Given the disappointment that’s hung over the 2025 Orioles for much of the season, the promotion and subsequent extension of Samuel Basallo is the best thing that has happened this year for much of Birdland.

For years, those who care about the Orioles have pleaded for the O’s front office to take a Braves-like approach to their young stars. En route to building their 2021 World Series-winning team, the Braves became synonymous with extending their budding stars long before they reached their arbitration years.

As the Orioles developed their own homegrown core, the optimistic expectation of would-be GMs in Birdland called for similar extensions for the likes of Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and others. Instead, it took until the seventh season of the Mike Elias-led rebuild for the O’s

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