Baltimore Orioles and Superstar Slugger Agree To Terms To Avoid Arbitration

The Baltimore Orioles have agreed to terms with one of their most important players.

Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles have avoided arbitration with one of their most important players.

Star catcher Adley Rutschman and the team have agreed to terms on a $5.5 million deal for the 2025 season to avoid arbitration as first reported by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It's quite the step up in pay for Rutschman in his first arbitration-eligible season. In 2024, the slugger made just over $760,000 on his pre-arbitration deal.

He is under team control until he becomes a free agent in 2028 with two more years of arbitration eligibility.

Rutschman was drafted No. 1 overall by the Orioles in the 2019 MLB Draft and made his debut in the 2022 season, bursting onto the scene in his first 113 games in the league and immediately establishing himself as one of the best catchers in all of baseball. After finishing second in American League Rookie of the Year voting, Rutschman stepped up his game in his first full season in 2023 with a .277 batting average, an OPS over .800, 20 home run, and 80 RBIs.

Struggling a bit in his third year this past season, Rutschman's OPS dropped to .709 and his average dropped to .250, both figures which were lower than his rookie season. Though he was still an All-Star for the second year in a row, Rutschman's decline was a huge reason why the team was unable to replicate the success of 2023 when they won the AL East for the first time in a decade.

Baltimore fans will hope Rutschman's struggles in 2024 were merely a bump in the road of what will be a long and tremendously successful career with the Orioles.