At one time, Oriole fans and media wondered if minor league catcher Samuel Basallo would follow Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday from 2022 to 2024 and become the No. 1 prospect in baseball. Could he get there and give Baltimore a four-peat — four players atop the rankings over four seasons?

While he didn’t quite make that, he did get as high as No. 3 on one evaluation and he seems to be getting noticed by the brass as O’s spring training is underway in Sarasota.

Some reporters have said he is the player in camp.

Showing off his big power and big arm and get-after-it attitude, Basallo is one of baseball’s top catching prospects. He is ranked as the sport’s No. 3 prospect by The Athletic, No. 11 by Baseball Prospectus, No. 13 by MLBPipeline.com, and No. 14 by Baseball America.

The 6-foot-4, 20-year old is ranked as the O’s No. 1 prospect, ahead of Coby Mayo, and those outlets all rank Basallo as MLB’s top current catching prospect.

We recently wrote here about a very positive report he got on his defense from The Athletic’s Keith Law.

“I want him to get the experience of major league camp,” said O’s manager Brandon Hyde over the weekend. “Last year, he was here, but he wasn’t playing [because of a right elbow stress fracture]. Getting in some major league spring training games behind the plate, getting at-bats against major league arms and just kind of soaking it in a little bit.”

Said new O’s bench coach Robinson Chirinos, a former big league catcher: “I think he’s going to be an impact player in this organization. Close, soon. Hopefully, he can stay healthy, be able to continue his development as a player, especially in a position where you get so much thrown early in your career as a big leaguer. We’re excited. He’s close. He’s talented. He’s going to help this team. Only God knows when that’s going to happen, but he’s in a good spot right now.”

Basallo played most of the 2024 season at Double-A and most of the year at age 19. He did not turn 20 until August 13th. Over 127 games between Double-A and Triple-A, he hit .278/.341/.449/.790 with 25 doubles, 19 homers and 65 RBIs.

He produced an .820 OPS with Bowie (now Chesapeake) with 16 homers, 55 RBIs. He hit just .222 with Norfolk after moving up late in the year but batted .297 with an .810 OPS in his last 11 games, after going 7-for-44 in his first 10 Triple-A games.

For the kid who signed for $1.3 million out of the Dominican Republic in January, 2021, he’s now seen all the minor league stops. Expected to begin this year back at Triple-A, he’s knocking big time on the big league door. He’s about to kick it in and become the first international prospect of the Mike Elias front office to go from signing day to the majors.

That will be a nice milestone for the Orioles international program.

Baseball America and MLBPipeline.com both grade him at 55 on the 20-80 scouting scale for hit tool while BA provides a 70 grade for power and MLBP comes in at 60. Both rate his big arm as 70 grade and his run tool at 40 while BA goes 50 for fielding and MLBP is at 45. The report I noted earlier by The Athletic is a real plus for his defense. The O’s brass has always insisted he can stay as a catcher.

Just how he would co-exist on a roster with Rutschman is a question to be decided at some point.

For me an underrated aspect of Basallo’s offense has been his pretty solid plate discipline. From his first pro year in 2021 in the Dominican Summer League, he showed a good walk percentage of 12.3 with a 20.8 strikeout percentage. That was not a big strikeout number for a young kid in his first season starting to learn his swing in pro ball.

In 2023, in High-A, he had a walk percentage of 16.5 and 17.4 strikeout rate. Last year, at Double-A, the walk number was 9.2 and 19.1 for strikeouts. Both would be above average per MLB rates. In his small Triple-A sample of 21 games, he had a 5.8 walk percentage and 31.4 strikeout rate. Both will even out much better I will expect when he logs a bunch of games there this year.

Basallo is driven to be good and he has told me he loves being the shining star of the O’s international program and provide an example for other players.

“His mindset is, ‘I want to be the best player, a Hall of Fame-type player’ … We like that. He keeps pushing himself,” said Koby Perez, the O’s vice president of international scouting and operations.

As Basallo’s day in the majors draws closer, his first few days of spring training have been giving the O’s coaches and staff a glimpse of the future, and they love what they see.