Creed Willems spent 2026 doing enough to make people keep asking the same question: when was Baltimore finally going to call him up?
The Orioles’ catcher/first baseman/designated hitter opened the year in Triple-A Norfolk at age 23, younger than the league average by about three years, and he got off to a strong start. He cooled some after that, but then put together a huge May. By May 31, Willems was carrying an .846 OPS through 47 games, and the buzz around him started to build.
Even after the hot streak leveled off, he still looked like a legitimate candidate to reach the majors. On June 30, he was hitting .798 OPS overall, and his path seemed open enough that a debut felt possible.
Then, on July 1 at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, everything hit a snag. Willems slipped on a mat in the dugout, pulled a hamstring, and ended up on the injured list for about two weeks.
That injury came at a brutal time for Baltimore’s catching group. Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo both got hurt around the middle of July, and Rutschman was later traded to the Red Sox while Basallo was still on the IL.
The Orioles cycled through Chadwick Tromp, Sam Huff, Yohel Pozo, Jake Rogers, and eventually Carlos Narváez behind the plate during that stretch. It was a mess.
Willems still never got the call.
There are two ways to read that. Maybe the timing simply worked against him, since Willems was on the IL from 7/2-7/20 and missed the exact window when Baltimore’s catching depth collapsed.
Rutschman went on the IL on 7/20, and Basallo followed on 7/22. Or maybe the answer was simpler: Mike Elias never planned to put Willems on the 40-man roster and bring him up.
The Orioles went out and acquired catchers instead of turning to him, claiming Pozo off waivers from the Cardinals on July 23rd, trading for Jake Rogers on July 30th, bringing Tromp into the organization in early July, and getting Narváez back in the Rutschman deal.
The bat went cold after the injury. Willems was bad at the plate for the rest of July and all of August, which dragged his numbers down. He did bounce back in September, though, and that late surge helped his final line look much better.
He finished 2026 with 113 games played and a slash line of .260/.351/.434. He also hit 21 home runs, though only five doubles.
For the first time in his pro career, the platoon split wasn’t a major issue. He hit lefties and righties almost evenly, with only a slightly better OBP against right-handers.
The Rule 5 draft won’t be part of the conversation this winter anyway, with the impending owners’ lockout meaning there likely won’t be one.
Still, the roster picture isn’t exactly friendly to Willems. He doesn’t hit enough to be an everyday catcher, and he doesn’t defend well enough to fit cleanly as a backup. He can also play first base and DH, but Baltimore already has plenty of players for those spots.
FanGraphs still liked him enough to rank him as the Orioles’ No. 15 prospect back in May, and Eric Longenhagen was high on the bat, saying in May that Willems should have been ready to debut in the summer. But Longenhagen was blunt about the glove:
“Willems isn’t great behind the plate. He isn’t an especially smooth receiver or blocker, and it takes him awhile to get out of his crouch and release the ball on stolen base attempts.
You can play him there occasionally, but it’s hard to see a team starting him there every day even if he hits his offensive ceiling. Willems thus projects as a hybrid sort of bench bat, a Mitch Garver type who catches once per week while playing a little first base and DH and pinch-hitting when he’s not in the bucket.”
Willems did get a late look with the Orioles on the taxi squad at the end of the season, but he was never activated and still hasn’t made his MLB debut. Steve Melewski also interviewed him during that stretch.
If he isn’t traded this offseason, the expectation is that Willems will head back to Triple-A Norfolk to open 2027. Basallo is committed to the Orioles long-term, Willems isn’t a strong enough defender to lock down a catching job, and Baltimore has a crowded mix of 1B/DH types.
That leaves him in a tough spot. Still, there’s enough bat here to keep watching.
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