Opposition research: Adley Rutschman

The title of Best Catcher in Baseball is fleeting

It’s pretty safe to say that although he’s played better of late, J.T. Realmuto is no longer the Best Catcher in Baseball™. Cal Raleigh has clearly taken over that title, but as recently as one year ago, many people would have said it was Adley Rutschman of the Baltimore Orioles.

Rutschman burst on the scene in 2022, finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting when he matched strong defense with an .806 OPS. He followed that up by winning the Silver Slugger award and finishing ninth in AL MVP voting in 2023.

He looked poised to earn even more hardware after a strong first half in 2024, but then he went into a slump in the second half. He had a .585 OPS after the All-Star break with just three home runs. He then went 1-8 in the playoffs, after going 1-13 the year before.

After getting off to a slow start this season, Rutschman seems to have rediscovered his offensive game. He was heating up in June, when an injury forced him to miss over a month of time. But he’s picked up where he left off and has gone on a binge of doubles.

He has a long way to go to recapture the Best Catcher in Baseball title, but he’s still one of the best at the position.

X-Men character of the series

Many X-Men writers like introducing young team members to serve as sort of a point of view character for readers. Often times, these young team members are originally seen as a bit annoying but eventually become mainstays like Kitty Pryde or Jubilee.

Others have faded away after the writer who created them leave the book. Hisako Ichiki aka Armor appears to be one of them.

Originally created by Joss Whedon during his run on Astonishing X-Men, Armor can create a psionic exoskeleton around her body. She was featured heavily during Whedon’s run and in some storylines immediately after, but since then, she’s mostly been marginalized.

Additional thought about the series

The Orioles have had a disastrous season. While it seemed very possible that there would be a drop off from their 91-win performance of 2024, very few people thought they’d be ten games under .500 at this point in the season. And after an active trade deadline where they jettisoned several veterans, they should theoretically be even worse now. Though sometimes, trading away veterans and relying more on younger players can have a revitalizing effect on a team.

One player they’ve gotten a boost from lately is a player they picked up at last year’s trade deadline: Starting pitcher Trevor Rogers. The former Marlin was a massive disappointment after coming to the Orioles in 2024 and has missed a chunk of time with injuries this year. But when he’s been healthy, he’s largely been excellent

The Phillies largely owned him when he was on the Marlins (career 6.71 ERA against them), but we’ll see if Rogers version 2.0 has more success when he faces them on Wednesday.