Basallo's big accomplishment not involving prospect rankings (O's clinched)

Considering the 2024 season was his fourth in pro ball, but just his second full season of minor league ball, O’s 20-year-old catching prospect Samuel Basallo has accomplished a lot.

He has flown up prospect rankings to now be a top 10-15 player. He repped the Orioles in the Futures Game this year. He was named the High-A Carolina League MVP last season and named that league’s top MLB prospect.

Just yesterday he was named the top MLB prospect in the Double-A Eastern League for his play with Bowie this season. In late August he moved to Triple-A Norfolk for the first time.

“I just feel extremely proud,” Basallo said during a phone interview yesterday via team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “Looking back, I didn’t start the year the way that I want or we wanted, but to be able to be named the top prospect in that league, it means a lot to me for sure. I’m really proud of that.”

But something Basallo and his family are also quite proud of, has nothing to do with prospect rankings or anything on a stat sheet.

He recently became yet another graduate of the Orioles' educational program for their international players. He is now a high school graduate.

In February, the O’s hosted their first-ever high school graduation as part of their international program. That graduation took place at the club’s new state-of-the-art Dominican Republic Baseball Academy, which opened its doors earlier this year.

The program had 12 graduates then and now Basallo, age 20 from the Dominican Republic, is one of 24. The O's began this program in 2020 and Basallo first began his studies through the program in 2022.

“It feels really good to graduate,” Basallo told MASNSports.com Tuesday. “It has been a dream of mine and my family as well. To be able to accomplish that is really important. It means a lot.

“I think you are never too old to study. And maybe at some point in the future if I ever decided to pursue another career or continue studies, it’s important and good to be able to do that. This will help me going into the future.”

In Norfolk he was recognized Saturday night on the field as a graduate.

“Oh yeah, that was an incredible," he said. "They did something on the field to present that to me. They even had a cake saying, ‘Congratulations on your graduation.’ The cake had my face on it and that was really cool. All my teammates and coaches greeted me on the field and they congratulated me, so that was a cool moment.

“My mom and dad were both really proud of me and it’s something they both really value a lot. To be honest I think my mom was just as excited I graduated as the day I signed my contract. So, that was a really cool moment for sure.”

On the field this year, in 127 games with 106 at Bowie and 21 at Norfolk, he hit .278/.341/.449/790 with 25 doubles, 19 homers and 65 RBIs.

Ranked as the O's No. 2 prospect behind Coby Mayo on the team top 30, Basallo is ranked No. 9 in the MLBPipeline.com top 100 and No. 13 by Baseball America.

Basallo produced an .820 OPS with Bowie with 16 homers, 55 RBIs. He hit just .222 with the Tides but batted .297 with an .810 OPS his last 11 Triple-A games. He was warming up to that league as the season finished. 

How does Basallo rank his graduation with on-field accomplishments? Might be hard to compare those.

“It is something really different,” he said. “A lot of people in the DR, they don’t get to finish school. When I signed, I was in my last year and so to be able to finish it, it means a lot. I think that, since a lot don’t get this opportunity, it means a lot.”

Basallo said it’s too soon to know if he will play any winter ball this offseason. But he’s excited to work on getting better over the next several months and he knows next year is likely going to be the season of his MLB debut.

“I’m really excited knowing that I am one step away. I’m going to come into spring training ready to go and working hard. See what decision they ultimately make. If I start out at Norfolk, go there and keep working hard. To know that I am really close feels great. Really excited about that,” he said.

I will have more in this space soon on Basallo and his 2024 season which ended well for him with the Tides as he was healthy and playing well. 

The bend but don't break playoff push: Clinchmas came but it was not easy this year.

The Orioles have now qualified for the American League playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 1996-1997. 

Minutes after they had beaten the New York Yankees 5-3, Minnesota lost to Miami and the O's were in.

Before the postgame celebration got going, manager Brandon Hyde told his players: "I'm so proud of this group, we have dealt with so much crap the last couple of months. You continued to fight. We got in. So let's get it on. We've got five more games to go to improve and then it's the playoffs, let's go!"

With that the celebration was on.

For an organization that saw its team lose 108 games or more three of four years between 2018 and 2021, this is special. We should never take a postseason berth for granted.

Now the O's will try to roll off more wins, make the Yankees sweat for the AL East crown and clinch the top AL wild-card seed and get a home series next week.

Step one is now complete. 

Some tweets from the postgame clubhouse are here, here, here, here and here.