The Orioles have agreed to a minor league contract with catcher Sam Huff, experiences MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. The ALIGND Sports activities consumer will presumably be in massive league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.
A seventh-rounder by the Rangers again in 2016, the as-of-yesterday 28-year-old Huff has performed in elements of 5 main league seasons. He as soon as rated as one of many high catching prospects within the sport and carries an honest .247/.301/.430 batting line within the majors. That manufacturing is available in a pattern of solely 272 plate appearances and spite of a 36% strikeout charge, nonetheless. Huff’s charge stats have been buoyed by a .350 common on balls in play.
Huff has stable framing grades in his restricted main league work however has struggled with blocking balls within the filth and controlling the run recreation. He has simply an 18.5% caught-stealing charge in his profession and has been charged with eight handed balls in 507 innings behind the dish.
The minor league numbers for Huff aren’t dangerous. He’s tallied precisely 1200 plate appearances in Triple-A and carries a lifetime .258/.338/.476 slash at that stage, together with 56 homers, 60 doubles, a pair of triples and a ten.2% stroll charge. Contact has been a problem for him even on the high minor league stage, although; he’s fanned in an untenable 29.9% of his journeys to the plate in Triple-A.
With the Orioles, Huff figures to be a pure depth choice. High prospect Samuel Basallo and mainstay Adley Rutschman will deal with the catching duties within the majors. Twenty-seven-year-old Maverick Handley bought some appears to be like as a glove-first choice behind the dish when the O’s had been coping with accidents in 2025 as nicely, although he’s since been faraway from the 40-man roster. Huff can be part of Handley in Triple-A Norfolk and provides the group an choice as a righty bat at first base, too (not that they’re missing in that regard). He’s logged 73 profession video games (566 innings) at first base between the minors and the large leagues.
