Samuel Basallo

Basallo is an analytical darling after a dominant full season across Single-A, High-A and Double-A in his age-18/19 season. The lefty-hitting catcher won't turn 20 until August and already has a 20-homer season under his belt. He had an excellent 31.6 Hard% while slashing .313/.402/.551, and his strikeout rate trended down as he kept climbing the ladder, culminating in a 17.4 K% in 27 games at High-A and a 6.3 K% in four games at Double-A. Basallo moves well for his size, but he already has a large 6-foot-3 frame that will only get bigger in the coming years. He is an elite offensive catching prospect who projects to eventually catch whenever Adley Rutschman is at designated hitter or out of the lineup, and the hope is that Basallo's bat will be good enough that he also gets plenty of DH starts when Rutschman is catching. Big-league teams don't view having two good young catchers as a problem, so don't expect Baltimore to trade Basallo to a team in more need of catching help. He should split the season between Double-A and Triple-A. Read Past Outlooks