Adley Rutschman is ‘the dude,’ but Orioles catching prospect Maverick Handley is creating his have mark: ‘You always need to have two’

Most mornings, Bowie Baysox first baseman Andrew Daschbach wakes up to the smell of bacon.

When Bowie catcher Maverick Handley isn’t behind the dish, he loves building them, with Daschbach often the beneficiary as his roommate as they participate in for the Orioles’ Double-A affiliate. Handley’s signature, Daschbach claimed, is a breakfast sandwich made with an almost everything bagel, two fried eggs, a slice of cheese and at the very least four slices of bacon. His father grew up in kitchens, and as soon as Handley was on his own at Stanford — exactly where he, Daschbach and fellow Orioles prospect Kyle Stowers ended up teammates — he picked up the techniques himself.

“It’s really considerably math,” Handley explained.

It doesn’t consider being a biomechanical engineering important, as Handley was, to do the calculus on Handley’s put in the Orioles’ upcoming. Baltimore took him with the first choose of the 2019 draft’s sixth round, acquiring picked Adley Rutschman — baseball’s top prospect, catching or usually — No. 1 over-all 5 rounds before. But even with Rutschman arriving in the majors and obtaining his form as Handley does the similar with the Baysox, the latter thinks the arithmetic will work out in the conclusion.

“You usually require two catchers,” Handley said. “I really do not want to be envious. I want him to have accomplishment and go on and be a Corridor of Famer. That would be remarkable, and it’s not going to effect my career. Just since he’s there, it’s not impacting the place I’m gonna be.”

Handley, 24, is the archetype of a catcher who could tandem with Rutschman at some stage, with his exhibiting more than the earlier two months in Double-A hinting at the likely for a lot more. When he continues to perform the standout protection which is prolonged been the trademark of his activity, Handley’s bat is coming all over. Soon after a 1-for-25 start out, Handley is batting .302 with a .906 OPS in the two months due to the fact thanks to an method focused on utilizing the entire discipline and driving pitches the other way. He has 4 house runs in that 31-game span after hitting 5 in 60 video games past year.

These improvements have occur from a player who is “ultra geared up,” Baysox manager Kyle Moore said. He recalled just one victory that prompted a clubhouse celebration, but for the duration of it, Moore appeared at Handley’s locker and saw him on his telephone.

“Dude, what are you viewing?” Moore requested.

“My at-bats,” Handley flatly responded, already using his MiLB Television set account to assessment the game that finished minutes right before.

“Ultimately, you cannot genuinely get everything earlier Mav,” Moore later claimed. “Good chance he’s previously looked it up.”

Handley delivers the identical intensity to his defensive operate. Moore will display up to the park, and Handley is presently there, ready to make clear the ball-strike tendencies of that night’s house plate umpire. He’s an “elite transfer male,” Moore explained, a ability Handley possessed at Stanford that makes it possible for him to quickly get the ball out of his glove on stolen base attempts his profession caught-thieving charge is approximately 50%. Daschbach stated Handley has an innate capacity to decide on up cues from opposing batters’ stances, strides and swings — “almost thinking as if he were in their brain” — and therefore what pitch to call to counteract them.

“He’s playing a match of chess,” Daschbach said. “And he’s an unbelievable chess participant.”

That is among the techniques his intellect demonstrates by itself away from the baseball subject, also. Handley participated in significant league spring training for the second straight 12 months, and for the team’s talent show, he did a collection of science experiments, 1 of which associated lights bubbles on hearth in his hand. Daschbach’s girlfriend, a Stanford lacrosse participant, frequented them previously this thirty day period, having not long ago undergone surgical procedures to fix a torn meniscus in her knee. Handley commenced firing off questions about the procedure, ready to depth the biological aspects of the restoration method with regards to how the cells and tissue would recover relying on the style of operation.

“He’s generally got fun information,” stated Cody Roberts, who has used considerably of this 12 months catching for Bowie alongside Handley. “He always understands things which is way further than what we recognize.”

Roberts mentioned that also applies to some facets of baseball’s analytics. Handley has expended the earlier two offseasons instruction at Driveline, a renowned pitching and hitting lab based in the Pacific Northwest and Arizona. There, he participated in, among the other drills, the foam ball batting practice that now litters the Orioles’ procedure, which capabilities dynamic pitch movement that’s an exaggerated kind of what gamers see in video games and thus is meant to obstacle them. He also labored with Orioles reliever Dillon Tate, who claimed he has Handley among the the catchers “at the top rated of my list” due to the fact of his capacity to provide a fantastic target and steal extra strikes by pitch framing.

Handley also dedicated to a exercise and diet prepare, where by his enthusiasm for cooking was very practical. He played at a lighter weight a year back and completed the calendar year with 12 stolen bases, a mark only a handful of other slight league catchers surpassed, but he also dealt with indirect and hamstring injuries that disrupted the rhythm of his period.

“He was out there operating close to like a banshee, stealing bases and heading nuts,” reported Moore, who managed Handley in Large-A Aberdeen final calendar year. “I’m like, ‘Dude, get it back again, get it again. You do not have to run and steal bases and do all that to make on your own beneficial.’”

Handley’s defense is a good deal, Moore said, adding that he has a ability set matching that of the backup catchers the Orioles experienced when they were the American League’s winningest workforce from 2012 to 2016. Moore hesitated to put that variety of job on a younger player continue to a pair of steps from the majors, but with Rutschman in Baltimore, it is a chance Handley brazenly accepts. He’s relished the option to be all-around Rutschman through their time in the Orioles’ system, learning his tactic both at the plate and powering it.

“Getting drafted in the exact corporation as him, I took it almost as a compliment,” Handley explained. “If they are having me, specially in the sixth spherical, that suggests they have religion in me, and you generally have to have two catchers. Specifically if they want somebody as Adley Rutschman, who’s going to be a cornerstone of the organization, you gotta choose some miles off his legs. He’s gonna be the dude, but if I can confirm that I’m also a dude, he’s not going to prevent me.

“That’s the hope: I can be a complement to him.”

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