for the postseason. Also, their roster will likely have holes to fill on the position-player side coming out of Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline. First baseman/designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn and center fielder Cedric Mullins (both left-handed hitters) are among the club’s top trade chips.
So there could soon be an opening for Basallo’s left-handed bat. He also can play first base -- where O’Hearn has spent a good bit of time in July -- though Ryan Mountcastle (right hamstring strain) should soon return from the injured list to join Mayo as options to start there.
Whenever it comes, Basallo’s arrival should be among the more exciting moments for Orioles fans down the stretch -- especially if his powerful bat immediately plays at the highest level.