Orioles Boss Reveals Franchise Has Plan for Top Prospect Samuel Basallo

The Baltimore Orioles have one of the best hitting prospects in baseball in catcher and first baseman Samuel Basallo.

There is external pressure on the Orioles to start the clock on the 20-year-old prospect, and that pressure only got louder after what he did on Friday night with Triple-A Norfolk.

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In his first game back since taking more than a week off due to an oblique injury, he went 5-for-5 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored as he boosted his batting average to .282 and his OPS to 1.019.

It was an epic night for the slugger, the kind of game that Baltimore would love to see him have at the Major League level at some point.

What is Baltimore’s Plan for Samuel Basallo?

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On Saturday, interim manager Tony Mansolino, naturally, was asked about Basallo’s huge game, and whether or not he might join the ball club soon.

According to the skipper, there is a plan for the slugger. But good luck getting it out of him.

“There’s a plan in place for him right now,” he said to reporters, including Roch Kubatko at MASN. “You guys don’t know what it is, and we’re not gonna tell you. But there’s definitely a plan in place. [General manager] Mike [Elias] is thinking about him every day.”

So, there’s a plan. But it’s secret plan, apparently.

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Basallo’s talent is no secret and every hit in Friday’s game mattered to the Tides.

His first-inning double set him up to score on a home run by Vimael Machin. Basallo’s third-inning double scored Adley Rutschman, who is with the Tides on an injury rehab assignment.

After a single in the fifth inning, he hit his 20th home run of the season in the seventh inning to give Norfolk a 6-5 lead. He finished off the game with a ninth-inning single.

The plan on Basallo may depend upon what the Orioles do at the trade deadline, which is Thursday. If the O’s trade Ryan O’Hearn, it creates an interesting dilemma at first base, where they’re working out Coby Mayo and have been cross-training Basallo there for more than a year.

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The Dominican Republic is in his fifth professional season. He’s accelerated fast the past two seasons, as he burned through Class-A Delmarva, High-A Aberdeen and Double-A Bowie in 2023 with a combined slash line of .313/.402/.551/.953 with 20 home runs and 86 RBI.

Baltimore started him at Bowie last year, but he earned a promotion to Triple-A Norfolk midway through the campaign. Combined, he slashed .278/.341/.449/.790 with 19 home runs and 65 RBI. He was also selected to play in the MLB Futures Game during All-Star Weekend. 

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