Orioles to promote No. 3 prospect Samuel Basallo to Triple-A Norfolk

Jackson Holliday began the 2024 season as the youngest player in Triple-A. Samuel Basallo will likely end it as such.

The Orioles are promoting Basallo, their No. 3 prospect, to Triple-A Norfolk, a source with direct knowledge confirmed to The Baltimore Sun on Sunday afternoon. The 20-year-old catcher will be the youngest player in Triple-A when he arrives there Tuesday.

Basallo, a left-handed slugger with a smooth and powerful swing, hit .289 with an .820 OPS in 106 games for Double-A Bowie this season. He tallied 22 doubles, 16 homers and 55 RBIs, and he frequently showed off his bazooka for an arm behind the plate while also learning how to play first base.

Basallo comes from a wildly different background than Holliday, baseball’s top prospect who is impressing in the major leagues. The former grew up in the Dominican Republic, training like a professional before he even hit puberty and signing with the Orioles at 16 years old, while the latter grew up the son of a seven-time MLB All-Star and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 draft.

But Basallo is following a similar path as Holliday. Both had historic 2023 campaigns, and Holliday ended his age-19 season in Triple-A. Basallo will be the only player in his age-19 season in Triple-A when he appears there later this week. MASNSports.com was first to report Basallo’s promotion.

Baseball America ranks Basallo as the 17th-best prospect in the sport. The only Orioles prospects ahead of him are Holliday, who will soon graduate from such status, and third baseman Coby Mayo, who Basallo will soon be teammates with in Norfolk. The only catcher ranked ahead of Basallo in the publication’s top 100 is San Diego Padres backstop Ethan Salas.

Holliday climbed from Low-A Delmarva to Triple-A in his 2023 season, ending the year as baseball’s top prospect after Gunnar Henderson began it as such. But Basallo’s year might have been even more impressive than Holliday’s.

At 18 years old, the Dominican Republic native began his first year of full-season ball in Low-A and ended at Double-A, dominating each level along the way. The Orioles signed a 16-year-old Basallo for a then-franchise-record $1.3 million international signing bonus in January 2021 — the headliner of the first major investment by the Mike Elias regime after decades of the organization largely passing over the Latin American market.

Most Orioles prospects have struggled in High-A Aberdeen, but Basallo thrived there in 2023. His 1.131 OPS in High-A was by far the best of any player in his age-18 season at the level since at least 2006 — ahead of Mike Trout (.821 in 2014), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.944 in 2017) and Wander Franco (.872 in 2019).

“If we didn’t have a player named Jackson Holliday, people would be amazed by what Basallo did,” said Matt Blood, the Orioles’ vice president of player development and domestic scouting, during spring training. “It’s not normal for one player to do that, but to have two is very rare.”

How Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo became one of baseball’s best prospects: ‘This kid is special’

Basallo’s numbers in 2024 aren’t as gaudy as last year, but he overcame a few injuries to put up impressive stats for someone nearly five years younger than the average player at the level. He didn’t play the field to begin the season as he recovered from an offseason stress fracture in his elbow and slumped at the plate, but he broke out of it in May. After struggling in July, Basallo found his stroke again in August, posting a .363/.419/.563 slash line — good for a .982 OPS. He participated in the MLB All-Star Futures Game for the sport’s best prospects, following Holliday and Heston Kjerstad, who did so last year.

“This kid is a pretty special talent,” Elias said in July. “To have him representing us at the Futures Game is great, but I think the thing I’m most proud of is he’s on the international team. I’m guessing the Orioles maybe haven’t had that before. It’s a pretty big deal for us.”

There was chatter ahead of the trade deadline in late July about whether the Orioles would be willing to part ways with Basallo to acquire a front-of-the-rotation starting pitcher, but Elias said trading prospects like Basallo, Mayo and Holliday was very unlikely.

“The value on that makes it really hard to find something to trade them for that makes any sense and the types of players that you would even fathom having discussions with those guys didn’t even get traded,” Elias said after the deadline. “So, it really didn’t come up.”

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At 6-foot-4, it’s uncertain whether Basallo will be a first baseman or a catcher in the big leagues. He’s split his time defensively between the two spots this season. His bat is far ahead of his defense, so much so that he could continue following Holliday’s path by debuting before his 21st birthday. The Orioles have said they’re committed to making him a catcher, citing his plus arm and freakish flexibility, which could create an intriguing catching duo with Adley Rutschman.

“The sentiment and the confidence in his defense has just gone up and up and up the last year in particular,” Elias said in July. “He’s very confident. Sam is handling the pitching staff well, he receives great, he’s got a huge arm. We think he’s a catcher, but he’s also got a bat that we’re very confident would play at first base and that’s helpful because you can’t catch six games a week. Whether he’s at first base or at DH, this is possibly a middle-of-the-order bat, but he’s also a guy that can catch. He’s in a really good spot.”

Basallo still has hurdles to clear — hitting Triple-A pitching, continuing to progress defensively and, eventually, proving himself in the major leagues.

But he’s now only one call away.