Samuel Basallo, among Baseball America’s youngest top 100 prospects, is making waves – The Denver Post

In April, Samuel Basallo opened eyes by hitting an opposite-field home run. It wasn’t because the Orioles’ catching prospect mashed a meatball a long way — although, he’s had a few of those in his young career, too — but instead because he hit a pitch out of the strike zone over the fence.

After Basallo hit the high and away pitch for a home run, Delmarva hitting coach Josh Bunselmeyer said another Orioles prospect took notice.

“Wow, that’s impressive,” Bunselmeyer recalls Jackson Holliday saying after Basallo’s long ball.

Holliday, the No. 1 prospect in the entire minor leagues, isn’t the only one impressed by Basallo this spring. In its most recent prospect ranking update, Baseball America moved Basallo into its top 100 at No. 79 after a solid start to the 2023 campaign, his first in full-season ball. At 18 years old, Basallo is one of the youngest players on the top 100 list.

“He’s done some impressive things out on the field. I didn’t think he’d have the immediate success that he’s having,” Bunselmeyer said. “I knew he could do what he’s currently doing, but I thought it would happen a month, two months into the season. He made a comment the other day that he feels like he’s seeing pitches better than he did last year. I think that’s the biggest thing, just having the confidence to know that he can play at this level.”

Basallo is nearly three years younger than the average player in Low-A, but he doesn’t look like it. In 50 games with Delmarva, the left-handed hitting Basallo is slashing .288/.336/.444 — good for a .781 OPS — with 12 doubles, five home runs and 41 RBIs. The year is his first with Delmarva after spending 2022 in the Florida Complex League and 2021 in the Dominican Summer League.

“When you look at him, he’s just so young, so he hasn’t seen a whole lot of pitches in his life,” Bunselmeyer said. “For him, it’s just time and exposure to seeing those different things that, as he moves up levels, are going to get harder.”

While Basallo still has a long way before arriving in Baltimore, the good start to his career is a positive sign for a player the Orioles signed as an international free agent in January 2021. The Orioles gave Basallo, just 16 at the time, a then-organization-record $1.3 million signing bonus.

Bunselmeyer has been Basallo’s hitting coach all three seasons of his career, moving with him as he’s progressed from the DSL to Low-A. Bunselmeyer said he still has videos on his phone of a 16-year-old Basallo’s swing, and the pair sometimes look back on those videos and laugh at much his swing has improved.

“It’s been really awesome for me to just see how he’s grown as a player and gotten better through the years,” Bunselmeyer said. “I’ve really seen the full spectrum of his growth. As a young kid, he wants to be so good. It’s a matter of taking those goals and expectations and understanding that there is failure that comes with that. For him, he’s just learning how to handle that failure.”

With his improving skills at the plate and a rocket arm behind the plate, Bunselmeyer said Basallo’s biggest area for growth is the mental part of the game.

“He’s still young and still growing up and still trying to mature, but the desire to be good or be great stands out,” Bunselmeyer said. “It’s been really cool to see him from where he started to where he’s at now and the attention he’s starting to get as he’s played well.”

Basallo is now the seventh-best prospect in the Orioles’ system, but some players ahead and behind him on that list are also having standout seasons. That’s why each week, The Baltimore Sun will break down five of the top performers in Baltimore’s prospect ranks and hand out some superlatives for those who didn’t make that cut.

1. High-A Aberdeen outfielder Jud Fabian

After a relatively slow start to the season, Fabian has started hitting for the power he displayed at the University of Florida when he hit 20-plus home runs in his final two seasons with the Gators. In his past 17 games, Fabian, 22, has hit 13 extra-base hits and posted a whopping 1.261 OPS. Last week, the Orioles’ No. 13 prospect went 11-for-19 with three home runs, three doubles, 11 RBIs, four walks and two doubles to earn South Atlantic League Player of the Week honors. Fabian, whom the Orioles drafted No. 67 overall last summer, is slashing .297/.401/.517 for a .918 OPS.

