Jacob Stallings made his fifth start and seventh appearance behind the plate last night with the Orioles. Alex Jackson should return to the lineup this weekend after doubling twice in his first start in Game 2 of Thursday’s doubleheader.
They’ve spent less than three weeks in the organization, Stallings arriving ahead of Jackson, and probably will stay together for a while. Four catchers are on the injured list – Adley Rutschman, Gary Sánchez, Maverick Handley and Chadwick Tromp – and none of the returns are imminent.
Rutschman (oblique) is doing some light hitting. Sánchez (knee) is projected to miss eight-to-10 weeks. Tromp (back) is doing full baseball activities but must go on a rehab assignment after the break. And he’s ahead of Handley (concussion), who’s playing catch and running but won’t swing a bat for at least a week.
“I have never seen anything like this before,” Tromp said. “The past four years I was with the Braves and we didn’t use more than three in all the seasons, so this is definitely strange and weird. You never know. But I believe in this group. I think we can do something special.”
The Orioles tied the franchise record by using six catchers this season. They needed only two in 2024, Rutschman and James McCann, which was an unusual occurrence for the club.
Per STATS, the Orioles have used two catchers in three seasons since the franchise moved to Baltimore – 2024, 1994, and 1959. They came within one Elrod Hendricks at-bat in 1979 of going strictly with Rick Dempsey and Dave Skaggs.
Tromp could be the first catcher reinstated after going 3-for-16 with a double and home run in six games. He hasn’t played since hitting a line drive in Texas on June 30 and twisting in pain.
“Feeling great, honestly,” he said. “Once the inflammation went down, it was kind of like pretty straightforward. Because I haven’t missed much time, I’m probably feeling better than I expected. So it’s a good sign.”
Tromp had a full day yesterday - throwing to the bases, hitting and running.
“I did everything,” he said. “Kind of happy with it.”
The injury was freakish in nature. He lined a ball up the middle and came out of the game in the third inning. Nothing unusual with the swing.
“You never want those because that’s how I know it’s more like a sudden movement thing,” Tromp said. “Once the inflammation went down, thankfully it was pretty quickly feeling back to normal.”
The timing was especially poor with Tromp set up for more regular playing time.
“It’s OK, though. It’s part of the game,” he said.
“I know I was in a great position. I was hitting the ball hard every game, I was doing a good job behind the plate. Just got to get back to what I normally do, what I can do. Getting healthy is gonna be good for me and the team, too. I’m excited.”
Getting the catchers acclimated to a new pitching staff is a relatively simple task. You’ve just got to have the right people involved.
“A lot of credit goes to our pitching guys – (Drew) French and (Ryan) Klimek and (Grant) Anders and (Mitch) Plassmeyer,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino. “There’s a room back there where the pitching coaches stay together and they dress in there, their meeting room, and they bring these guys in and they get after it. There’s a lot of information. The good thing with the guys that we brought in, in Alex and Jacob, they’ve been in the big leagues and they understand a lot of big league hitters, so there’s information that they have on the hitters and they’re learning our pitchers.
“In a weird way, it could be beneficial because you’re getting kind of a different outlook on the same hitters that we’re facing. It’s not the same catchers. We would love to have our normal catchers back without a doubt, but when you get some different perspectives that come in that have been around the league for a little bit, it can be a positive thing.”
“I'm sure they logged quite a few at-bats against us,” Dean Kremer said after his seven scoreless innings. “No, both of them have been awesome, picking up the slack from guys getting hurt. We miss them, I'm sure they'll make their way back, but these guys have been great to work with and very intelligent back there. They know how to call a game.”
* The Orioles aren’t preoccupied solely with the July 31 trade deadline. The draft begins Sunday evening and they hold seven picks on the first day – 19th, 30th, 31st, 37th, 58th, 69th and 93rd.
Matt Blood, the vice president of player development and domestic scouting, likes the level of talent beyond the earlier selections.
“Strengths I would say, there’s a large group of players sort of between pick 10 and 35 that I think all the organizations are probably seeing in a lot of different ways but all kind of similar, if you know what I mean,” Blood said. “There’s a lot of depth I think in that range and I think that’s a benefit to us.”
The Orioles’ $19,144,500 bonus pool money is the most for any team since its creation in 2012.
They could be more tempted to draft players with signability concerns. They could go overslot, which they’ve done in the past with Gunnar Henderson and Coby Mayo.
“We’ll see,” Blood said. “I think that what it allows us to do is be dynamic. I think that we’re gonna be able to make some decisions that other teams aren’t gonna have the opportunity to make, and I think that based on how the draft comes to us – we are picking a little bit later at 19 and then down below that – we’ll have to see what happens. But we’re gonna have the ability to make some decisions that other teams aren’t, and that’s exciting.”
* Jackson Holliday has 88 hits with two games left before the break.
Only Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, with 97 in 1977, had more hits in the first half by an Oriole age 21 or younger, per STATS.
Cal Ripken Jr. had 80 in 1982, Brooks Robinson had 69 in 1958, and Boog Powell had 64 in 1963.
* Reliever Seranthony Domínguez has allowed only one earned run in his last 18 games dating back to May 26.
Here’s the rest.
His 0.47 ERA in that span leads all American League pitchers in a minimum 15 innings, per STATS, and ranks second in the majors to the Padres’ Adrian Morejon, who hasn’t permitted an earned run in 19 2/3.
* Henderson has 90-plus hits, 30-plus walks and 10-plus stolen bases before the All-Star break for the second year in a row.
Here’s the rest.
The only other Orioles to do that in consecutive seasons are Brian Roberts (2007-2009) and Brady Anderson (1996-1997), according to STATS.