Sometimes it’s fairly quick, an arm thrown over the pitcher’s shoulder or one of those bro-to-bro pats on the back after the final pitch of a winning game.
Others are more extended, with the catcher rocking side to side as he runs up to the mound before he gives the pitcher a two-handed, thumbs-up fist bump before the main event: an all-encompassing embrace.
It’s the Adley Hug, and, yes, say pitchers who have been on the receiving end, it feels as good as it looks.
It’s the grace note that ends many an Orioles victory during this league-leading season. Somehow, everything youthful and enthusiastic about this Orioles team is encapsulated in Adley Rutschman’s bountiful hug of the pitcher who has secured the final out.
“He puts his whole body into it. He’s tall enough to really embrace a lot of the other person’s body,” Tiffany Field, an actual expert on hugging, said.
“He does it very joyfully,” she said. “He’s emotionally invested.”
Field directs the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Touch Research Institute and is among the scientists who have found that hugs, massages and other forms of physical contact can have beneficial effects that include lowering blood pressure, stimulating premature babies to grow, fighting infections and improving emotional well-being.
Ask Yennier Cano, the All-Star reliever who has been swept into his share of Adley Hugs.
“Just receiving that hug from him at the end of any game, it’s truly a great feeling overall,” Cano said through interpreter Brandon Quinones. “Just love it.”
This is something of a bittersweet subject at this point, since the other end of the grab and squeeze has so often been the Orioles’ closer, Félix Bautista, now on the disabled list with a potentially season-ending elbow injury he suffered Aug. 25, one strike away from finishing off the Colorado Rockies.
For aficionados of the form, theirs is the best Adley Hug: the catcher whipping off his face mask, half-running, half-dancing up to the 6-foot-8-inch Mountain on the mound, rising on tiptoes and wrapping his arms around him.
Hopefully, Bautista is still giving and receiving hugs, Field said.
“Hugging may turn out to be very therapeutic for him,” she said, pointing to data showing that it can reduce inflammation and boost immunity.
In that case, the O’s should be quite the healthy bunch. According to Cano, there’s a whole lot more Adley Hugging than meets fans’ eyes.
“Honestly, he’s great because even after the game when he comes into the clubhouse he gives every pitcher that pitched in that game, he gives us a big hug,” Cano said.
The pitcher appreciation goes on throughout the game with Rutschman’s practice of running up to every pitcher at the end of an inning and walking back to the dugout with them, said another reliever, Cionel Pérez. And it gets returned in kind.
“We appreciate how he shows that love to us. And even aside from the hugs, whenever he meets us going back into the dugout after we pitch, it’s really unique,” Perez said through interpreter Quinones.
Pitcher Kyle Gibson was asked on a recent episode of the Chris Rose Rotation podcast whether starters, who haven’t had a complete game yet this season, felt left out of the “Adley Hug game.” Gibson said they don’t because they get plenty of Adley time at the end of each inning — even if Gibson said he sometimes doesn’t feel like talking after a bad inning.
“If I ask you not to do that, what would you say?” Gibson said he asked Rutschman in advance of Opening Day.
“Hey, Gib, if you don’t want me to meet you at the foul line today, I won’t, I just want to know what you want me to do.”
“Adley, I need you to be yourself,” Gibson said he told the catcher. “If you want to meet me at the foul line, just meet me at the foul line. … Just understand that if I give up a homer and a few runs, I might walk past you, and then we can talk about it in the dugout.”
Rutschman was not available for comment for this article, but his affectionate interactions with pitchers has come up in previous interviews. He told former Orioles outfielder Adam Jones on the “Foul Territory” podcast that he just loves sharing “moments” with pitchers, “letting them know I’m there for them.”
And during an interview with the MLB Network during the All-Star festivities, Rutschman likened his end-of-inning exchanges to eating dessert first. In other words, he just can’t wait until the end of the game.
“I would get excited after innings, a big punch-out or something,” he said. “You just get fired up and you want to celebrate with your pitcher immediately.
Orioles fans have embraced the embraceable Rutschman. Perhaps like the opposite of secondhand smoke, there are secondhand benefits to witnessing this cherry on the top of Orioles victories? Field thinks there may indeed be an empathetic effect on spectators, especially since we’ve gone through a pandemic that had us keeping our 6 feet of social distance.
“Everyone wants to be hugged,” Field said. “Especially after COVID. It’s just not as comforting to elbow-bump.”
After a quick online search of Rutschman, Field said it appears he comes from “a great hugger family.”
“I saw a video of his sister Josie,” she said. “She was hugging people like crazy.”
Field said there are cultural differences among countries in their citizens’ comfort level with physical touch.
“Our country is an outlier compared to many countries where men have hugged each other for centuries,” she said. “In France, you can’t greet anyone without a hug.”
Field said English-speaking countries like the U.S. and Great Britain are more contact-averse compared with those in the Mediterranean.
“And Asian countries are the lowest in hugging and hand-holding,” she said.
Reliever Shintaro Fujinami can attest to that, but he has come to embrace the Adley Hug.
“We don’t do that in Japan, so it was kind of a surprise,” Fujinami said through interpreter Issei Kamada.
Still, the Osaka native, who joined the team in July, wasn’t entirely unprepared for the onslaught of catcherly affection.
“I’d seen Bautista and Adley hugging each other after the game,” Fujinami said. “It’s kind of the winning ritual to hug with him and finish the game.”
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