After a brutal collision, Maverick Handley is back in Orioles camp hoping to extend his dream

SARASOTA, Fla. — Maverick Handley hopes that moment was not the end of his major league dream.

“I got rocked,” the Orioles catcher said.

Handley was playing his 16th career game in the majors. He broke through, in large part, due to the cavalcade of injuries to Baltimore’s catchers last year. And, on June 22, Handley moved up the line to catch a throw as New York Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. scampered home.

The collision between the pair sent Handley flying, and all of a sudden his long road to the majors took a U-turn in the form of a concussion and sprained wrist. He spent months rehabbing, then took his place with Triple-A Norfolk once more.

Handley has returned to major league spring training, as he has for years, because there are never too many catchers to crouch down and receive pitches from the large stable of pitchers vying for spots. But this year is different.

Handley has been a major leaguer now. And, although the opportunity to reach that level again is not clear, Handley’s dream didn’t end with that massive collision at the plate.

“It really was a dream come true,” Handley said. “Just appreciating the hard work that I put in to finally get an opportunity. And I didn’t make the best of it. But it was nice and I feel like I’m able to go into the next phase of, like, ‘OK, you’ve seen other guys struggle in their first opportunity as well. What adjustments did they make that led to them being successful?’”

Before Handley could even consider adjustments to turn his .073 average (three hits in 41 at-bats) into something better, he needed to recover. As a catcher, he is familiar with foul balls off the mask. He has experienced concussions before — “I feel like I’m a ball magnet. It’s a bell curve, and I feel like I’m on the high end of guys who get hit,” Handley said.

This one may have been the most difficult, though. Not only was the recovery timeline longer, but Handley’s chance to play in the majors was suddenly paused.

“It was a freak, freak play there,” Handley said. “My brain is important to me. I pride myself on being a high-IQ player. And so it was important to me to make sure all the marbles were back in order, to say the least.”

He needs those marbles, after all, to be a forward-thinking catcher. Even though Handley, 27, was new to the major leagues, he received credit from veteran pitchers last year for the way he called a game.

Right-hander Charlie Morton, for instance, said Handley offered to catch one of his bullpen sessions (a task generally left to nonroster bullpen catchers) so he could better understand Morton’s arsenal and habits.

“He just wants to do right by himself, by whoever he’s catching,” Morton said in June. “I think he wants to learn, but he also wants to prove himself. He’s proud of where he’s at, and he should be. I’m honored to have been there for his debut on the field.”

The ability to quickly build rapport is a nonstatistical measure that can differentiate a defense-first catcher.

“The beauty of Mav is, the dude can catch. He can flat-out catch,” manager Craig Albernaz said.

Albernaz compared Handley’s situation to that of a backup quarterback in the NFL.

“If the starter goes down, you want to know someone who can come in and know the system and knows the guys, and more importantly, someone you can trust back there to actually navigate the game,” continued Albernaz, a former catcher who appreciates the subtleties of the position. “He’s great at building relationships with the pitchers but also the defensive acumen that he has.”

It’s difficult to carry a player on the roster who reaches base at a .133 clip, as Handley did in his 16 games. But Handley doesn’t see that as his ceiling. As he squatted behind the plate, he noted the movements from Bobby Witt Jr. and other top-end players, and Handley wondered how he could implement aspects he learned into his own approach.

Still, Handley doesn’t need to be an offensive juggernaut. And, as he looks at the Orioles’ roster, he notes they could need three catchers, given the frequency Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo may be in the lineup together as a catcher and designated hitter.

“I’m here to be ready,” Handley said. “You never know what’s going to happen with the catching position.”

Don’t the Orioles know that all too well?

So Handley hopes to prove that last season’s debut and 16-game stint weren’t the end of his major league dream.