The Orioles are letting rival clubs know that first baseman Ryan Mountcastle is available in trade talks, according to a report from Bob Nightengale of USA Today. There’s no indication that Baltimore is particularly close to moving Mountcastle, and now that the regular season has begun it wouldn’t be a surprise if talks were largely tabled until closer to the trade deadline.
Mountcastle, 28, was a first-round pick by the Orioles back in 2015 and a consensus top-100 prospect prior to his big league debut in 2020. The slugger received down-ballot Rookie of the Year votes in both 2020 and ’21 as he hit a combined .270/.324/.488 with 38 homers and 28 doubles in 179 games across the two seasons. That explosive start to Mountcastle’s MLB career didn’t last, however, as he’s not slugged 30 homers in a season since 2021 and saw his everyday playing time in Baltimore erode somewhat following the breakout season Ryan O’Hearn enjoyed in 2023. Since the start of the 2022 campaign, Mountcastle has looked the part of a solid if unspectacular regular. He’s slashed .262/.312/.431 with 53 homers and 80 doubles in 387 games while playing generally adequate defense at first base.
Overall, Mountcastle is clearly a valuable player but one that looks like an increasingly questionable fit on the Orioles’ roster. As previously mentioned, O’Hearn has come into his own since breaking out in Baltimore during the 2023 season, and his .276/.329/.449 slash line in 257 games with the Orioles indicates that he’s actually outproduced Mountcastle on a rate basis in that time. If O’Hearn was the only player competing with Mountcastle for time at the hot corner, perhaps that wouldn’t be worth exploring a trade over. After all, the right-handed hitting Mountcastle serves as a strong complement for the lefty-swinging O’Hearn, who has been heavily platooned throughout his career and does not hit well against fellow southpaws.
Mountcastle’s long-term fit in Baltimore is further complicated by the presence of Coby Mayo. The Orioles’ top prospect is a consensus top-30 talent in the sport, and he’s clearly ready for a proper big league audition even after struggling badly in a 17-game cup of coffee last year given his career .276/.373/.536 slash line at Triple-A. Much like Mountcastle himself, the 23-year-old Mayo profiles best as a first baseman at the big league level despite coming up through the minors as a third baseman. There simply isn’t enough room for all of Mountcastle, Mayo, and O’Hearn in the club’s first base plans, and while occasional time at DH or in the corner outfield spots could help the club better allocate playing time those spots are already crowded by the presence of Colton Cowser, Tyler O’Neill, and Heston Kjerstad not to mention Ramon Laureano.
With such a deep group of corner outfield and DH options already, it seems likely that a trade opening up time at first base represents Mayo’s best path to regular playing time in Baltimore outside of an injury at the big league level. Of the club’s other two first base options, Mountcastle makes the most sense to shop given the fact that Mayo is a fellow right-handed hitter, meaning he would serve as a strong complement to O’Hearn the same way Mountcastle has over the past two seasons. Mayo would not be able to slide into O’Hearn’s role alongside Mountcastle anywhere near as easily, with the two right-handed hitters likely proving somewhat redundant even if O’Hearn was no longer in the mix.
If Mountcastle is indeed on the trade block, he’d be an attractive addition for plenty of teams. The 28-year-old is controlled through the end of the 2026 season, and while he’s largely limited defensively to first base and DH he should still be an intriguing potential addition for clubs in need of right-handed thump in the lineup. A heavily left-handed lineup like that of the Tigers could surely benefit from the presence of a player like Mountcastle, especially if Spencer Torkelson can’t maintain his hot start and remains a question mark this year. The Diamondbacks, Twins, Giants, and Padres are among the other clubs for whom Mountcastle could be an upgrade, though with four months until the trade deadline there’s still plenty of time for the needs of clubs all around the league to change and impact Mountcastle’s market if the Orioles are set on moving him.