{"id":681888,"date":"2026-04-23T22:57:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681888\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:57:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:57:48","slug":"orioles-catcher-adley-rutschman-has-his-comfortable-swing-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/681888\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman has his \u2018comfortable\u2019 swing back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adley Rutschman\u2019s return to the Orioles\u2019 lineup<\/a> Tuesday was a welcome one even before he marked the occasion with his first home run of the season.<\/p>\n

Doing so after an injured list stint for ankle inflammation might be the latest sign the Rutschman of old is back. <\/p>\n

Hours before the three-hit game two Fridays ago in which he rolled his ankle, Rutschman explained to me the difference in what we were seeing so far, which looks a lot like the version of the player who made All-Star Games in 2023 and 2024. <\/p>\n

I felt missing this time might be an early challenge to his new offensive mindset. If he can pick up where he left off, which Tuesday showed is certainly possible, the onetime franchise cornerstone may once again be held in that esteem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, just mechanically, I feel like just being in a good spot on my load, on my land, just like allows everything else in the swing to work comfortably \u2014 make good swing decisions, get barrel to ball more consistently,\u201d Rutschman said. \u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of work with the hitting coaches to kind of get to a spot where, when you step in the box, you feel comfortable, you feel like you\u2019re able to relax, make good swing decisions and, when you get off your swing, you\u2019re making good contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

We had this conversation after I tried, and failed, to articulate on the Banner Baseball Show what had led Rutschman to the success he\u2019d had in the first two weeks of the season. Throughout his good spells and bad spells as a big leaguer, Rutschman has always controlled the strikeout and not whiffed too much, especially in the strike zone. <\/p>\n

For whatever reason \u2014 be it injuries, swing changes or a combination of both \u2014 the quality of contact dipped drastically in the second half of 2024 and into 2025, and Rutschman\u2019s power and overall production fell off.<\/p>\n

In the context of the balance and simplified swing load he now boasts, he looks back at last year with the knowledge that \u201csometimes less is more,\u201d noting he was \u201ca little bit louder in the load\u201d of his swing. That opened more room for error and at times left him less adjustable if he wasn\u2019t on time with a particular pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m in a good position, on time, and my body is, when I land, in a good spot \u2014 let\u2019s say I get a changeup away, and I\u2019m a little out in front, if I\u2019m in a good spot when I land, I can extend out a little bit further to go the other way on a changeup. Whereas, if I\u2019m maybe a little bit late, I\u2019m stuck back here, I\u2019ve got no length out in front to do that so I\u2019m just spinning off quick,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no length out in front. And I think you see the byproduct of that and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s kind of handsy, that swing,\u2019 but mechanically, I\u2019m allowing myself a position to be handsy to a pitch I\u2019ve got feel on.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why you\u2019ll notice now that Rutschman looks as though he\u2019s attacking the pitch that\u2019s being thrown rather than simply trying to turn on everything. He often looked last year as if he was trying to generate as much torque as possible to drive the ball with every swing rather than using his ability to see pitches and put good swings on them. <\/p>\n

The last game he played before the injury exemplified that. He went the other way for a double to left field on a fastball over the outer half in the first inning, turned on a cutter for a double to right field in his second at-bat, then stayed on a curveball back up the middle for a single the next time up. The length and time spent through the zone showed Tuesday when he got the barrel out to hit a fastball on the outer half to left-center field from the right side. <\/p>\n

Before the injury, assistant hitting coach Brady North \u2014 who spent the last four years with the Tampa Bay Rays \u2014 said this was the Rutschman he saw in the first part of that span.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose first couple seasons, it was like, \u2018Wow, this guy is dangerous,\u2019\u201d North said. \u201cThe last couple years we were watching like, \u2018Man, something happened. Is it health or whatnot?\u2019 This year, it just seems like Adley is Adley. The intent in his swing, the way he\u2019s turning coming out of it, you can tell he\u2019s really seeing the ball well and confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps most meaningful for the Orioles, though, is not only that he took the time on the injured list to get himself healthy but that he maintained the swing he wants without playing every day. Part of keeping up his start, he said before any kind of layoff was on his mind, was \u201cnot trying to reinvent the wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to go through phases during the season, you\u2019re on a hot skid, you\u2019re on a cold skid, so for me, it\u2019s \u2018Hey, this is what we\u2019re going for,\u2019\u201d Rutschman said. \u201cMaybe you\u2019re on a bad little skid, but we\u2019re sticking with the same process, getting back to the same feel, and trusting that process as opposed to let\u2019s make an actual swing change or something like that. So just liking your process and sticking with it, even through the good and bad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adley Rutschman\u2019s return to the Orioles\u2019 lineup Tuesday was a welcome one even before he marked the occasion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,4,125,56507],"class_list":{"0":"post-681888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimoreorioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-orioles","14":"tag-portraits"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116456502353272209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}