Ryan Mountcastle departed this evening’s loss to the Cardinals. He was injured during his first inning at-bat and removed from the game when his turn in the order came around two innings later. The O’s announced that he’d experienced left shoulder discomfort.
While Mountcastle is day-to-day at the moment, the O’s could turn to a top prospect to replace him. Danielle Allentuck and Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner report that Heston Kjerstad is en route to Baltimore. It isn’t yet clear if a promotion is contingent on a potential Mountcastle IL stint.
Speaking with the team’s beat postgame, Baltimore’s first baseman expressed concern about the injury. Mountcastle said he felt his shoulder pop on a swing (via Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun and Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball). After leaving the game, he tested the injury by attempting to swing in the batting cage but continued to feel soreness. He’ll go for more imaging tomorrow.
The team will surely provide more information when it becomes available, but it’s a suboptimal time for the O’s to potentially lose one of their hottest hitters. Tonight’s loss cut their lead in the AL East to two games over Tampa Bay. The Rays are headed to Baltimore for a four-game set that could have significant ramifications for the division. It’s quite arguably the biggest regular season series of the year for both clubs, since the eventual division champion will get a first-round bye and very likely have home field advantage in the postseason until the World Series.
Mountcastle has been one of the better hitters in the majors over the past two months. He’d opened the year with one of the worst offensive stretches of his career, hitting .227/.262/.421 over his first 60 contests. Baltimore placed him on the injured list with vertigo symptoms in mid-June, keeping him out of action for around a month. Since returning on July 9, Mountcastle has raked at a .327/.406/.497 clip over 197 plate appearances.
The silver lining is that Baltimore has a number of high-upside offensive players who could take on larger roles if necessary. Ryan O’Hearn has taken a significant step forward after struggling with the Royals. He’s hitting .301/.332/.500 while dividing his time between first base, the corner outfield and designated hitter. O’Hearn is already in the lineup on most days but could take on a more regular role at first base.
That’d leave some rotational at-bats for the 24-year-old Kjerstad should the O’s decide to promote him. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic wrote this morning that the Arkansas product had put himself on the radar for a possible MLB debut but that the O’s were concerned they might not have enough at-bats to spread around. Mountcastle’s injury might open up that opportunity just a few hours later.
The O’s tabbed Kjerstad with the second overall pick in the 2020 draft. It was a bit of a surprise, as most public pre-draft rankings felt he would land in the back half of the top 10. Kjerstad unfortunately didn’t have an opportunity to reward the O’s faith for a while. He contracted myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) in 2020 and was sidelined for the entire subsequent season.
It wasn’t until June 2022 — nearly two full years after his draft date — that Kjerstad was able to make his professional debut. He understandably struggled somewhat in High-A late last summer, but he has flashed the potential impact offensive tools the organization had envisioned this year.
Kjerstad has split the season between the top two minor league levels, mashing at a .303/.376/.529 clip over 121 contests. He has connected on 21 homers, 29 doubles and eight triples while striking out at a lower than average 18.5% clip. Baseball America slots him 44th on their most recent Top 100 prospects update.
Baltimore’s 40-man roster is capacity. If they decide to select Kjerstad’s contract (presumably in tandem with a 10-day IL stint for Mountcastle), they’d need to make an additional 40-man move.
Too bad Mayo isn’t quite ready. Need a RH bat. Worst case put Westy or Urias at 1st when we face LHP.
Thinking Santander plays more 1B and Frazier ends up in the OF more often. Highly doubt we play O’hearn against lefties after shielding him all season.
Get your veterans that don’t play everyday as much playing time as possible pre post season. Urias, Frazier, O’Hearn and Hicks. Nows not the time to drop a rook in to the fray. By the way, if they give Urias day in day out action and they make the WS, sleeper pick for MVP.
They just got shut out yesterday by the Cardinals. Anyone and everyone who can hit should get a chance. We already know what Frazier is, and that is a below average hitter who doesn’t really do a great job of getting on base. Urias is a utility player with no power and I’m fine if he is in that role in 2024 too. (I’m glad you didn’t say Mateo, who has managed to get sent to the plate 328 times despite not being able to hit since the end of April). If Heston can fill the other half of the platoon in with O’Hearn and has some power, great. He can’t show much else at AAA that he hasn’t already
Isn’t he a lefty too?
