The Orioles locked up a key piece of their future on Friday afternoon, signing rookie catcher Samuel Basallo to an eight-year extension. The deal, which covers the 2026-33 seasons and comes with a 2034 club option, reportedly guarantees the CAA Baseball client $67MM. Basallo, who celebrated his 21st birthday just nine days ago, receives a $5MM signing bonus and can max out the contract at $88.5MM via various escalators. Baltimore buys out at least two would-be free agent seasons with the option for a third.
The salary breaks down as follows:
- $1MM annually between 2026-28
- $4MM in 2029
- $7MM in 2030
- $11MM in 2031
- $15MM annually between 2032-33
- $18MM club option ($7MM buyout) for 2034
It’s a testament to Basallo’s status as one of the most impressive prospects in the entire league. He was a consensus top-15 prospect in the sport entering the 2025 season and has only improved his stock since then after slashing .270/.377/.589 (151 wRC+) in 76 games for Triple-A Norfolk this season with 23 homers and a 13.7% walk rate. He did all that while being the youngest qualified hitter in the International League this year. That sort of sensational production left nothing for Basallo to prove at Triple-A in terms of his bat, and while his time in the majors has barely begun he’s already gotten off to a hot start by going 3-for-10 with a double, a run scored, five RBI, a hit-by-pitch and just one strikeout across his first 11 plate appearances in the majors.
With that said, questions have been raised about his defensive ability behind the plate by outside prospect evaluation services. Even GM Mike Elias himself acknowledged that he felt Basallo’s skills behind the plate needed more work before he came to the majors back in June, though the fact that he’s not only been called up since then but has now inked a massive extension certainly suggests that Elias and the rest of the Orioles’ brass have liked what they’ve seen. Just yesterday, Adley Rutschman was placed on the injured list due to an oblique strain which figures to have the secondary effect of opening up plenty of playing time for Basallo behind the plate down the stretch. That should give the Orioles plenty of opportunity to see how he handles the rigors of the position at the big league level and make an informed decision about how he’ll be used in 2026.
Whether Basallo winds up behind the plate or at first base, however, the deal is a reasonable enough sum that the Orioles can feel comfortable with the investment. Basallo’s $67MM guarantee is seventh-highest figure among 12 hitters who have extended with their clubs after making their big league debut but prior to reaching one year of MLB service time, according to MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. Two such players have signed extensions this year: #1 overall prospect Roman Anthony, who had 38 days of MLB service time when the Red Sox locked him up on a $130MM guarantee over eight seasons, and Anthony’s teammate Kristian Campbell, who had just six days of MLB service time when he landed an eight-year, $60MM extension that guaranteed him $59.2MM over seven years in new money.
Basallo, who is also signing an extension less than a week after his major league debut, wound up receiving a contract that narrowly beats out Campbell’s in terms of total guarantee. Of course, it can be somewhat fairly argued that both Basallo and Campbell fit better with the group of six players who have signed pre-debut extensions in the past decade given how shortly after their MLB debuts both players signed an extension. After all, players like Julio Rodriguez and Ronald Acuna Jr. signed nine-figure deals during their rookie seasons, but only did so after they had already accumulated more than 100 days of MLB service time and put up performances that would go on to win them their league’s Rookie of the Year award. If compared to the pre-debut group, only Jackson Chourio’s $82MM guarantee from the Brewers prior to the 2024 season was higher, as Basallo eclipses both Campbell’s aforementioned deal and the $50MM pact Luis Robert Jr. landed with the White Sox.
Because Basallo’s extension came after his MLB debut, he’s eligible to earn a draft pick for the organization via the Prospect Promotion Incentive. Because Basallo debuted too late in the 2025 season to exhaust his rookie eligibility, if he earns a full year of service time in 2026 the Orioles could stand to gain a PPI pick in the event that he wins the 2026 AL Rookie of the Year award or is a finalist for the AL MVP award in the years before he would become arbitration-eligible. Players who sign pre-debut extensions like Chourio are not eligible for the PPI, but that’s not the case for players who sign extensions following their MLB debut. Bobby Witt Jr. and Corbin Carroll have both netted their teams PPI draft picks even after signing extensions, for example. It’s at least plausible that those rules regarding PPI picks contributed to Baltimore’s decision to wait until after Basallo’s big league debut to finalize their extension with the youngster.
While Basallo’s guarantee is hardly onerous even for a low-spending club like the Orioles, the deal is surely both exciting and encouraging for fans in Baltimore. Previous star prospects produced by the farm system like Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson have developed into star players ticketed for large paydays without signing an extension, and the lack of extensions for that first wave of youngsters has led to pessimism in some circles about the possibility of extending up-and-coming prospects from the next wave like Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo. Considering that Basallo’s deal is the first long-term extension for an Orioles player since they locked up Adam Jones all the way back in 2012, it serves as much-needed assurance for fans that the organization is willing to commit to its homegrown talent long-term.
Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner first reported that the Orioles and Basallo were nearing an eight-year, $67MM deal with a club option and a max value of $88.5MM. Noah Trister of The Associated Press reported the specific salary structure.