It’s June, and the swoon may be over for Adley

SEATTLE — Maybe the worm has turned for Adley Rutschman.

Through most of 2025, it has not been the type of season the Baltimore Orioles catcher had envisioned.

After going 3 for 5 in a 12-2 season-opening win over Toronto, the former Oregon State All-American didn’t have another multiple-hit game for nearly a month. His batting average has hovered just above .200 for most of the season and even dipped below it a couple of times. Rutschman hit .205 with two home runs in April and .183 with one homer in May.

But the calendar has turned to June, and things are looking up.

On Tuesday, Rutschman went 3 for 5 and scored a pair of runs as the Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners 5-1 at T-Mobile Park.

On Wednesday, the Sherwood native parked one deep into the right-field bleachers for a solo homer to tie the game at 1-1 in the sixth inning. He also made a great tag on a sliding J.P. Crawford trying to score in the seventh, then bombed one to deep center that was caught on the warning track by Seattle centerfielder Julio Rodriguez. The Orioles went on to win 3-2 for their fifth straight victory.

On Thursday, Rutschman went 3 for 4, including a two-run homer down the right-field line to tie the game 3-3 in the fifth. Switching from the left to the right side against Seattle southpaw Gabe Speier, he ripped another single to left in the eighth. Baltimore won 4-3 to sweep the series and claim its ninth win in 11 games. In the three games, Rutschman was 7 for 13, with two four-baggers, three RBIs and 13 total bases, to raise his average to .225 and run his home run total to seven.

“He looked great,” Baltimore interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “Maybe it is playing in Seattle, being from that part of the country. There is actually something to that kind of thing. We are hopeful and feel good about the direction Adley is headed.”

So is Rutschman’s coach at Oregon State, Pat Casey, who watched Adley’s final at-bat Tuesday night on TV. Facing Seattle reliever Collin Snider, Rutschman fouled off eight pitches before, on the 13th pitch of the at-bat, delivering a single to right field.

“The impressive thing was the bat speed he showed,” Casey said. “Here is a guy throwing a 94-mile-an-hour heater, 86 on the slider, and (Rutschman) was on every one of those pitches. Those were quality swings. He looked really on time and relaxed.”

It hasn’t been that way most of the year. Through Wednesday, Rutschman was hitting .214 with six round-trippers and 16 RBIs in 55 games. After making All-Star Game appearances in each of the last two seasons, expectations were much higher.

Part of it may be the pressure of being a leader — perhaps the leader — of a Baltimore team that has been disappointing. After going 101-61 in 2023 and 91-71 in ’24 and making the playoffs each year, the Orioles started this season 16-34. Since then they had won eight of 10 games going into Thursday’s series finale against Seattle, but they are still in last place in the AL East, 13 games behind the leading Yankees.

Casey is now working in player development for the Milwaukee Brewers. When the Orioles played in Milwaukee last month, he and Adley spent some time together.

“When you become a superstar, it brings with it a lot of pressure,” Casey said. “Adley feels that. If you are not winning, he feels like he has to carry the team. You start putting more on yourself than you should.”

In 2017, Rutschman had a difficult time hitting his entire freshman season at OSU, batting .234 with two homers in 61 games. Casey maintained an unwavering belief in him.

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“Adley is already a great catcher, and he is going to be a great hitter for us,” the former OSU skipper told me then. “And he is going to be a star in the big leagues.”

Rutschman put together back-to-back .400 seasons in 2018 and ’19, collecting a total of 26 four-baggers and 141 RBIs in 124 games. He was the MVP as the Beavers won the College World Series as a sophomore and National Player of the Year as a junior and the first pick in the 2019 major league draft.

Rutschman was a rookie sensation in 2022, the runner-up to Seattle’s Rodriguez for American League Rookie of the Year. Adley took over the starting catcher role in June and hit .254 with 13 homers and a .362 on-base percentage in 113 games as the Orioles improved from an AL-worst 52-110 in ’21 to 83-79 in ’22.

Rutschman had a spectacular campaign the next season, hitting .277 with 20 homers and 80 RBIs and making his first All-Star team. He started strong last season, batting .275 with 16 homers and 59 RBIs in the first 90 games. Then he slumped, batting .207 with three homers and 20 RBIs in the final 58 games.

After a solid spring training in which he hit .313 with three four-baggers in 16 games, Rutschman was looking for a major bounce-back in ’25. The first two months were a step-back.

Mansolino, who has kept Rutschman near the top of the batting order despite his poor average, said he began to see progress in Adley’s swing in a series against the Angels almost a month ago. He missed two games in concussion protocol after being hit in the face mask with a tipped ball, but since returning has looked sharper.

“Before that, he was putting pressure on himself,” Casey said. “That is what leaders do. They take it on and feel like they have to do everything. Then it is time to step back and relax a little bit.”

