SARASOTA, Fla. — The path forward isn’t clear for Ryan Mountcastle, but the Orioles’ first baseman hasn’t let his uncertain future get in the way of his work in spring training.
Mountcastle went 3-for-3 with three singles in the Orioles’ 10-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in their Grapefruit League game Friday afternoon. The performance raised his batting average to .389 (7-for-18) in 19 plate appearances to open the spring in what has been a reminder of what Mountcastle can do at the plate when he’s right.
“Feel pretty good,” Mountcastle said of how he feels in the batter’s box. “Just getting some bat on ball, trying to swing at all the right pitches. Feel like I’m picking up spin and stuff like that pretty well right now, so it’s a positive sign.”
Mountcastle, 29, is coming off a lost season in which he missed nearly half the year with a hamstring strain and hit .250 with just seven home runs and a .653 OPS when healthy. He entered the offseason with one year of team control remaining, and the Orioles tendered him a contract before working out a one-year, $6.787 million deal with a 2027 club option.
However, the addition of Pete Alonso blocked Mountcastle at his primary position of first base. It prompted trade speculation that continues to swirl, even after infielders Jordan Westburg (elbow) and Jackson Holliday (hand) suffered injuries that will force them to begin the season on the injured list.
The Orioles have still been able to give Mountcastle ample playing time in spring, and he’s worked on putting the ball in the air more in an attempt to rebound from the career-low 25% fly ball rate he posted in 2025.
“In my conversations with him, he’s been great,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “He’s been putting a lot of quality work in, and he’s ready to go. The at-bats have been great, he’s playing a great first base, but no, he’s in a great spot right now.”
Should Mountcastle remain with the team through the rest of spring and into the regular season, he will likely have to settle for limited at-bats in a rotation at the designated hitter spot while occasionally starting at first to allow Alonso, who rarely misses a game, to get some rest at DH. He would also be a weapon for Albernaz to deploy against left-handers late in games as a pinch hitter; Mountcastle has a lifetime .375/.464/.458 slash line in 28 pinch-hit plate appearances.
It’s hardly an ideal situation for a player who’s averaged 24.4 home runs per 162 games over the past five seasons, but yet a luxury for the Orioles after injuries were a major factor in their disappointing 2025 campaign.
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