This one thing Adley Rutschman should do could boost Orioles' struggling rotation

On Wednesday, in the top of the sixth inning of the Baltimore Orioles' game against the Astros, Adley Rutschman successfully challenged a pitch that had been called a ball and turned a 1-1 count into a 0-2 count; that batter was retired a few pitches later. This is what the ABS challenge system was for. Having a batter in a 0-2 count makes a big difference for a pitcher compared to being in a 1-1 count and having just gotten squeezed out of a strike. The only problem is that this was just Rutschman's fifth time using the ABS challenge as a catcher.

One of Rutschman's biggest strengths as a player is his knowledge of the strike zone, both as a hitter and as a catcher. In his best seasons, he wasn't racking up WAR with his power at the plate or his speed on the basepath. On offense, he worked walks and had very high OBP numbers, and on defense, he called good games and helped a young and inexperienced staff navigate the season behind the plate. He was able to do this because he knows the zone.

The Orioles need Adley Rutschman to use the ABS challenge system a lot more

With that being the case, it's mystifying that he is so hesitant to pull the trigger on the challenge system. So far this season, Rutschman has caught just over 125 innings. So with just five challenges under his belt, that means he's challenging about once every three games that he catches, which is just absurd. They give you two challenges a game, and Rutschman is treating it like they're giving him two per week. The challenges don't roll over; there's no bonus points for saving them, and there's nobody on the team more suited to take advantage of the system than Rutschman. Every game that he doesn't use multiple challenges, he is leaving value on the floor.

It's not like there is a team-wide strategy that their catchers can't challenge. Samuel Basallo has caught fewer innings than Rutschman and has challenged almost three times as many times and mostly gotten them wrong. Sam Huff started two games for the Orioles and used a challenge. This is clearly Rutschman's prerogative.

There are 53 catchers who have challenged more than Rutschman this season. 17 catchers have already challenged more than 20 times. Augustin Ramirez has won 20 challenges, and Ryan Jeffers has created 10 strikeouts for his pitchers using ABS. There is a lot to be gained by having your catchers aggressively use the challenges system. When MLB was testing this technology out in the minors, the best people at challenging by a lot were catchers, and Rutschman's not just any catcher, he's good at challenging, he's 4/5 on the season, he just needs to do it more.

If the Orioles pitchers had the benefit of Rutschman overturning one or two bad calls per game instead of once every blue moon, that would make a big difference for them. Many of the members of the Orioles' rotation have struggled with their command and had to pitch from behind a lot. If Rutschman could turn some of the 2-0 or 2-1 counts into 1-1 and 1-2 counts, that would go a long way towards helping them not all have ERAs in the mid-fives.

Hopefully, Rutschman gets more comfortable with the challenges system and ramps up his usage; if not, someone on the Orioles coaching staff needs to talk to him about being more aggressive using challenges on defense.

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