{"id":884909,"date":"2026-10-16T23:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884909\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T23:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:56:11","slug":"orioles-could-pursue-catching-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884909\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles Could Pursue Catching Help"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orioles already have experienced catchers Samuel Basallo<\/a>, Carlos Narv\u00e1ez<\/a> and Yohel Pozo<\/a> on their 40-man roster, but they may not settle on that trio in 2027. The O\u2019s are \u201clikely\u201d to look for someone with higher offensive upside than Narv\u00e1ez and Pozo, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Orioles Offseason Outlook]<\/a><\/p>\n

Baltimore started seven different catchers, including Adley Rutschman<\/a>, this season. Although Rutschman earned his third All-Star selection, the Orioles dealt<\/a> the 2019 No. 1 overall pick to the AL East rival Red Sox for a package that included a four-prospect haul and Narv\u00e1ez at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.<\/p>\n

With Rutschman set to enter his last year of team control in 2027, the Orioles clearly didn\u2019t believe he would be around for the long haul. Conversely, they have Basallo under wraps through 2033 (with an option for 2034) on the eight-year, $67MM pact<\/a> they gave him in August 2025. Then considered one of the game\u2019s best prospects, Basallo inked his deal just a few days after he made his major league debut. Basallo went on to record a woeful 56 wRC+ over 118 plate appearances last year, but the number jumped to 95 (four points better than the average catcher) with a .222\/.291\/.406 line and 18 home runs in 399 trips to the plate this season.<\/p>\n

The Orioles surely expect Basallo, who is just 22 years old, to continue taking steps forward offensively. At the time of his promotion, there were questions as to whether the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Basallo would eventually shift to first base. That probably isn\u2019t going to happen any time soon, though, considering the Orioles paid a high price for first baseman Pete Alonso<\/a> last winter. The star slugger excelled during the first season of a five-year, $155MM<\/a> deal. Meanwhile, Basallo \u2013 who made 63 appearances at catcher, 34 at DH and 12 at first\u00a0 \u2013 was a mixed bag behind the plate. He threw out 26.1% of would-be base thieves, easily clearing the league-average mark of 22.7. Basallo was also credited with 1 Defensive Run Saved, and he held his own in terms of pop time (67th percentile) and blocking (73rd percentile). On the other hand, he finished in the ninth percentile as a framer, was worth minus-3 Fielding Run Value, and ranked 101st among 107 catchers with minus-1.9 Runs Above Average in ABS challenges.<\/p>\n

Like Basallo, both Narv\u00e1ez and Pozo are controllable for a while. Neither player is on track to become eligible for arbitration until after next season, but it\u2019s possible neither will make the Orioles\u2019 Opening Day roster. Both Narv\u00e1ez and Pozo have minor league options left, meaning the Orioles could send them down without having to run them through waivers.<\/p>\n

Narv\u00e1ez put together a surprisingly decent offensive season as a 26-year-old rookie with Boston in 2025, when he hit .241\/.306\/.419 (99 wRC+) and swatted 15 long balls in 446 plate appearances. But he nosedived to .161\/.241\/.226 with three homers in 285 PA this season, and his output was especially poor after the trade (.104\/.198\/.117). That added up to a 33 wRC+, which ranked last among 318 hitters who amassed at least 250 PA in 2026.<\/p>\n

Pozo, whom the Orioles claimed off waivers<\/a> from the Cardinals in late July, only totaled 62 trips to the plate this year. Between the two teams, he batted .250\/.258\/.317 with one HR and a lackluster wRC+ of 58.\u00a0 The 29-year-old has a nonthreatening 76 wRC+ in 205 career PA at the game\u2019s highest level. While Pozo has hit a far superior .316\/.338\/.536 over 1,450 PA in Triple-A ball, that production is juiced to some extent from his time in the offensively charged Pacific Coast League with the Rangers and Athletics organizations.<\/p>\n

If Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias wants a better hitter to pair with Basallo next year, he will have some options in free agency. Ryan Jeffers<\/a> will be the top catcher<\/a> on the open market, though he\u2019s going to be expensive on a multiyear deal and will likely come with a qualifying offer attached. Signing a player who rejects a qualifying offer would cost the Orioles<\/a> their third-highest selection in next year\u2019s draft. Cheaper and more realistic free agent possibilities with offensive credibility could include Tyler Stephenson<\/a>, Carson Kelly<\/a>, Kyle Higashioka<\/a>, and former Orioles James McCann<\/a> and Gary S\u00e1nchez<\/a>. The Rockies\u2019 Hunter Goodman<\/a> and the A\u2019s Shea Langeliers<\/a> are big-hitting backstops who are sure to come up in trade rumors, but their teams are going to hold out for significant returns if other clubs come calling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orioles already have experienced catchers Samuel Basallo, Carlos Narv\u00e1ez and Yohel Pozo on their 40-man roster, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-884909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}