Samuel Basallo is showing ‘daily growth,’ and the Orioles will benefit from it

This week in Los Angeles, when Pete Alonso was in a particularly philosophical mood, he compared the position of catcher in baseball to a member of the Sherpa people of the Himalaya regions.

“You’ve got to take the group to the top of the mountain,” Alonso said, extending the metaphor from expert mountaineers to a catcher.

At 21 years old, catcher Samuel Basallo is bound to take wrong turns on that path to the peak. There are few catchers who debut at that age or younger, and with an eight-year contract extension already signed, there is the weight of expectations on Basallo’s shoulders that some prospects do not bear.

This season, there have been missteps. There have been uncomfortable moments that still aren’t clear to those outside the clubhouse. But a road trip that featured its share of forgettable moments from Basallo also showed just why Baltimore committed years and money to him.

After two late-game collapses in which Basallo played small roles on defense, he stood in front of the camera and took ownership — even though there was little, if anything, he could’ve done in the second loss.

He also quickly flushed the frustrations of the first loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers to produce a strong series, and he concluded the series against the Los Angeles Angels with a pair of two-run homers.

Whatever it was that prompted a short stint on the bench this month, that seems long gone.

“It’s all in the past now,” Basallo said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “The important thing now is to try to go out there and win, and I’ve been feeling a lot better the last few days. Maybe some of that was getting to me at the plate, especially, but I’ve been feeling much better these last few days, so hopefully I can keep going out there and finding ways to contribute.”

When asked if it was a miscommunication between himself and manager Craig Albernaz or other members of the team’s leadership, Basallo said he didn’t know.

“He cares. That’s one thing that people need to realize. Sammy really cares. He wants to be not just good; he wants to be the best.”

Orioles third-base coach Buck Britton

“But it’s not something I really want to go into much detail about,” he said.

After all, it’s behind him. He wants to keep it that way.

This started when Albernaz said this month that Basallo is “learning a lot how to play through being nicked up when everything is checked out and everything is fine,” and that “Sammy’s learning to play through some adversity right now.”

A few days later, Albernaz said Basallo was dealing with a bone growth in his wrist that causes discomfort. Basallo pushed back on the idea that he’s still learning to play through minor injuries.

“If I feel good and I feel like I can play, I’m going to try to stay in the game,” Basallo told The Sun this month. “If I feel I cannot stay in the game, that’s how it is. We are humans, sometimes you feel something, and you cannot go through [it], and that’s just how it is. We are not robots or a machine; you press a button and then start feeling better. That’s how I see things.”

For three days Basallo was out of the starting lineup, and questions persisted as to what was going on. Few clear answers were given.

But, since he returned, it appears everything, as Basallo called it, is in the past.

Catcher Adley Rutschman is on the concussion injured list and is eligible to return as soon as Friday’s series opener against the Washington Nationals, but there has been little indication that will occur. Albernaz said the Orioles are taking a cautious approach, given the nature of the injury, and didn’t provide an expected timeline.

In the meantime, Basallo is carrying a heavier load behind the plate, and he has been up to the task. He proved it out west.

For the second time in his career, Basallo caught four straight games during this recent road trip — Rutschman was on the injured list for the previous occasion, too.

What’s more is Basallo asked to catch the fourth straight. After Saturday night’s win against the Dodgers — during which Basallo played a complete game, notching two hits, winning two ball-strike challenges and guiding left-hander Trevor Rogers through seven scoreless innings — he told Albernaz he would like to remain behind the plate.

“It’s very telling of where he’s at,” Albernaz said Sunday.

When asked why it was important enough to request a fourth straight start at catcher, Basallo said it was about helping the team.

“We won the previous day,” Basallo said. “I felt comfortable, I felt good, so I mentioned that to him, that I was feeling good, and I’m grateful and I’m happy that he put me into the lineup and I was able to go out there and contribute, being able to help my team, help my teammates there. It was great. I felt really good about going out there the next day.”

Basallo recorded an RBI in a blowout win over the Dodgers on Sunday before earning a night off to begin the series in Anaheim.

One of the impressive parts of Basallo’s performances of late is how he has managed the pitching staff. He has a particularly strong rapport with Rogers, who noted that “we just have good chemistry when he’s back behind the plate. I trust him 100%.” Rogers added that he hopes he and Basallo are a battery pairing for a long time.

Basallo worked well with right-hander Brandon Young to close the series at Dodger Stadium. And overall Orioles pitchers hold a 3.93 ERA with him behind the plate, which is better than Rutschman’s 4.90 and Sam Huff’s 4.25.

Handling a pitching staff is one of the major differences between the majors and minors, Basallo said. There is more focus up here on learning the tendencies of opposing hitters and one’s own pitchers, and over time Basallo is gaining expertise.

And Buck Britton, Baltimore’s third-base coach who also coached him as a minor leaguer, pointed out Basallo didn’t spend much time in the minors to fine-tune aspects of catching.

“It’s daily growth for someone like Basallo,” Britton said. “It’s also learning the ups and downs of what is a major league season. There’re times when Sammy is going to face failure, where he hasn’t really faced much in his career. He’s going to grow just as a man. He’s a young kid, man. He cares. That’s one thing that people need to realize. Sammy really cares. He wants to be not just good; he wants to be the best.”

That desire will show as frustration sometimes. In the series opener against the Dodgers, for instance, Basallo broke his bat over his knee following a strikeout.

Another sign of his maturity? He recognizes those moments when frustration strikes.

“When I try to do too much, when I’m too focused on the results, that can affect me a little bit. I think that does happen to me some,” Basallo said. “But, as long as we’re winning and things are going well overall, that’s all you can ask for.”

The latter part has been harder to come by. The Orioles enter this homestand against the Nationals six games below .500. There are many concerns about this team and its path forward.

What Basallo has shown, though, is he’s far from the top of a list of concerns, particularly after what he did in Los Angeles.

“Him being 21 years old and kind of preparing and executing and knowing how to get the best out of every single guy that comes in the game, that’s legit,” Alonso said. “I think, if he kind of continues with that same intent and that same process as he did here, absolutely electric. Nothing but high praise for him.”