Catcher Sam Huff went unclaimed on waivers following his recent DFA and has rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency, the Orioles announced Thursday.
This was the second time Baltimore designated the former Rangers top prospect for assignment since Opening Day. He quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal last time around and could choose to do so again, though he’d be behind Adley Rutschman, Samuel Basallo and Chadwick Tromp on the depth chart. All three are currently healthy and on the major league roster.
Huff, 28, originally signed a minor league deal with the O’s back in January. He’s twice been selected to the majors but has appeared in only nine games. He’s logged 23 plate appearances between those two brief stints and gone 4-for-23 (two singles, two doubles) with 11 strikeouts (47.1%) and no walks. His work in Triple-A hasn’t been much better; he’s slashed .169/.275/.359 with a 37% strikeout rate in 102 turns at the plate as a member of the Orioles’ Norfolk affiliate.
Though this year hasn’t gone well for Huff, he’s had some success at the plate in the majors and sports a nice overall track record in Triple-A. Huff is a lifetime .241/.292/.416 hitter in the majors, albeit with a 36.6% strikeout rate in 295 plate appearances. He’s played in parts of six Triple-A seasons, amassing 1302 plate appearances and producing a .253/.333/.467 line with 60 big flies.
On the defensive side of things, Huff typically draws solid framing marks, but he’s struggled with blocking balls in the dirt. He’s made strides with controlling the running game in recent seasons, however, and now boasts a career 30% caught-stealing mark in the minors and a 21% mark in the majors. That latter number doesn’t stand out much, but Huff entered the 2025 season with just an 11% mark in the big leagues before flexing with a 29.2% mark last season in San Francisco. He threw out two of four thieves on the bases in his limited run with the O’s this season.
