Before a parent dissuaded Adley Rutschman from sliding headfirst down the famed hill beyond Lamade Stadium’s right field wall, he first had to climb up it.
As the Orioles’ rookie phenom did so, a throng of young admirers joined him, hovering around him with each step. Those children had waited through an interview he did during ESPN’s Little League World Series broadcast, with one even asking where Rutschman was as another Oriole signed an autograph for him.
Rutschman has quickly established himself as the face of the Orioles. Sunday in Williamsport displayed his rising status as one of the faces of baseball.
With his play, he’s already become perhaps the best catcher in baseball. But when the Orioles selected him first overall in the 2019 draft to make him the center of the organization’s rebuild, they also factored in his character, which was on full display Sunday.
Whenever he signed an autograph for a member of a Little League team, he asked they return the favor. As the Orioles left the complex, Rutschman did so with his orange jersey littered with black ink.
The game marked Baltimore’s first appearance on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” since 2018, the franchise-worst season that positioned the organization to select Rutschman atop the next year’s draft, and the network threw various media requests his way. He spoke to a young reporter shortly after the team plane landed in Williamsport, visited the ESPN booth before making his way to the Lamade Stadium hill, talked to broadcasters during the Little League Classic between two of his innings worked behind the plate, then hopped on “SportsCenter” shortly after the Orioles’ 5-3 win over the Boston Red Sox.
Then, he visited with other reporters in Bowman Field’s media workroom, with starting pitcher Dean Kremer suggesting Rutschman take the middle seat — center stage — between he and shortstop Jorge Mateo.
“I think he’s one of the more prepared young players for that [attention] than anybody I’ve been around because of all the hype that he’s had throughout college, Team USA, College World Series, [being drafted] 1-1, and he’s such a pro already,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s got a great way, so he just takes it with stride.
“I don’t know what’s going on up here, honestly,” Hyde said, pointing at his head, “but outwardly, he is very, very calm and relaxed. He’s gonna have to get used to it because he’s really, really good, and he’s gonna be in the spotlight for a while.”
Since promoting Rutschman, the Orioles have gone 47-34, moving to 2 1/2 games of an American League wild-card spot. Since June 11, when Baltimore was a season-worst 11 games under .500, the club has taken off as Rutschman has. As the Orioles have posted the AL’s second-best record in that span, Rutschman entered Sunday’s game — in which he delivered a key single in an early rally and added a late walk — ranked fifth among major leaguers and second in the AL in FanGraphs’ version of wins above replacement. During that time, he leads all qualified catchers in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, doubles, walks, walk rate, line-drive rate and win probability added.
Those measures reflect only his offensive impact. He ranks as one of baseball’s top pitch framers in the eyes of both FanGraphs and Baseball Savant, putting that skill on display twice in Sunday’s fifth inning to get called strike threes for Kremer on pitches seemingly out of the zone. Baseball Savant has him with the fourth-best arm among catchers based on average throw velocity.
“He’s really, really good,” Kremer said, as Rutschman jokingly stared him down. “It’s not just his framing ability. It’s his ability to block, so when we’ve got guys in scoring position, I’m not worried about guys advancing, taking 90s. He’s got a good arm behind the plate. He’s got all the tools.”
He then paused and patted his catcher’s head.
“And his brain,” Kremer added. “He’s got a good brain back there.”
It’s one that’s allowed him to compartmentalize all that this rookie year has thrown at him, handling all of the hype and praise and attention by diverting it away from himself and toward a team he feels is more deserving.
“The best part about this team is that we have no individuals,” Rutschman said. “We play selfless baseball. We play for each other, and I’ve said it a lot of times, we have guys with high character on the team, guys who have been around the game a long time, where I’m fortunate enough to be able to pick their brain.
“Nothing I do is of my own. It’s all the other guys. It’s the people who have coached me, and so I’d definitely say that today was a beautiful experience. But it’s no credit to myself at all. It’s just the guys we’ve got around, and I’m fortunate to be in that spot.”
What’s to come?
After a day off Monday, the Orioles begin a series with a Chicago White Sox in a similar playoff position. A postponement for Chicago on Sunday pushed Cy Young Award candidate Dylan Cease back to Tuesday’s series opener. Cease, who has a 2.09 ERA and has struck out a majors-best 12 batters per nine innings, punched out 13 Orioles in seven innings of one-run ball in June.
The Orioles will then get their first look at Trey Mancini in another uniform beginning Friday, when they visit the AL West-leading Houston Astros for three games. Mancini, then their longest-tenured player, was traded Aug. 1 for two minor league pitchers. He’s hitting .204 with a .469 slugging percentage for Houston, including his first career grand slam.
What was good?
Austin Voth’s emergence as a legitimate piece of the Orioles’ rotation continued this week with six scoreless innings in Toronto in which he held a vaunted Blue Jays lineup to two hits and a walk. He posted a 10.13 ERA as a reliever this year with Washington and has lowered that mark with each outing as an Oriole, with a 2.81 ERA since Baltimore claimed him on waivers.
What wasn’t?
The Orioles’ 15-run outburst Friday in their series opener against Boston helped paper over a week that otherwise was a continuation of some recent offensive struggles.
They have otherwise scored 25 runs in their past eight games, with Mateo’s late three-run double Sunday night boosting that tally. As their bullpen begins to wobble with changing roles and the weight of use, it becomes all the more important for the Orioles’ lineup to pick up in the season’s closing weeks.
On the farm
Top prospect Gunnar Henderson played exclusively on the left side of the infield this season between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk before this week, when he played first base Thursday and Friday, then second base in both weekend games. It’s part of the Orioles’ efforts to increase the prized prospect’s versatility before a potential promotion.
There’s reason to think it might come as soon as this week. As part of baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement, a top prospect who starts a season on his team’s major league roster can earn the organization an extra draft pick by performing well in award voting early in his career. To maintain rookie eligibility for 2023, Henderson would have to be on the Orioles’ major league roster for no more than 45 days of the regular season. The cutoff date for that range is this week.
WHITE SOX@ORIOLES
Tuesday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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