Ryan Mountcastle came off the IL just before the O’s last game in Minnesota. With Ryan O’Hearn emerging as one of the best hitters on the team and Mountcastle struggling in the weeks before he went on the IL some fans have wondered if Mountcastle still has a place on the team or if he does what will his role be now that Colton Cowser has been called up and Santander will likely be getting more and more time at DH.
I am a Ryan Mountcastle believer. He is elite at barrelling up baseballs and hitting high exit velocity, he plays good defense at first, he hustles and he is a good teammate to have around. His achilles heel is plate discipline and being the unluckiest hitter I’ve ever seen
But what is his role on this Orioles team with Ryan O’Hearn playing so well his primary position and one the O’s most reliable bats taking most of the reps at DH?
When you look at the splits for O’Hearn and Mountcastle it is clear that the Orioles have stumbled into a perfect first base platoon situation.
Mountcastle Splits:
Vs Righties: .190/.229/.310/.539
Vs Lefties: .311/.341/.676/.1.017
O’Hearns splits
Vs Righties: .320/.365/.552/.917
Vs Lefties: .125/.222/.250/.472
Using Mountcastle as a platoon option makes perfect sense. He’s a better hitter vs lefties than Urias and Santander and provides much better defense. The downside is that the O’Hearn Mountcastle platoon is not very positionally versatile being limited to 1B/DH and a weak RF but I believe the offensive firepower from this platoon is worth it and hopefully Mountcastle finds his stroke against righties again (Career wise he is fine against them) and then you can both of these great hitters in the lineup together.
The corresponding move when Mountcastle was brought off the IL was optioning Bruce Zimmerman back to Norfolk which made sense because of the break coming up and the O’s having plenty of rested bullpen options but after the All Star break they will almost certainly want to have the maximum amount of pitchers on the roster. So we know another move is coming
I don’t think any of the young guys will be sent down and I don’t think they’ll move any of the outfielders for Mountcastle so the remaining options are Frazier, Urias and Mateo and I think the best option is Mateo.
Mateo had an incredible month of April and since then has been terrible. His defense and base stealing at shortstop is valuable but Gunnar Henderson has looked very comfortable when he has had the opportunity to play there and Mateo has been getting on base so little his base stealing is almost a non factor at this point. With his elite tools the Orioles should be able to find a trade partner for him and get something in return.
Besides the fact that I think right now Mateo is doing the least of the 3 infielders I also think he would be worth the most in a trade. He has 2.5 years of control and he has shown flashes of high offensive upside that combined with his elite speed and fielding should make him a more interesting trade target than half a year of Adam Frazier and Ramon Urias (who I really like but pretty much is what he is).
So we will wait and see what Elias and Co decide to do, it is possible they still believe in Mateo’s upside and decide to deal Urias or they get a really good offer for Frazier’s expiring contract and that’s the move, it’s even within the realm of possibility they get an offer for a stud pitcher but Jordan Westburg has to be part of the deal. Whatever it is we’ll find out at the end of this week.
The Dishwasher 
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