Uncertainty around Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo injury status clouds enthusiasm of Orioles' win streak

The Baltimore Orioles are flying high, riding a seven-game winning streak that has brought them within two games of a .500 record and two games of the last playoff spot in the American League. Over the past seven games, the Orioles' rotation and bullpen have gone from a liability to a strength, and their offense has done just enough to get the job done game after game. The Orioles' offense is built around their tandem of star catchers, Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo, who are both in the lineup almost every game. Now, as the Orioles prepare to take on the red-hot Red Sox, they may have to do so without either of these important middle-of-the-order hitting backstops, as each of them is dealing with nagging injuries.

Adley Rutschman missed Sunday's game with left wrist soreness. The Orioles are always weird about injuries, so it's hard to gauge the severity of this injury from the information they are willing to share, but the injury was significant enough that before the game, the Orioles activated backup catcher Sam Huff from the taxi squad and optioned recently crowned bullpen hero Cam Sanders.

The Orioles need Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo

Rutschman did have a uniform on in the dugout, so that would seem to indicate that he could have played if it had been an emergency, but the roster shuffle to avoid having him as the backup for Sunday's game indicates an elevated concern for his injury than if it were just a minor bump.

When asked about the seriousness of the injury and when it happened, manager Craig Albernaz simply repeated that Rutschman was dealing with left wrist soreness. That leaves it pretty unclear.

With Samuel Basallo as their second catcher, the Orioles are uniquely well positioned to withstand having their all-star catcher miss a few games, but unfortunately, Basallo had to leave the game after catching just one inning with right shoulder discomfort, which brought Huff into the game in the five hole.

Post-game, Albernaz did reveal that this is something that Basallo has been dealing with for a while and that he reaggravated it swinging in the top of the second. Basallo does have a history of appearing to be extremely injured and then being fine, to the point where he's had run-ins with Albernaz about playing through injury. This could be another instance of that, or it could be much worse.

The tricky thing about this situation is that catcher is not the kind of position where you can have two guys inactive. Because of how uniquely grueling and crucial the position is, you need to have multiple active catching options going into each game. If both Basallo and Rutschman are too injured to play tomorrow but are both not quite so injured to demand an IL stint, it would be irresponsible for the Orioles to go into a game with Sam Huff as the only catching option. The Orioles could call up another catcher like Chadwick Tromp or maybe even Creed Willems if they want, but it would basically be unheard of for a team to roster four catchers at once and would leave the Orioles very vulnerable if other positions started dealing with injuries.

So if both Rutschman and Basallo are down, the Orioles are going to have to make a tough decision. IL one of them and bring up Tromp, risk putting Huff in the lineup with no real backup, or option Jeremiah Jackson and roster four catchers at once and hope nobody on the infield gets hurt. That's a tough spot, especially when the Orioles need to be putting their best foot forward against a soaring divisional opponent.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow