Baltimore is decimated at catcher. For the Orioles, it’s a disastrous string of bad luck that increases the difficulty of climbing out of their early season hole. But for Jacob Stallings and Alex Jackson, it represents a chance to keep a dream alive and finally find a home.

Stallings’ career could have ended last month when a poor April and May led to his release from the MLB-worst Colorado Rockies. Jackson’s nomadic time in baseball has seen him be traded or released eight times in nine years, spending most of that tenure floating throughout the minor leagues.

The Orioles’ unique situation — four catchers on the injured list for varying lengths of time — gives both catchers the opportunity to extend their careers. But it’s unclear how long that chance will last, a realization they’re trying to push away.

“I had a great year offensively last year. Felt really good, just could never get it going in Colorado this year,” Stallings said. “I still feel good. I still love being in the clubhouse, being on a team, going out there and competing with the guys, helping guys get better. I’m really grateful that the Orioles believed in me and called when I was at home.”

It’s that mindset that still has the 35 year old energized to contribute somewhere. An opportunity arose in Baltimore after a chain of events that started when Adley Rutschman landed on the injured list for the first time in his career on June 21 with an oblique strain. Interim manager Tony Mansolino said then the team expects Rutschman to be out until at least the All-Star break. Then, Maverick Handley joined Rustchman on the IL two days later after he collided with Jazz Chisolm as the Yankees infielder sprinted home on a play at the plate.

Chadwick Tromp landed on the injured list a week later. And on Sunday, Gary Sánchez made it four catchers on Baltimore’s IL with a ligament strain in his right knee. Sánchez will miss eight to 10 weeks, Mansolino said Tuesday. Neither Handley nor Tromp have resumed baseball activities, the interim manager said this past weekend in Atlanta.

Those poorly timed derailments brought Stallings and Jackson to the Orioles.

“There’s so many aspects of the game you gotta learn,” Jackson said. “The first couple days are a crash course, like, let’s see how much we can pile on and figure it out.”

Stallings, who said he hasn’t been told exactly what his role will be but expects to play regularly, signed with Baltimore on June 24, two weeks after being released by the Rockies, and was promptly sent to Triple-A Norfolk. He played three games there before being selected following Tromp’s injury on July 1.

There, he briefly shared a dugout with Samuel Basallo. Mansolino has said the Orioles will value patience over necessity with their top prospect and keep him in the minors until he’s deemed ready. They’ll instead rely on players who have spent just days in the organization to fill key roles at a critical point.

The Orioles acquired Jackson from the Yankees for international bonus pool money and a player to be named later or cash considerations on July 6 and placed Sánchez on the IL the same morning.

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For catchers learning a new pitching staff, intricacies that become routine in time are anything but to start. PitchCom controls vary by team, Stallings said. The button to call for a fastball in Colorado could be for a curveball in Baltimore. It was a learning curve for the Orioles’ new veteran backstop in his first appearance against the Texas Rangers. Stallings said he didn’t hold down the button long enough, leading to brief delays but “it wasn’t anything catastrophic,” he quipped.

“Trying to hit, but also learning a whole new staff is difficult, to say the least,” Stallings said. “It’s a lot to take in. But I have to give the staff and the guys here a lot of credit. Everyone’s been great and made the transition a lot easier.”

Stallings and Jackson took divergent paths to get to this opportunity. The former won a Gold Glove with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021 and spent much of his career as his teams’ primary starting catcher. He knows his career has reached a different stage but is confident he still has more to give.

“He has a built-in Rolodex of major league hitters already,” Mansolino said. “He knows a lot of the weaknesses on hitters throughout the league. And now he’s got to learn how to match that with our pitchers’ strengths. His general intelligence and his understanding of the position is going to probably expedite that.”

Jackson, though, has yet to cling on anywhere. He’s a former first round pick — No. 6 overall by the Seattle Mariners in 2014 — who’s been moved in just about every way a baseball player can. He was twice traded for an All-Star but has also been dealt for pennies or been discarded for nothing.

The 29-year-old is a career .132 hitter with a minus-1.4 wins above replacement by Baseball Reference’s measurement across 124 career games. He had a .772 on-base-plus-slugging percentage with New York’s Triple-A affiliate before the move. The Orioles are Jackson’s seventh organization.

When he entered Tuesday’s game in the 10th inning, he became the 50th player used by the Orioles this season and sixth catcher, a franchise record. In only 90 games, the club has deployed as many players as it did in all of 2023.

Stallings, once one of the top players in the sport at his position, and Jackson, the journeyman former top pick who hasn’t latched on anywhere, are converging in Baltimore now. Their time with the Orioles could be short-lived. “Taking it day-by-day,” Stallings said, dropping the cliché fixture in every baseball player’s vocabulary, is truly all they can do.

“Nothing I haven’t done before,” Jackson said. “A little crazy, but it’s what we do.”

Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons.