Basallo is developing fast. Wonder if Elias is thinking at all about a future move with Adley.
Once temperamental, Orioles prospect Samuel Basallo is impressing coaches with how he’s matured
Danielle Allentuck
2/19/2025 8:33 a.m. EST
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Orioles prospect Samuel Basallo throws to a teammate while warming up during spring training. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner)
SARASOTA, Fla. — Orioles manager Brandon Hyde turned to bench coach Robinson Chirinos as Samuel Basallo walked out of the office after a check-in meeting at the start of camp.
Basallo, the Orioles’ top prospect, is still only 20 years old. But here he was explaining to the big league staff in detail what his strengths are and what he needs to work on.
“That’s really impressive,” Hyde said. “It was really mature, he’s got a really good head on his shoulders.”
It’s a sentiment shared across the organization. The player development staff and coaches — who have known Basallo since he was a tempestuous teenager in the Dominican Republic and a strikeout seemed like the end of the world to him — started to see a shift last season and realized he didn’t need his hand held anymore. He was doing his homework and studying his scouting reports. He worked on his English, conversing in it in interviews and meetings. And he started becoming more vocal, learning how to be a leader, even though he’s younger than everyone else in the room.
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And now, in Basallo’s second major league camp, the Orioles are watching him grow up before their eyes and keep pace with the more established Adley Rutschman.
“He’s talking to me like I was talking when I was 28, almost at the end of my career,” said assistant hitting coach Sherman Johnson, who coached Basallo in the minors the last two seasons before he joined the big league staff this past winter. “I’m really proud of him and the progress he’s made.”
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It’s been evident to everyone since he signed in 2021 for $1.3 million, then the largest international signing bonus in franchise history, that Basallo had the physical tools to be a star. The mental skills, though, needed some polishing. Basallo has high standards for himself — he doesn’t just want to be a major leaguer, he wants to be the best major leaguer ever to set foot on a baseball field.
But that pressure started to eat at him, and the staff knew they had to do something to help him control his emotions. As he rose through the minors, it wasn’t uncommon for Basallo to come storming into the dugout after a bad at-bat. At the end of the day, he was just a teenager, living far away from his family, trying to be perfect in a game where perfection is nearly impossible. So the Orioles set him up with a sports psychologists,
who gave him a notebook to work through his feelings.
For three years, it was his lifeline. He would write in it before and after every at-bat, recording the results of the effort and also how it made him feel. The goal was to give him a healthier way to express his emotions.
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It helped. So much so that last year, Basallo was able to put away the notebook during games. He still uses it on occasion, but now he feels like he has the tools necessary to deal with situations in the moment.
“That’s something I really had to work on a lot last year, which I think is a really good thing and a really bad thing,” Basallo said. “I’ve been more focused on being in the present, just because you can look back on so many things but you can’t really change the past. I’ve tried to do a much better job of staying present and focusing the moment. At the end of the day I’m just continuing to trust God in all of that and controlling what I can control.”
[IMG alt="THURSDAY FEBRUARY 13, 2025 — Orioles prospect Samuel Basallo catches a bullpen session
at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Florida."]
https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/...quality=85&width=1024&smart=true[/IMG]Orioles prospect Samuel Basallo catches a bullpen session at Ed Smith Stadium. (Paul Mancano/The Baltimore Banner)
Baltimore Orioles prospect and catcher Samuel Basallo packs up his equipment bag during Spring Training at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Florida, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner)
He’s discovered that, most of time, quality is better than quantity. Basallo used to spend hours in the batting cages every afternoon, recording and then later studying every single swing. By the time first pitch rolled around, Basallo was already physically and mentally exhausted.
Last year, as he started facing tougher competition in Double-A then Triple-A, he learned that routine was not sustainable. He’s more focused now during his sessions and still able to achieve the same, if not better, results. Basallo hit .279 with 19 home runs and a .790 OPS across Bowie and Norfolk last season.
He’s also keyed in on his nutrition and recovery, leaning on the Orioles’ training staff for guidance.
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“I have learned a lot, I feel like I’ve grown a lot in that aspect,” he said.
He’s still younger than most of his teammates — Jackson Holliday, at 21, is the next closest — but Basallo has grown up and matured so much in the last year that the Orioles are confident that, when his major league debut does come, he’ll be ready to handle all that comes with it. When that day will come, though, is still up in the air. The Orioles
signed Gary Sánchez to a one-year deal to backup Rutschman this season, leaving open a window for Basallo in 2026.
It’s possible he’ll debut before then, even as a designated hitter, but Basallo will likely head back to Triple-A to start the season. He knows that he’s close — and that the mental side will help him get there just as much as the physical side will.
“I try not to think too much about that, but I know it’s close,” he said. “I’m just trying to do better now and see what they do with me.”
