The timing of Samuel Basallo's benching could prove costly to the Orioles playoff hopes

When reporters originally tried to get the Baltimore Orioles to talk about what was going on with Samuel Basallo amidst a suspicious three-game absence from the starting lineup, where he appeared in two of them as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement, the Orioles did their best to avoid the topic and skate by using vague platitudes about hard work. With all the non-answers provided by Craig Albernaz, it was hard to confirm what to the naked eye seemed like an obvious benching.

Yesterday, Ken Rosenthal and Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic officially reported that this was a disciplinary benching. On top of what Albernaz would tell the media about Basallo learning to deal with injuries, here is what Rosenthal and Ghiroli reported as being the concerns that led to the benching:

"They wanted Basallo to engage more with teammates, better connect with pitchers, and acknowledge those who were trying to help him. Small things, in the Orioles’ estimation. But things that needed to be addressed before they developed into larger problems."

Things between the Orioles and Samuel Basallo seem unnecessarily tense

This is still a little vague as it doesn't get into exactly what Basallo did to give the Orioles these concerns, but it is eye-opening to know that the benching was more than a "you need to toughen up" sort of deal.

As far as the question of whether the benching was warranted/necessary, without more in-depth reporting on what happened, it's hard to say, but what can be said is that the whole situation feels unnecessarily tense and weird.

Here is what is known. Whatever Basallo did was not so bad that the Orioles felt the need to suspend him. It also wasn't so bad that they felt the need to bench him for a whole game. It feels unlikely that whatever Basallo was doing, missing three consecutive starts is the exact right punishment. It feels arbitrary and heavy-handed.

The other question is: did this need to happen now? From the Athletic's reporting, it seems like the behavior the Orioles are concerned with is more big picture than related to a specific incident. Why did Basallo need to be benched right when fellow catcher Adley Rutschman was dealing with an injury? If these are just small ongoing character concerns, surely they could have been addressed at a different time.

With the timing the Orioles chose to enact this benching, aligning with Rutschman's injury, the Orioles had to start Sam Huff in three straight games against a team that they might very well end up competing for a wild card spot against.

Huff slashed .222/.222/.333 across the three games, which is not terrible for a minor league depth catcher called up for a spot start, but it pales in comparison to what Basallo offers offensively. The Orioles lost the first two games of the series, and although the final score makes it seem like they weren't super close games, the Orioles stranded 20 runners over those two games. You can imagine how a big bat in the middle of the lineup might have been more helpful than what Huff was bringing to the table.

The AL wildcard race is going to be tight all year long, and the difference between the last team in and the first team out could very likely come down to a single game or even a tiebreaker. With that being the case, it feels a little absurd to be throwing games away for the sake of teaching your young catcher a lesson. Especially if what he did could be described as "small" as it was in the Athletic's reporting.

Even if you gave the Orioles the full benefit of the doubt, whatever was going on with Basallo needed to be disciplined with a three-game benching. What about Basallo's behavior had to be corrected that week instead of a week later, when Rutschman could catch those games instead of Huff? It feels like someone on the Orioles side lost their patience and decided justice needed to be administered right then even if it cost the team games and it did cost the team games.

The overall takeaway is that this could have been handled a lot better. There has to be a way to correct "small" behaviors without causing this much of a headache and being this detrimental to the team's ultimate goal.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow