With Opening Day less than a week away, the Orioles appear poised to keep Pete Alonso, Coby Mayo and Ryan Mountcastle all on the active roster. Mouncastle and Mayo quickly emerged as trade candidates after the team signed Alonso, but a deal never materialized. Mayo returned to third base once Jordan Westburg went down with an injury, and Mountcastle will enter the season as a bench bat with some pop.
Injuries to Westburg and Jackson Holliday reduced the crowd in the infield. Blaze Alexander and Coby
Mayo will frequent the starting lineup early in the season, and the team appears to have room for another utility player in addition to Mountcastle. That’s great for those guys, but Mountcastle will only play first base at this point in his career. His path to playing time involves a day off for Alonso or a spot start as the designated hitter.
- ZiPS: .260/.305/.432. 111 games, 17 home runs, 107 wRC+
- ZiPS DC: .260/.305/.432. 34 games, 5 home runs, 107 wRC+
- Baseball Reference: .261/.309/.414. 429 plate appearances, 12 home runs
Both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference anticipate Mountcastle to bat around .260 and get on base three out of 10 times. The ZiPS projection that factors in playing time expects Mountcastle to appear in only 34 games this season. Mike Elias said over the weekend that he expects the team to find a place for the 29-year-old.
“Mounty has historically been great against left-handed pitching, so I think he’s going to be a front-line player for us,” Elias said. “We’ll figure out a way to help him impact games for us.”
Every team has bench players. Mountcastle features significantly more offensive upside than guys like Tony Kemp, Emmanuel Rivera, or Daniel Johnson. Mounty has failed to reach his full potential over the last few seasons, but the team still believes in his ability to make an impact at the dish. There’s a reason they didn’t deal him for a low-leverage reliever or a scratch-off lottery ticket prospect.
I’m sure he’d like to play every day, but Mountcastle is used to a part-time role. He platooned with Ryan O’Hearn for a few years and yielded a large amount of starts to Mayo last September. He’s handled any uncertainty with class, and he looked loose throughout camp.
