Latest Orioles call-up shows front office punted on 2025 for infuriating reason

Eric Cole

Baltimore Orioles v Minnesota Twins / Brace Hemmelgarn/GettyImages

Baltimore Orioles fans have been pleading all season long for the team to call up Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo. As the season got away from Baltimore due to injuries and regression, the Orioles seemingly ignored calls to bring either bat up while their playoff hopes faded away. Now, all of a sudden, the Orioles have seemingly changed their mind and the likely reason is pretty frustrating to say the least.

First, Baltimore called up Beavers on Saturday to make his big league debut and now, less than a day later, Basallo got the call as well. Why would the Orioles all of a sudden call up both prospects knowing full well that their playoff aspirations are all but over?

Well, the answer is simple, unfortunately. By waiting until this weekend, the Orioles can insure that both Beavers and Basallo retain rookie eligibility for 2026 for Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) purposes.

Orioles clearly manipulated Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo's service time and it may have cost them the 2025 season

There are going to be some out there that say that Mike Elias and Co. are simply playing with the rules that have been set for them and are trying to just do what is best for the organization long-term. By making sure neither Beavers nor Basallo will use up their rookie eligibility in 2025, Baltimore can still potentially get an extra draft pick down the road if either player wins Rookie of the Year in 2026.

However, what the decision also did is "force" the Orioles to field a subpar roster for a large portion of the season while they dealt with trade deadline fallout and injuries. It was bad enough that the front office didn't adequately address the rotation and screwed up their player development pipeline, but they also forced the big league squad to play with one arm tied behind their back because they wanted an outside shot at a draft pick two years from now.

Elias clearly believes in his philosophy and see himself as the smartest man in the room when it comes to building a winning team. However, he has been falling short during what should be the Orioles' prime competitive. At some point, you need to actually push your chips in and try instead of just min-maxxing service time and prospect assets at every opportunity. By doing so with Beavers and Basallo this season, it may have doomed the 2025 season without any guarantee whatsoever that it will help them going forward.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.