Sam Huff was the final out of both Orioles losses over the weekend. How little did the Braves fear Huff’s bat? On Sunday, they intentionally walked the bases loaded, putting the winning run into scoring position, so that they could face Huff instead of Jackson Holliday. Huff is batting just .121 as a big leaguer this season and is 0-for-10 since being re-added to the Orioles roster on July 19th. It was probably a very easy decision for Braves manager Walt Weiss.
This is not Huff’s fault. He is an
organizational depth catcher that has been thrust into a larger role due to the Orioles needs at the moment. If there had been any other hitter on the bench, Craig Albernaz would have subbed them in. Heck, if this had been a game under NL rules from a decade ago and the Orioles had a pitcher with any sort of positive hitting record they may have been the better option.
While the Orioles probably didn’t expect much from Huff and his current catching parter Chadwick Tromp, they likely hoped for a bit more than they are getting at the moment.
Huff owns a career .686 OPS in the big leagues after all, had a .598 OPS with the Giants last year, and has compiled a .608 OPS in Triple-A this year. None of that is good, but it’s passable. With the Orioles this year he is slashing .121/.147/.182 (.329 OPS). His expected numbers are even worse (0.94 xBA, .180 xSLG, .134 xwOBA).
Tromp is a career .215/.222/.355 major league hitter and had some decent moments for the Orioles just last season. This season, he’s 3-for-17 in Baltimore with six strikeouts and zero walks. And just like Huff, his expected numbers are horrible. He has a .178 xwOBA, .181 xBA, and .230 xSLG.
O’s first baseman Pete Alonso spoke to the media after the loss on Sunday. The current catching situation was brought up, and Alonso gave a pretty long response, according to MLB.com’s Jake Rill. Here is a snippet:
“They’re doing a phenomenal job. Those guys understand the role. They’re true high-quality professionals, and they’ve done a phenomenal job with the pitching staff, the game-calling, defensively back there. It’s been top tier. So they’ve been phenomenal for us in their role. They’ve been doing everything and more.”
It is wise of Alonso to focus on the defensive aspect of the current catching duo. At least that part of their game looks major league caliber, and you can lean on the fact that the starting pitchers have been quite good recently. That isn’t necessarily due to Huff and Tromp, but they haven’t done much to negatively impact the games on defense either.
Dealing with your top two catchers on the IL at the same time is a tough situation. If at least one of Adley Rutschman or Samuel Basallo were available, the team would simply shift to a more traditional setup with a primary backstop that starts five or six times a week while the backup appears as little as possible. They don’t have that luxury.
Over on MLB.com, Rill provided a rundown of some of the things that the Orioles could do to address their catching situation in the short-term. The options provided there are as follows:
- Yohel Pozo, a 29-year-old the O’s claimed from the Cardinals last week. He has seen big league action in three different seasons, including 2026. Officially, the organization has Pozo in Double-A, though he is actually their current taxi squad backstop.
- Creed Willems, one of the team’s top catching prospects. He is hitting .256/.353/.420 with 13 home runs in Triple-A this year. There are big questions defensively, however, and the Orioles have given him a lot of time at first base as well.
- Trade for a catcher. Tyler Stephenson is named as a possible fit. He’s been worth 1.3 bWAR for the Reds this season, has a .712 OPS with eight home runs, and will be a free agent after this season.
Trading for a catcher seems extremely unlikely, unless it is a waiver claim situation. When healthy, the Orioles have the best duo of backstops in the sport. Neither would seem to have a season-ending injury, and both are under control for 2027.
If the Orioles think Willems’ bat is ready, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to give him a chance. The caveat is that it would be irresponsible to make him the primary defensive catcher. He is a player that could fit in the three-catcher setup that the team occasionally rolls out. So he could plug and play where needed. Given the number of off days the team has and will have recently, maybe they could go down a bullpen arm for a week to try it out.
Pozo is the boring but likely next man up. He has shown nothing offensively to suggest he will be “good,” but putting the ball in play at all might be an upgrade from what the Orioles are getting out of the catcher position right now.
The only other creative option I would throw out there would be a promotion of Ethan Anderson from Double-A. His defense is not highly regarded, but it is probably a tier above Willems. He’s also only at Double-A and not Rule 5 eligible until 2027. But he has a 127 OPS+ with Chesapeake this season and trending upward. He gets good marks for his makeup, so perhaps the maturity is there to come up and do a nice job.
The issue with this whole conversation is that it probably needed to happen a week ago, or a month ago, or prior to the season altogether. The damage has been done. The drop off from Rutschman/Basallo to Huff/Tromp has negatively impacted the Orioles, and they don’t have any obvious, better solution to the problem.
Rutschman threw the ball over the weekend, though he is still not catching, which is significant since it is his non-throwing left wrist that has caused the problems. Even so, it seems like he is inching his way back. Any sort of roster move now would seem to be incredibly short term. That could still win the Orioles a game, so it’s worth doing to gain any sort of advantage. But it won’t make up for what they have already lost out on.
To be clear, the Orioles are not perpetually behind in the wild card standings this season because their third and fourth string catchers aren’t good enough. There’s a laundry list of causes well above that. But it is an illustration of the team sticking with a player or a strategy that clearly isn’t working out for longer than they should. A more proactive club probably would have made a move to address their organizational catching depth weeks ago. Instead, the Orioles have had to pay for their patience.
