Adley Rutschman was struck with emotion in the Orioles clubhouse after his team again bowed out of October early, perhaps more so than any player there. His eyes swelled as he gave hugs, said goodbyes and fielded questions about his disappointing finish to his third season.

“I’m gonna let my body get right,” he said Wednesday. “Talk with the hitting guys. We got a good process. I’ll be ready to go.”

The young catcher’s struggles loomed over the Orioles’ second-half plunge that carried over to a postseason sweep at the hands of the Royals, in part because of how little they got from Rutschman. He and others alluded to fatigue and nagging ailments for an explanation, although it would be natural to assume a more impactful injury was to blame.

That isn’t the case, Mike Elias said Thursday. The Orioles’ general manager and executive vice president chalked up Rutschman’s shortcomings to the typical wear and tear that comes with playing catcher over a full season. Manager Brandon Hyde’s diagnosis was “probably pressing, probably trying to do too much, probably trying to be the All-Star player he was in the first half.”

Still, the duo at the forefront of the organization is backing Rutschman as the club’s franchise catcher.

“He’s our guy,” Elias said. “I have nothing but confidence that he’s going to be back to Adley Rutschman in 2025.”

Rutschman hit .300 with a .830 OPS, both well above his career averages, with 15 homers in 77 games through June 27. From then on, the catcher had a .189 average with just four home runs. He went 1-for-8 with a pair of strikeouts in two postseason games.

Underlying metrics suggest a swing with holes that were never plugged. His average launch angle soared as the season went on while his average exit velocity and hard-hit rate plummeted. By season’s end, he had career highs in flyball rate and the percentage of swings he got under the ball, according to Baseball Savant.

“I think for me, I was going through a lot of stuff with the hitting coaches,” Rutschman said. “Was in the cage every single day looking at stuff. Your body goes through a lot of things during the season.”

Breaking down later in a season is to be expected for catchers, a reality the Orioles try to offset by giving Rutschman ample time off either by having him bat as the designated hitter or keeping him out of the lineup entirely. He logged 882 1/3 innings at catcher, sixth most in MLB, and played 103 games there this season. Those are both down from his totals in 2023 when he played 934 2/3 frames and 110 games at the position. Since the start of 2022, Rutschman has caught the third-most innings in baseball.

He’s played 110 games at designated hitter over the past three seasons. He never served as a DH in the minor leagues but did spend 30 games at first base, a typical transition older catchers make to prolong their careers.

Elias said Rutschman, still only 26, was “naturally tired” when he slowed down in the second half. And he plays the sport’s most demanding position. But if Rutschman can’t handle this workload — large but not extreme — at this age, his viability of remaining there long term comes into question.

“Physically, he’s a catcher, he gives his all to this team and this position when he’s out there, and he’s naturally tired,” Elias said. “A lot of these guys are tired. I think we’re all tired. But so are other teams in the league, that’s not an excuse. I think he’s said as much. Has been such a key to our ascent that it’s been very frustrating for him, and for us, to see him experience the degree of struggles that he did in the second half, really for the first time since we’ve had him.

“There is not an injury that I would speak to of any nature,” Elias added.

Rutschman now has six months before the start of his fourth major league season. He’ll spend it recovering, then eyeing ways to rediscover the hitter he was the first three months of 2024. Times like those give Elias and Hyde confidence in their young star. They’re hoping the last three months were the outlier.

“Adley is going to be a really good player and had a tough second half, dealing with adversity for really the first time,” Hyde said. “I think he’s going to have a great year next year.”

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