The Orioles are expected to make Ryan Mountcastle’s 2027 option call official today, and the timing puts a spotlight on a player whose Baltimore run has been shaped as much by hard contact as by hard luck.
Mountcastle, who turns 30 in February, would be owed $7.5 million if the club keeps him. Baltimore already quieted non-tender chatter last November, then signed him two months later for $6.787 million and tacked on the option that would cover his first free-agent year. But with Pete Alonso set to handle most of the starts at first base and a rotating mix of players filling the designated hitter role, there’s plenty of belief the Orioles will pass on the commitment.
The cost may simply be too steep for a bench bat, even though president of baseball operations Mike Elias said last spring that Mountcastle would still have a role.
“Mounty has historically been great against left-handed pitching, and so I think he’s going to be a front-line player for us against a lot of opponents,” Elias said. “We believe in his stick.”
That was before Coby Mayo broke through as a lefty masher, before the Orioles added Christian Encarnacion-Strand to work at DH when he isn’t at third base or on the bench, and before Jordan Westburg’s return from elbow-reconstructive surgery added another infielder to the mix.
Mountcastle’s season was derailed early, anyway. He fractured his left foot running out a double on April 11 against the Giants, then suffered a severe oblique strain on July 28 while warming up for his first rehab game with Triple-A Norfolk. It was another cruel turn in a career that has been full of them.
He was around the clubhouse late in the season, wearing that familiar boyish grin and shaking his head at the latest setback, as if even he couldn’t quite believe how badly things had gone again.
A lot of people forget the little warning sign from March 11 in Sarasota, when Mountcastle was hit on the right hand by a pitch in an exhibition game against the Pirates. X-rays came back negative, and manager Craig Albernaz said Mountcastle wanted to stay in the game, but the club pulled him for precautionary reasons.
“He’s sore,” Albernaz said after the game. “I mean, he got hit with a baseball, so it feels like he got hit with a baseball.”
The pitch was a 90.3 mph changeup from right-hander Justin Meis, and it proved to be an early hint of the pain that followed. Mountcastle was batting .296 (8-for-27) with two doubles and two RBIs at the time. He played eight games after the team headed north, going 4-for-14 before the season-ending double.
For all the injuries, Mountcastle’s Baltimore story still includes some loud milestones. Drafted 36th overall as a shortstop in 2015, he moved to third base and left field before settling in at first, where he eventually became a two-time Gold Glove finalist.
Some in the organization were frustrated by how long it took to move him off shortstop, seeing it as time wasted. Third base didn’t fit, left field didn’t solve the problem, and hard work eventually made him more than serviceable at first.
His bat announced him, too. Mountcastle finished eighth in Rookie of the Year voting in the shortened 2020 season, then sixth in 2021 after staying eligible and putting up 23 doubles, 33 home runs and 89 RBIs in 144 games. He followed that with 145 games the next season, finishing with 28 doubles, 22 homers and 85 RBIs.
The 33 homers set the Orioles’ rookie record, breaking Cal Ripken Jr.’s mark of 28 from 1982. Eddie Murray had 27 in 1977.
“It was definitely in the back of my head once I started to creep a little closer,” Mountcastle said. “Once the game started, I tried not to think about it. But once it finally happened it was a little bit of a relief and a cool experience.”
He also delivered some unforgettable blasts. His nine-RBI game on April 11, 2023 tied the franchise record shared by Murray and Jim Gentile. And his 472-foot homer on Aug. 8, 2023 remains the longest hit by an Orioles player at Camden Yards since Statcast began tracking.
“I knew I got it pretty good,” Mountcastle said, “and then once it went over the other bullpen, I was a little shocked.”
Still, injuries became the defining thread, along with the frustration of watching long drives die in front of the new left-field wall. The altered dimensions seemed to get in his head.
His injury list kept growing: hand, forearm, concussion, wrist, elbow, vertigo, illness, shoulder, AC joint, knee, hamstring in 2025 that kept him out from May 31-Aug. 8, then the foot and oblique this year.
“Just gonna be where my feet are at and do what I can do and have a good time with my boys,” he said back in February.
“I love all the guys here and this is all I’ve ever known. I love it here and whatever happens, happens.”
He was talking then about how he’d fit after the Alonso signing for $155 million. Now the line could apply to whether he stays in Baltimore at all.
If the Orioles do move on, Mountcastle would leave after 660 games and a .263/.312/.438 line with 126 doubles, five triples, 98 home runs, 364 RBIs and a 7.7 bWAR.
Baltimore also has another decision to make on reliever Dietrich Enns’ $3.5 million option, which comes with a $125,000 buyout. And later today, the club must also address the $23.15 million qualifying offer, though players traded during the season or those who already received one are not eligible.
That leaves Trevor Rogers as the team’s only free agent under consideration.
Any player who gets the qualifying offer has until Nov. 17 to decide.
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