@ThortonM. Hey there.
IMO, Frazier is not a below average hitter in one regard. He makes contact (very low k rate). I’d rather have him at the plate instead of a Henderson (high k rate) in clutch spots.
And IMO, Urias is a professional fielder and hitter. Given consistent playing time, he proves he’s a starter. Not intimidated by big moments
Urias & O’Hearn 1b platoon. And leave the outfield alone.
Weeks away from the playoffs. In regards to position players, time to go with what got you here. No more Cowser, Stowers, Kerjsted or the like call ups. Get everybody who’s here as much game action as possible including rooks Westburg and Henderson.
Well they just brought up Kjerstad and McKenna is (finally) gone. I don’t think Kjerstad was going to develop any further in September 2023 in AAA so may as well give him a pennant chase taste.
I would actually prefer Urias as my UIF. Mateo this year has become Cesar Izturis and the team doesn’t need automatic outs…their pitching staff (Gibson included!) gave them 2 winnable games and they went 0-2 leaving small villages on the basepaths.
Frazier vs. Gunnar – I don’t know if its just me, I live out west and don’t have MASN so I only see scattered games live – but Frazier DOES make contact and I think I’ve seen him go 0 for the last 30 all on groundouts. Gunnar takes walks and does K much more but has higher OBP and more power. Maybe its where Gunnar has a bit lower floor, a significantly higher ceiling, and a higher midpoint than Frazier but I get it, Frazier hovers more around the mean. I like being able to bat Gunnar early in the lineup while Frazier you have to bat 6th or lower.
Mountcastle departed in the 3rd inning, not in the 1st.
Cry about it
Grow up.
Just tell him he’s facing the Jays tomorrow…should feel right as rain.
Would love to see tomorrow’s O’s/Ray’s game, but apparently MLB network views the Pirates/Yankees game more important. Thanks, guys. Can never have enough of the Yankees in the middle of a PO race that doesn’t involve them.
I wish MLB seeded the 3rd division winner and top wildcard by record. I’m all for the Twins getting home-field for winning their division, but how the 2 best teams in the league are on a collision course for the Division Series is quite ridiculous.
Besides that, there’s the perversity of 3rd wildcard being better than the 2nd for both the WC & the LDS.
They’re dropping like flies people. By the time we get to the playoffs, one third of each team roster will contain call-ups and injury replacements.
I’d rather see Ortiz. The Orioles already have Cowser and Stowers ready and plenty of guys who can also play first base or the outfield. Ortiz provides another uber defender who can play across the infield.
An embarrassment of riches.
Ortiz is battling an oblique injury
I agree, I think Ortiz is getting the shaft, I would have like to see Stowers get a shot at first base Don’t know if they’ve been working him there at all. Adding Heston to the 40 Man roster would tell me that Santander may be gone after this year.
Kirstead meets to be added to 40 man this fall anyway
Cowser isn’t ready and Stowers took a pitch to the face a few weeks ago. Kjerstad is the right call. He’s a huge part of the future.
Tough break. Hitcastle has been on a heater for the last couple weeks.
Stoaked about Heston, although, wish he was PO eligible. Haven’t seen Cowser since Sept 1st call up, so I hope there are AB’s for Heston. Let’s go O’s!
Don’t forget — since Heston was in the organization prior to September 1st he could be used as a replacement for somebody placed on the injured list for the remainder of the season. Not saying that’s what happens with Mountcastle, but if somebody who had been playoff eligible went down between now and the last day of the season he could be replaced by somebody like Heston or Ortiz since they were in the organization before the magic cut-off date.
misterb71 — I thought it was needing to be on the 40 man by Sept 1st, which Joey Ortiz was, but Heston was not. I know you can replace an IL player on the PS roster, but thought the replacement had to be from the 40, not the Org. So much has changed the past couple years, hard to keep track of.
Would be better if none of that has to be considered and Mounty makes a safe return.
The way I understand things any player on a team’s 40-man roster prior to Sep. 1 is eligible for a postseason roster. A player who is in the organization Sep. 1 but not on the 40-man can replace a player from the 40-man who is injured and will not be playing in the playoffs.