Orioles recall Cameron Foster, option Maverick Handley amid catching crunch

Baltimore’s latest roster shake-up said as much about the Orioles’ catching picture as it did about Cameron Foster’s promotion. The club recalled Foster from Triple-A Norfolk on Thursday and optioned Maverick Handley back to Norfolk, a move that left Samuel Basallo and Sam Huff as the active catchers and gave Baltimore a fresh bullpen arm for the first time in Foster’s major league career.

The swap was notable because it replaced a position player with a pitcher, an unusual kind of tradeoff for a roster that has been stretched by injuries. Adley Rutschman landed on the 10-day injured list on April 11 with left ankle inflammation, which sent Baltimore looking for catching insurance. Handley was selected from Double-A Chesapeake that same day, then Huff was added from Norfolk on April 15, briefly creating a three-catcher arrangement before Handley was sent back down.

Handley’s return to Triple-A matters for Norfolk as much as it does for Baltimore. The 28-year-old Stanford product, a sixth-round pick by the Orioles in 2019, had already logged a major league debut on April 29, 2025, and brought 41 career big-league at-bats into this move with a .073 average. Back in Norfolk, he becomes the most experienced emergency option in the organization’s upper levels, the kind of catcher Baltimore can turn to again if the big-league depth chart gets squeezed further.

That depth chart now runs through Basallo and Huff in Baltimore, with Basallo’s path carrying extra weight. Every day Rutschman remains out, the Orioles are asking more from a young catcher group that has had to absorb the shuffle quickly. Handley’s exit removes one layer of redundancy, but it also clarifies the assignment: Basallo and Huff handle the major league workload, while Norfolk waits in reserve with Handley ready if the Orioles need another call.

Foster’s promotion created the other half of the story. The 27-year-old right-hander, listed at 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, was recalled to give Baltimore bullpen depth and a low-leverage option. MASN reported he will wear No. 65, and his first appearance will be his MLB debut. NBC Sports noted that Foster had a 10.50 ERA in six Norfolk outings this season and a 7.01 ERA across 21 career Triple-A appearances, underscoring that Baltimore was reaching for an arm more than a finished product. Still, in a week packed with injuries and transactions, the Orioles chose Foster’s upside and Handley’s reset, then kept the catching squeeze centered around Basallo and Huff.