Orioles news: Ryan Mountcastle and Chris Bassitt updates, Johnathan Rodriguez traded, and a backup catcher swap

Yesterday, the Baltimore Orioles gave updates on a pair of injured veterans. Ryan Mountcastle and Chris Bassitt are both starting Triple-A rehab assignments today. Both Mountcastle and Bassitt are important clubhouse veterans, but the news that they are soon returning raises an uncomfortable question. Where do these guys fit into the current team?

Since Bassitt went down, the Orioles' rotation has been one of the best in baseball. While Bassitt was in the rotation, they were one of the worst rotations in baseball. That's not an unfortunate coincidence either; Bassitt was a big reason the rotation was bad. Based purely on performance, Bassitt does not deserve a rotation spot over the five guys currently in the rotation. Bassitt is the Orioles' highest-paid pitcher this year and did not sign with the Orioles to come out of the bullpen, but that seems like the only reasonable place for him.

Bassitt pitched well last October for the Blue Jays out of the bullpen, but there is a big difference between coming out of the bullpen to help a team compete in the World Series and coming out of the bullpen for a sub .500 team in August. Maybe he'd take it in stride, but he wouldn't be the first veteran starter to balk at being sent to the pen.

Ryan Mountcastle and Chris Bassitt's fit on this Orioles team is questionable

Mountcastle's fit on the roster made little sense once the Orioles signed Pete Alonso to play his position every day, so it's hard to see what kind of role exists for him to come back to. However, that didn't stop the Orioles from starting the season with Mountcastle wasting away on the bench six days of the week. When Mountcastle comes back, that will bring the number of right-handed bats who are primarily first basemen on the Orioles roster up to four, which is just absurd roster construction and puts the Orioles in a bad spot defensively.

The trade deadline coming up makes it possible that Bassitt or Mountcastle could be moved, or some of the players blocking them from playing time could be moved, but based on the Orioles' history of not being proactive in managing these kinds of logjams none of these players will be moved in the name of having "depth" even if that depth is a poor fit and makes no sense.

The Orioles never go long without cycling through the last few 40-man roster spots, and this week was no exception. Yesterday the Orioles traded Johnathan Rodriguez to the Pirates for cash. Rodriguez joined the Orioles early in the season after being DFA'd by the Guardians. He spent most of his time on the roster in the minors, only appearing in seven games for the Orioles, where he slashed .182/.333/.273.

This move left the Orioles with an open 40-man roster spot that they have not yet filled, so it will be interesting to see what they have lined up that made them feel like it was necessary to cut bait with Rodriguez.

The other roster shuffling the Orioles did this week was to address the terrible offensive production the Orioles had been getting from their catching position. They DFA'd Same Huff, who was hitless since being called up and made the final out in both losses to the Braves, in favor of calling upon Yohel Pozo.

Pozo has a career sub .600 OPS, so he's not exactly going to light it up, but over the course of his career, he has consistently been able to make contact with the ball, and when he gets some BABIP luck, he can put together stretches where he hits to a very respectable average. His defense is worse than Huff's, so it will be interesting to see how much that matters to the Orioles when divvying up his playing time with Chadwick Tromp.

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