Carlos Narváez isn’t hitting much. For the Orioles, his game calling stands out.

DENVER — Carlos Narváez was preparing for his first plate appearance Sunday in Sacramento, but he could tell by the way Chris Bassitt paced up and down the dugout that his pitcher was upset. He had already allowed three runs in two innings. His plan wasn’t working.

Narváez didn’t have time to issue the message he wanted to deliver; he needed to hit. So as the 27-year-old Venezuelan catcher walked up the dugout steps onto the field, he called over to pitching coach Drew French and was blunt.

“Frenchy,” Narváez said, nodding toward Bassitt, “I need him to f---ing trust me.”

Narváez has only been with the Orioles for about a month. He arrived as part of the trade that sent catcher Adley Rutschman to the Boston Red Sox, and on top of trying to diagnose his own swing corrections, he dove headfirst into the task of learning every pitcher on his new team — their repertoires, their strengths, their personalities.

Therefore, he knew Bassitt, a 37-year-old veteran, often controls much of his own pitch calling during starts. Bassitt is confident in his ability to call a game. He’s been in the league this long, in part, because of his self-awareness and his ability to evolve.

Narváez also knew directness works for Bassitt. So he issued his command to French, took his at-bat, and by the time he returned to the dugout following a groundout, Bassitt was standing there.

He handed the reins to Narváez.

“I know he does his homework, he runs his meetings, he likes to run his games,” Narváez said. “But sometimes it’s a lot. Early in the game [Sunday], he was thinking what’s next. There was a moment in the game, like: ‘Trust me. I know you’ve been in the league a while. I know you’ve been one of the best pitchers in your career, but sometimes it’s a lot. Trust your catcher.’”

This is a unique skill Narváez has developed early in his short career. It’s also an almost entirely unquantifiable trait.

Blocking, receiving, throwing? There are all sorts of metrics to indicate how proficient a catcher is at any of them. But game calling? The only ones who truly know just how good a catcher is at managing the game are the pitcher and pitching coach.

And while Narváez is quick to express his disappointment in his performance on offense this season, his bat is not why he’s here with the Orioles. It’s what he does for a pitcher.

With Narváez assuming control of the pitch calling, Bassitt managed to grind through 5 2/3 innings, thus saving the bullpen and giving the lineup a pathway back into the game.

“In the heat of the moment of the game, I know how to talk to these guys in a certain way,” Narváez said. “I do my homework, I know their strengths.”

To anyone watching from home, it may seem rudimentary. But Narváez is placing his stamp on the Orioles this way — and his pitchers are thankful for it.

“Narvy is one of the best guys I’ve ever seen prepared for a game,” Bassitt said. “I’ve thrown to him a couple times, and it’s a really nice thing when you know how much work and how much thought goes into their preparation. It makes it a lot easier to trust.”

This is not a slight to any other Orioles catcher. Right-hander Shane Baz noted that he hasn’t had to call any of his own pitches since arriving from Tampa Bay in the offseason because this group of catchers has learned him quickly and thoroughly.

Rather, it’s a glimpse to why Narváez is well-regarded within the clubhouse despite four hits in 51 at-bats for the Orioles. The offense from a catcher is “an added bonus,” manager Craig Albernaz said, and Baltimore can receive that boost from Samuel Basallo.

But Basallo can’t start every game. It creates opportunities for Narváez, who has regressed to a .475 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 2026 after hitting .241 with a .726 OPS last year with the Red Sox.

“It’s not a secret, I’m not proud at all of where my bat has been this season,” Narváez said. “That’s not me, and that’s something I’m working on every single day. But I never get away from my strength, which is the game calling and the game situation and trying to prevent runs.”

Catcher, really, is the only position where this dearth of offensive production is manageable. Still, Narváez said he takes about 200 swings a day in an attempt to improve offensively. But his greatest growth has come from not carrying that frustration with him out behind the plate, where he knows he can impact the game at a far grander scale with every pitch selection he makes.

Albernaz, a former catcher, has a deep appreciation for the nuance that is required at the position.

“There’s a lot that guy has to manage behind the plate,” he said. “He has the pitcher’s career in his hands back there. If he makes one wrong decision or pitch call, it’s going to affect the numbers on his baseball card and possibly the result of the game.”

When analyzing the various Statcast metrics that help determine the defensive quality of a catcher, Narváez proves to be one of the best blockers in the sport. His pitch framing is above average; his arm is below average. It measures out, on paper and in spreadsheets around the league, to list Narváez as a capable backstop.

How can one truly analyze whether a catcher is a good game caller? Listen to the pitchers, for one. Listen to the way Narváez talks about it all. It’s more art than science — in a sport in which everything is calculated, it’s incalculable.

And Narváez takes that to heart.

“I think that’s a big impact in the game that no one talks about,” he said. “I get it, bro. Baseball is meant to be fun. It’s meant to be homers, it’s meant to have 10 strikeouts. You know what I mean? It’s meant for that. It’s fine. But I think the beauty of this game, the catcher and the pitcher have a lot of impact on it, and that’s my lane right now.”