The Orioles’ offense has been struggling all season. They rank 10th in the league batting average at .238 and 12th in runs scored with 230 in 60 games.

“Adley’s hitting this year has been a little slow to come around, but it is only a matter of time before he gets out of it,” shortstop Gunnar Henderson said. “When he gets going, and when we all get going, it is going to be a really fun lineup.”

Rutschman, 27, isn’t the kind of guy to talk about slumps. I spoke with Adley before Wednesday’s game, asking about his performance at the plate this season. “My whole thing in hitting is, just stay with the process,” he said. “I am always looking to improve and trying to get a little better every day. Regardless of how well I am hitting, I try to keep the same process, the same mindset.”

Rutschman’s advanced metrics are mostly good. His chase rate, 20 percent, is well below the MLB average of 27.9. His strikeout rate is 17.4 percent (MLB average 22.6) and walks rate 11.7 percent (8.1). His squared-up percentage, however, is lower than the MLB average — 34.7 to 40. Judging by how he has hit the ball in Seattle, that number will climb.

None of that matters to Rutschman’s teammates, who seem to cherish him and certainly respect him. He has taken 21-year-old second baseman Jackson Holliday under his wing. Rutschman was the No. 1 pick in the 2019 MLB draft; Holliday went No. 1 in 2022.

“Adley has been a big help to me,” said Holliday, son of former outfielder Matt Holliday, a seven-time All-Star during his 15-year big-league career. “We had similar paths through the draft and the minor leagues. It has been awesome to get to know him. We have spent a lot of time together, talking about hitting approach and stuff like that. He is such a leader in the clubhouse. We are lucky to have him.”

Shortstop Gunnar Henderson and pitcher Matt Bowman also mention Rutschman’s leadership.

“He is a leadership-by-example guy,” Henderson said. “That’s what I like in a catcher. Go out there and do the work.”

“Adley is a leader, without a doubt,” said Bowman, a veteran reliever who came to the Orioles last season. “It is almost impossible to be a starting catcher and not be a leader. He was a leader when I first got here, and he is certainly a leader now.”

When I asked Rutschman if he has made a conscious attempt to exhibit leadership in his fourth season with the Orioles, he shrugged it off.

“It is about trying to be who you are,” he said. “For me on this team, my job is to go out and do my best every single night. Be a catcher. Part of being a catcher is trying to have as good of a presence as you can behind the plate.”

Rutschman continues to do that well.

“He is fantastic — one of the better catchers you can throw to,” Bowman said.

At Oregon State, Adley began a tradition of going out to greet a pitcher as he came off the mound at the end of an inning. He has continued to do that with the Orioles.

“That is reflective of his personality,” Bowman said. “There is a lot of give and take between pitcher and catcher when he is playing.

“He is always evaluating — assessing hitters, assessing his pitchers and making sure we are on the same page. An underrated part of being a catcher is keeping the pitchers happy and confident in what they are doing.”

Henderson considers Rutschman one of his best friends on the team.

“What an awesome guy,” said Henderson, a starter in the 2024 All-Star Game. “He separates life on and off the field really well. That’s what you need from a guy behind the plate. He is always there, always in the moment. You know you are getting his best.”

Baltimore’s recent upswing can be traced to its pitching. The Orioles rank next-to-last in the AL with a 5.12 ERA, but over the last 10 games have yielded only 25 runs.

“Our pitching has been better,” Rutschman said. “I love our guys, the way they go about their business. Love the way they are pitching.

“We have been playing good ball overall. I like the way we are playing. This team has always been really tight. It is a matter of us putting it together on a nightly basis.”

Rutschman was shocked when Brandon Hyde, Baltimore’s manager through the duration of Adley’s career, was fired on May 17 after the team started the season 15-28. Mansolino, the third-base coach, replaced him. Since Mansolino took over, the Orioles have gone 9-8.

“I had never gone through anything like that before,” Rutschman said. “I knew ‘Hyder’ even before I got to the Orioles, after I was drafted and through spring training when I was still in the minors. I enjoyed playing for him. But I have known Tony throughout my entire career as well. He is a great coach, too.”

Rutschman, whose offseason home is in Vancouver but said he “continues training in Oregon,” has kept track of the Beavers this season.

“I got to catch a little bit of the Regional on TV,” he said. “We are playing just about every day, but I have tried to follow them as much as possible.”

Former OSU teammate Zach Taylor is the Beavers’ director of player development. Taylor is on a text chain with many of his ex-teammates.

“Zach and I are still very close,” Rutschman said. “He is one of my best friends. After they lost (the Regional opener to Saint Mary’s), he shaved his head. He sent out a picture. We were all giving him a little bit of crap. But I guess it fired the boys up.”

I mentioned the job senior Wilson Weber has done at catcher for the Beavers this season. Adley nodded and smiled.

“I met Wilson when he was just a high school kid,” he said. “Amazing to see what he continues to do. He just keeps getting better and better.”

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