Baltimore Orioles: Making Sense Of The Ryan Mountcastle Conundrum

The Baltimore Orioles sent one of their top prospects, Ryan Mountcastle, to minor league spring training last week with the intention of having him see playing time at both first and third base in 2019.  Is that the right move for Mountcastle?

Last Sunday (March 10th), the Baltimore Orioles announced their second round of spring training cuts.  Among the eight players reassigned to the minor league camp was 2015 first round draft pick Ryan Mountcastle.  Following the moves on Sunday I penned a piece about my surprise that Mountcastle didn’t stay in camp longer.

A recent social media post by Baltimore Orioles beat reporter Joe Trezza of MLB.com got me thinking more about what the plan is for Mountcastle.

Mountcastle was drafted out of Paul J. Hagerty High School in Florida as a shortstop.  He played that position upon entering the Orioles organization until his promotion to Bowie (AA) in July of 2017, where he was shifted to third base.  The position move was made mainly because of questions about his range and arm strength.  Certainly, 43 errors in 226 career games at SS (one error/five games on average) had something to do with it as well.

I certainly wondered why he was moved to the hot corner if questions about his arm existed.  Nonetheless, Mountcastle played third base for the Baysox in 2018.  This year he was a non-roster invitee to spring training where he saw time at third and also at first base.  All reports indicated that he represented himself well at first base.

Mountcastle’s bat is considered MLB ready, thus the search for a position he can play.  His career minor league slash line is .289/ .323/ .453 over 397 games.  The bat is good enough to have him been considered a top-10 prospect every year since 2016; MLB Pipeline currently sees Mountcastle as the organization’s #2 prospect.

The issue, as I see it, in moving Mountcastle to first base is that his path to the Major Leagues is somewhat blocked via that position.  The Orioles’ depth chart currently lists three first basemen: Chris Davis, Trey Mancini, and Mark Trumbo.  While Trumbo is working his way back from surgery and will become a free agent after the 2019 season, Mancini has four years of club control remaining and Davis is signed through 2022.  Moving Mountcastle to first would mean either keeping Mancini in left field or eating a significant amount of Davis’ contract, scenarios I do not envision.

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A year at first in Norfolk (AAA) would do Mountcastle well if that is the position the club sees him playing.  Room for him at first must be made at the MLB level, however.  The 2019 season is a seminal one for Mountcastle when one considers the fact that he is vulnerable to exposure to the Rule-5 draft at season’s end.  He must be added to the 40-man roster by November or any organization will be able to claim him; there is no doubting that someone would take a chance on a highly-touted former first-round pick.

The concern on my part is that all this movement and uncertainty will mess with Mountcastle’s mental game.  How all of this affects him remains to be seen but I have flashbacks to former Oriole, Kevin Gausman, and his struggles when he rode the “Norfolk Shuttle” a few years ago.

Is there a plan to get Mountcastle to Baltimore this season?  If so, I hope that plan becomes clearer as the 2019 season progresses.  The success of the rebuild depends on the “elite talent pipeline” to Baltimore that general manager Mike Elias wants to create.  Top prospects are needed for that pipeline; Mountcastle deserves to be a part of it.

Isn’t the goal to get the top prospects to the Major Leagues?  The Baltimore Orioles need to get this right.