BALTIMORE — Samuel Basallo has played only four games in the major leagues, but he’s already set for life.

The Orioles and the 21-year-old top prospect are finalizing a long-term contract extension, a source with direct knowledge of the agreement confirmed to The Baltimore Sun on Friday morning.

The extension is for eight years and $67 million with a club option for 2034, the source said. The deal could max out at $88.5 million based on escalators for awards and playing time at catcher.

The value of the contract is an MLB record for a catcher who has yet to reach arbitration. Basallo, the top catching prospect in baseball, made his MLB debut Sunday and already has five RBIs, including one that propelled the Orioles to victory Tuesday, in his first 14 at-bats. It’s early, but he’s already proved the hype is real, going 4 for 14 at the plate with a double after he was hit by a pitch in his first career plate appearance.

Basallo is the first player the Orioles have signed to a long-term contract extension since Mike Elias was hired as general manager in November 2018. Before this deal, the Orioles were the only MLB team to have not signed a player to an extension of four-plus guaranteed years since 2019, despite having plenty of young stars like Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg. The longest extension the Elias-led Orioles had given out was a two-year deal to Félix Bautista after he underwent Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery.

Basallo signed with Baltimore in January 2021 for a then-franchise record $1.3 million out of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He was the headliner of the first major international investment by the Elias regime after decades of the organization largely passing over the Latin American market. As far as international prospects go, Basallo is a home run, but the road for the 6-foot-4 slugger to get here was one that started a decade ago.

At 12 years old, Basallo began training like a professional, waking up at 4:30 a.m. for two-a-day workouts at his academy. A few years later, he was connected to the New York Yankees before he was again made available and the Orioles swooped in to sign him. He wasn’t a highly rated prospect until his historic 2023 season, during which he climbed from Low-A to Double-A in his age-18 campaign.

He dominated High-A more than any prospect his age since at least 2006, putting up even better numbers than Mike Trout and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did. In 2024, Basallo reached Triple-A in his age-19 season, joining an exclusive list of players to do so, including Bryce Harper, Ronald Acuña Jr and Jackson Holliday.

He showed up to spring training earlier this year like he belonged there, impressing coaches and teammates on the field with his loud bat and off it with his maturity and improvements learning to speak English. Basallo then dominated Triple-A to earn the call to the big leagues, hitting .270 with a whopping 23 home runs in 76 games.

Lucrative extensions for pre-arbitration players are rare, but they’ve become more common in recent years. Before the 2024 season, the Milwaukee Brewers signed outfielder Jackson Chourio to a similar extension as Basallo, and the Boston Red Sox this year have done the same with youngsters Kristian Campbell and Roman Anthony. Chourio received $82 million over eight years, while Campbell got $60 million and Anthony, a former No. 1 overall prospect, received $130 million.

The extension buys out Basallo’s first two free-agent years in 2032 and 2033 — Basallo’s age-27 and -28 seasons — as well as the club option in 2034. Basallo was already under team control through 2031 with MLB’s standard of three pre-arbitration years from 2026 through 2028 and three arbitration years from 2029 through 2031. Most players make the league minimum ($760,000 in 2025) during their pre-arbitration years, while arbitration salaries depend on a player’s performance. For example, Rutschman is making $5.5 million this year in his first year of arbitration. Elite players can make upwards of $20 million (or more) in their final year of arbitration.

Instead of relying on that system and waiting for life-changing money, Basallo elected to sign early for a deal with an average annual value of $8.37 million. As good as Basallo is as a prospect — ranked No. 7 in the sport by Baseball America — a young player’s future is always uncertain, but the Orioles are choosing to invest in Basallo. At the same time, Basallo’s ceiling as a pure hitter is as high as any player on the Orioles, and it’s possible he could be leaving tens of millions on the table by signing now instead of waiting to hit free agency.

The commitment to Basallo marks the fourth-largest contract in franchise history behind Chris Davis (seven years, $161 million), Adam Jones (six years, $85.5 million) and Miguel Tejada (six years, $72 million). The last time the Orioles locked down a key member of its future core was Jones in 2012.

The change in tactic comes in David Rubenstein’s second year as owner. Last offseason, Rubenstein approved more than $100 million in commitments to free agents, resulting in the largest year-over-year payroll increase by percentage in MLB. Basallo is the second player Elias has signed to a contract of three-plus seasons. Outfielder Tyler O’Neill was the first at three years, $49.5 million.

The Baltimore Banner was first to report the extension, which has yet to be announced by the team.

©2025 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.