NORFOLK — Whether his season or his offseason will turn out to be more memorable in the end remains to be seen for Maverick Handley.
A sixth-round draft pick out of Stanford in 2019, Handley finally made his major league debut in late April after more than five seasons as a minor leaguer.
Handley, a 27-year-old Norfolk Tides catcher, made a small bit of Baltimore Orioles history. Unwittingly, he made highlight reels as part of an unsightly encounter with a star player on a fluke play.
In November, even as a relatively small cog in an underachieving organization, Handley will get a ring.
At eight games under .500 entering Saturday night’s penultimate game against Jacksonville, the Tides (32-40) were never in serious contention for a second-half title in the International League.
Their 62-83 overall record had prompted few rosy letters back home from the clubhouse.
But as evening falls and players pack up their belongings to scatter throughout the world after Sunday’s season finale, another long, unforgiving season behind them, they’ll go their separate ways with no shortage of points of pride.
Nine players, including top Baltimore Orioles prospect Samuel Basallo, had left Norfolk to make their major league debuts this season. Forty-eight had played for both the Tides and their parent club in 2025.
Tides catcher Samuel Basallo hit 23 home runs for Norfolk this season before being making his MLB debut with the Orioles on Aug. 17. SYDNEY SMITH/TIDES
Established big leaguers like Ryan Mountcastle, Gunnar Henderson, Gary Sanchez, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser, Adley Rutschman, Kyle Bradish, Kyle Gibson and Keegan Akin have spent time with the Tides, making adjustments to their careers accordingly. In all, Norfolk has served as a temporary home for 20 rehabbing major leaguers this season.
If the primary purpose of a Triple-A team is to serve the parent club, then the Tides believe they have fulfilled their duty.
“Our job here is to just kind of get these guys ready to go up there and perform at the big-league level,” first-year manager Tim Federowicz said.
“I think all in all, we’ve kind of succeeded in that manner.”
Among those getting their first taste was Handley, who hit .073 in 16 games before being run over near the plate by New York Yankees All-Star infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. in late June.
Norfolk’s Opening Day catcher for three seasons running, Handley had a concise review of his time at the game’s highest level.
Then again, he can be prone to understatement.
“It’s tough up there,” Handley said, smiling. “It’s a step. It’s definitely a step.”
Basallo, a 21-year-old catcher, joined first baseman Coby Mayo, outfielder Dylan Beavers, infielder Jeremiah Jackson and right-handers Brandon Young and Kade Strowd among those who pushed their way from Norfolk into Baltimore’s mix this season.
They’ve helped the Orioles, who limped into the July 31 trade deadline with nothing to lose but expendable pieces, to a face-saving resurgence late in the season.
TT Bowens, a 27-year-old first baseman and corner outfielder, has spent just over half the season with the Tides.
A product of Central Connecticut State whose rise through the organization has been gradual, Bowens has watched as longtime colleagues have gone straight from the obscurity of Norfolk’s clubhouse to the TV mounted above a bank of lockers.
“We’re sitting here playing cards with him one day, and then within 24 hours, he’s in Chicago in the big leagues, pitching on national television or playing on national television,” Bowens, who continues to await his major league debut, said. “So it’s definitely an interesting side of the game that not a lot of people get to see.
“Seeing it firsthand here definitely gives you the realization of how real it actually is. It makes you work a little harder.”
The work was paused for outfielder Jud Fabian in late June, when he suffered a wrist injury that shelved him for more than a month.
Fabian, a second-rounder out of the University of Florida in 2022, never fully rebounded. He hit .150 in August and .093 through 14 games in September, bringing his season average to .186.
It is, he said, part of the process.
“It’s baseball,” said Fabian, who entered the weekend with 15 home runs. “You’re going to fail. I felt like I did some good stuff at the beginning of the year. And then I got hurt, and I haven’t been able to find it ever since.
“You learn at every level, but I feel like this level, especially, they kind of expose your weaknesses a little bit. The game’s a little bit different than the lower levels. You’ve got some guys who are older, who have been in the big leagues. You learn from them.”
Fabian, 24, plans to spend time with his wife and their 4-month-old daughter, Blakely, this offseason. He’ll hunt and fish around his home in Sarasota, Florida, before gearing up for spring training right down the road.
Bowens, who resides in Connecticut, will leave the winter weather behind for Florida a few weeks before camp starts.
Handley plans to get married in Charleston, South Carolina, before honeymooning in Grenada.
The first Orioles player to wear No. 98, Handley will spend the rest of his downtime in Northern Virginia before hitting the reset button on the part of his life that pays the bills.
Handley suffered a concussion in the collision with Chisholm and got optioned to Norfolk after a rehab stint on Aug. 17.
“Obviously, I can’t control that,” Handley said, referring to the injury. “But obviously, I’m grateful to have been given an opportunity and achieve a lifelong dream. They say it’s really hard to make the big leagues. It’s even harder to stay in the big leagues. Now it’s time for me to refocus and figure out how I’m going to do that.”
The Orioles were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention on Wednesday, a conclusion long ago foregone.
But the pieces that moved north from Norfolk — no matter how the IL standings have shaken out — will help determine how Baltimore fares in the coming years.
In a macro sense, how the Tides make out in the standings means little in an organization whose best young players have left the minor leagues.
Federowicz points to the fact that former prospects like Henderson, Westburg, Cowser, Mayo, Rutschman and second baseman Jackson Holliday — all current Baltimore and former Tides regulars who range in age from 21 (Holliday) to 27 (Rutschman) — have received their de facto Triple-A diplomas at an age when they might still be taking finals elsewhere.
“I think wins and losses don’t really matter as much at this level because there’s a lot of development that happens,” Federowicz said. “It kind of just depends on where the organization is at that time.
“Some organizations, their prospects are a little bit further behind. Some are a little further ahead, which is kind of where we are here for a majority of the guys.”
David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.
