It’s not always smart to count on regular-season production from spring training performance, but in the case of this Baltimore Orioles player, it’s hard not to be intrigued.
Catcher Adley Rutschman, who just went to arbitration with the Orioles for the first time, is entering a key stretch of his career. Baltimore has him under team control for two more seasons before he can hit free agency.
The trend for young stars like Rutschman is to get them into a team-friendly extension that bridges them through arbitration and even into free agency. It’s not that the player doesn’t get paid. It just gives the Orioles some assurance of the finances. A player like him would also get security, especially if he’s intent on staying.
That’s why it’s worth highlighting what Rutschman has done this spring.
MLB.com produced a piece highlight “15 spring training stat lines that matter.” One was Rutschman’s and it’s easy to see why.
His slash line is terrific — .361/.452/.611/1.063 with three home runs.
It’s not just the slash. The piece pointed out that more than half of the left-hander’s hits, and two of this three home runs, have gone opposite field.
That’s intriguing because the Orioles are bringing in the fence in left field at Camden Yards. That brings the fence more into play for right-handed pull hitters — and left-handed opposite field power hitters like Rutschman.
It leads the site’s analysts to believe that the “real Adley Rutschman is back.”
“… and the real Adley Rutschman is arguably the best all-around catcher in the Majors,” per the site.
There were questions around Rutschman last season as his offense tailed off in the second half. While he wasn’t the only Orioles player to take a downturn, his was pronounced. It led to the worst slash line of his three-year Major League career — .250/.318/.391/.709 — with 19 home runs and 79 RBI.
After catching 154 games in 2023 and 148 games in 2024, the Orioles invested in veteran catcher Gary Sanchez on a one-year deal to help get the 27-year-old a bit more rest.
His body of work makes it easy to see why. He finished second in American League rookie of the year voting in 2022. He is a two-time All-Star, a 2023 AL Silver Slugger winner at catcher and has finished in the Top 12 of AL MVP voting twice.
With 162-game averages of .261/.351/.421/.772 with 20 home runs and 78 RBI, the Orioles need the “real Adley Rutschman” all season.
