4:12pm: The Orioles officially announced that Wilson’s contract has been selected and that Mountcastle has been placed on the 60-day IL. That’s one of just several moves for the O’s today. Baltimore also recalled righty Dean Kremer earlier today and just announced the acquisition of corner infielder Christian Encarnacion-Strand in a cash swap with the Reds.
3:43pm: Orioles first baseman/designated hitter Ryan Mountcastle is headed to the injured list after suffering a broken fourth metacarpal in his left foot while legging out a double this past weekend, manager Craig Albernaz tells the Baltimore beat (link via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko). Albernaz didn’t tip the team’s hand on whether Mountcastle would head to the 10-day or 60-day IL, suggesting only that both are under consideration. He added that he has not yet been told whether surgery is on the table.
Kubatko adds that infielder/outfielder Weston Wilson is on the Orioles’ taxi squad at the moment, making him a likely replacement, though the team hasn’t announced anything on that front. Jackson Holliday is with the club today at Camden Yards but is not yet ready for reinstatement from the IL. He’s merely taking some infield drills while Triple-A Norfolk is off. Holliday has yet to play this season after suffering a hamate fracture early in spring training.
Wilson isn’t on the 40-man roster, so assuming he is indeed the corresponding move, he’d need to have his contract selected. The Orioles have a full 40-man roster, though if Mountcastle heads to the 60-day IL, that’d open a spot.
The 29-year-old Mountcastle has hit decently in a far more limited role than he’s used to so far in 2026. He’s appeared in eight games and tallied only 15 plate appearances, going 4-for-14 with a double and a walk in that time. Baltimore’s signing of Pete Alonso and the ascension of catcher/designated hitter Samuel Basallo has substantially cut into Mountcastle’s playing time.
Even before the O’s signed Alonso, Mountcastle looked like a prime non-tender candidate. Injuries limited him to 89 games last season, and he slashed just .250/.286/.367 (81 wRC+) when healthy. He was due for one final raise in arbitration, and with a $6.787MM salary last year, he felt like a relatively pricey rebound candidate, given his limited defensive utility. Baltimore also had longtime top prospect Coby Mayo ready for a full-time run at first base (though obviously the Alonso signing changed that calculus).
The Orioles made the somewhat surprising call to tender him. They wound up coaxing some additional value by getting Mountcastle to agree to repeat his 2025 salary and tack on a $7.5MM club option for what should’ve been his first free agent year in 2026. However, Mountcastle still entered camp with a “square peg in a round hole” vibe as a clearly imperfect fit for an Orioles roster that had changed considerably since his run as a regular in the middle of the order. Unsurprisingly, the O’s looked into various trade possibilities throughout spring training, but no deal came together.
Mountcastle now heads to the injured list for a potentially prolonged absence. He’ll join third baseman Jordan Westburg, who’s hoping to avoid Tommy John surgery after being diagnosed with a UCL tear, in that regard. With Westburg sidelined, the aforementioned Mayo has been manning the hot corner but has struggled with the bat. An absence of some note for Mountcastle could give Mayo a longer leash to get right at the plate even when Holliday and possibly Westburg return to the fold.
Wilson, 31, was an offseason waiver claim out of the Phillies organization. He’s spent parts of the past three seasons in the majors with Philadelphia, hitting a combined .242/.328/.428 with nine home runs in 245 trips to the plate. Almost all of that production came in 2023-24, however. Wilson hit just .198/.282/.369 in a career-high 125 plate appearances in 2025 but raked at a .288/.375/.490 clip the prior two seasons.
Wilson has never hit righties much but feasted on southpaws in ’23-’24 before taking a huge step back in ’25. Even with last year’s lack of production in platoon settings, he’s a career .250/.359/.475 hitter (130 wRC+) against left-handed pitching. Wilson also owns a solid .247/.339/.462 output in nearly 1700 plate appearances of Triple-A work and will give Baltimore an option at all four corner positions. He batted .233/.395/.433 in 36 spring plate appearances but has mustered only a .195/.298/.366 slash in a comparable sample at Triple-A this year.
Holiday hitting a solid 167 on rehab so hopefully they don’t rush him back. Really happy w Jeremiah Jackson holding down second in the meantime. I think this is the year we find out if Holiday is a classic over hyped prospect
A tale of two Jacksons
Look, its an ugly truth but its a truth nonetheless. Despite their very different paths, for the past entire season and now 10% of this one, Jeremiah Jackson is a much better baseball player than Jackson Holliday.
He killed AAA that they had to bring him up and then he hit 115 rbat+ and a small sample 150s this year.
Holliday has hardly even sniffed league average. He’s had one month out of his ten that was as good as Jeremiah has been. Hollidays bat has probably been the biggest minor to majors disappointment of the entire league.
Then theres the other facets. First name Jackson washed out at short and is 2nd base only and near bottom of the league at that. Hes fast so maybe he can someday also add LF but flexible he isnt. DRS likes last name Jackson at 2nd and 3rd, his AAA seems to support it. And he stepped up to learn OF on the fly (no pun intended) last year when they needed him. Not great, but he never played the outfield before. And last name is not any kind of special baserunner, but first name was horrifically bad at it so far.
I wont place a bet that last name will beat out first name when careers are said and done, but i do believe there really is a chance that it will happen that way. Especially if we are just going to look at the 6 years of team servitude. Call it 80/20?
One is enjoying the best of times, the other the worst of times.
(Most literate post you will see for a good long while)
Holliday is still only 22 and he missed all of Spring Training. I think anyone passing judgement at this point is a classic rushing for judgement fan, especially when they dont even know how to spell his name.
Tough crowd. Btw, i spelled it correctly, it was the op that left out an L.
The foot doesn’t have Metacarpals. It has Metatarsals.
I saw metacarpals used in the initial report of his injury and not one sportswriter has been savvy enough to make the correction!
To be fair, I don’t know if reporters have license to change a quote to make it more accurate.
I guess they could put it in brackets.
Absolutely. You can still post the original quote with the [inaccuracy] sic. Then you can correct the record after that.
Maybe someone from Brazil wrote the original. Toes are “dedos do pe” which is literally “fingers of the foot.”
Sorry to see this for Mountcastle. I hope he comes back strong.
We need 16 more 1b.
Steve, the split thing on Wilson is flimsy. Its only 100 mlb PAs.
The last four years of the minors, he really didnt platoon split at all. I wouldn’t run him out there against lefties so fast.