2. Double-A Bowie right-hander Chayce McDermott

In his minor league career, McDermott has struck out 34.8% of batters but walked 14.2%. Last week, though, he displayed the strikeout ability without the concerning walk rate. The 24-year-old right-hander struck out 12 and walked two in nine innings, allowing two runs across two outings. It was the first time in McDermott’s professional career that he’s walked one or fewer batters in back-to-back outings of four-plus innings. He had walked 31 in his 43 2/3 innings before last week. McDermott, whom the Orioles acquired from the Houston Astros in the Trey Mancini trade last summer, has a 2.56 ERA and is allowing just 5.1 hits per nine innings.

3. Triple-A Norfolk infielder Joey Ortiz

After the Orioles optioned him to Triple-A, Ortiz didn’t play for 14 days because of an illness and weather postponements. It didn’t take him any time to find his footing, as the 24-year-old smacked a home run in his first game back and recorded a hit in all five games he played last week. Ortiz, ranked No. 73 on Baseball America’s prospect list, went 8-for-22 with two home runs, a double and a triple. He’s hitting .328 with a .926 OPS with the Tides.

4. High-A Aberdeen right-hander Alex Pham

Last week, Pham was named the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month for his outstanding performance in May. He kept it going in June. Pham, 23, struck out 11 and walked two over five no-hit innings Saturday. The double-digit strikeout game was Pham’s second this season. The 19th-round pick in 2021 has a 2.58 ERA and a 35.8% strikeout rate this year.

5. Double-A Bowie outfielder John Rhodes

After struggling in Double-A to end his 2022 season, Rhodes has bounced back to start his second full professional campaign. The 2021 third-round pick has a .786 OPS this year after posting a .555 OPS in 18 games with the Baysox in 2022. Last week, Rhodes had perhaps his best week of the season with three multi-hit games. The 22-year-old went 10-for-27 with two doubles, a triple and a home run with five RBIs and three stolen bases.

The top prospect not featured so far

During his first week as the No. 2 prospect in baseball, Holliday went 6-for-21 with a home run, seven walks and three stolen bases. The 19-year-old shortstop was moved up on Baseball America’s list, and with No. 1 prospect Elly De La Cruz making his major league debut last week, Holliday is now the top prospect still in the minors. His production has dipped slightly — for his high standards — the past few weeks, as he’s now hitting .324 with a 1.006 OPS with the IronBirds.

International acquisition of the week

The Jorge López trade continues to bear fruit for the Orioles, but it’s not just Yennier Cano and left-handed pitching prospect Cade Povich. Juan Nunez, a right-hander out of the Dominican Republic, has impressed in his first full year of A-ball. The 22-year-old has a 3.71 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 51 innings with Low-A Delmarva. Last week, he struck out 15 batters in nine innings across two outings, allowing three runs and walking just one.

Time to give a shout-out to …

Low-A Delmarva infielder Carter Young and High-A Aberdeen right-hander Jake Lyons. Young, a 17th-round pick last summer, went 10-for-22 with a double, triple and home runs to improve his season-long OPS to .684. Lyons, meanwhile, didn’t allow a run in three innings after being named by the organization as Baltimore’s best minor league pitcher for the month of May. The 24-year-old has a 3.11 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings.

Short-season snippets

Right-handed pitcher Zack Showalter struck out 13 batters in six innings across two FCL outings last week in his first professional action after being drafted in the 11th round last summer. Showalter, 19, is the Orioles’ No. 24-ranked prospect, according to Baseball America. Aneudis Mordán, a 19-year-old catcher the Orioles signed in January 2021, went 7-for-11 with three doubles and two home runs for Baltimore’s FCL club. In his first week of professional baseball, shortstop Luis Almeyda hit two home runs and totaled seven RBIs in 17 DSL plate appearances. The Orioles signed Almeyda, 17, in January for a franchise-record $2.3 million bonus.

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