Mountcastle tries yet another glove on for size
Prospect works out at first base, his 3rd position in 3 years; Harvey, Karns pitch
SARASOTA, FLA. – Ryan Mountcastle, the former first-round draft pick and a top Orioles hitting prospect who hasn’t found a defensive home yet on the diamond, is adding another position to his repertoire at major league camp.
Mountcastle, who turned 22 on Monday, worked primarily at first base during the first full-team workout at Orioles camp after just one full season at third base, with the Orioles’ new coaching staff giving him his third position since he was drafted in 2015 as a shortstop in hopes of finding an easier path for his advanced bat to reach the majors.
While Mountcastle hasn’t had his introductory sit-down meeting with the coaches and front office yet after arriving this weekend at his second major league camp, he said Monday after the team’s workout that it’s “not permanent,” but that third base coach José Flores told him upon his arrival that they wanted him to get used to the position.
“It was just trying to get me to play more positions,” Mountcastle said. “Flores had me working there the last few days, just trying to get comfortable with it so whenever they need me out there at first, they can put me out there and feel confident.”
Without referring to anyone specifically, manager Brandon Hydesaid that it was fair to assume that players were in their primary positions Monday for the first day of workouts.
Though Trey Mancini worked at first base during Sunday’s workout, he was with the outfielders Monday, leaving only Chris Davis and Mountcastle to rotate through infield drills on the Earl Weaver Little Field on the first full-squad day. Mark Trumbo also represents a piece of major league first-base depth, but he’s working his way back from offseason knee surgery.
Considering this Orioles camp roster doesn’t include the low-cost sluggers who were nominally first basemen that previous editions had, Mountcastle’s transition might be just as much out of necessity for him as the team.
“I feel good over there,” Mountcastle said. “I got some extra work in today, working on some picks and footwork, stuff like that. I feel good. It’s picking up pretty easily, I think.”
Unlike his last transition, which came midway through his breakout 2017 season in the Orioles’ farm system, this one comes at a time when he has several weeks to prepare outside of games.
Mountcastle hit .314 with an .885 OPS in his age-20 season at High-A Frederick in 2017 with a minors-leading 51 extra-base hits at the time of his promotion to Double-A Bowie, and that’s when the front office decided that his jump in level should also include a move away from shortstop, a position he struggled with because of some throwing issues.
Third base presented similar challenges and Mountcastle struggled in his introduction to Bowie, but he rebounded in his first full season there by batting .297 with 13 home runs and19 doubles in 2018. He enters this season as the Orioles’ No. 3 prospect, according to Baseball America.
Much of the acclaim that surrounds him, however, is because of his bat. A move to first base would put him in a crowded major league conversation that already includes Davis, Trumbo and Mancini, with the latter two possibly set for more time at first base and designated hitter as the team tries to accommodate the waves of young outfielders on the horizon.
If Mountcastle can develop at first, it would alleviate a concern that wasn’t big enough to keep him off every major top-100 prospect list this offseason but still raised some red flags with the Orioles’ previous regime, who admired his work ethic and the effort he put into improving defensively but didn’t make life easy for him by keeping him on the left side of the infield.
He never carried his defensive struggles to the plate, though, and a smooth transition to first base could be the last piece of his developmental puzzle.
“You always want to be comfortable out there, and whether they put me at first or third, I’m going to train my hardest to feel comfortable wherever I’m at,” Mountcastle said.
Harvey, Karns return from long layoffs: Orioles pitching prospect Hunter Harvey and 31-year-old comeback pitcher Nathan Karns might be worlds apart in the baseball time-space continuum, but both took a big first step during the team’s first full-squad spring workout Monday.
Harvey pitched to hitters for the first time since last June and Karns did so for the first time in a year. Both said they felt good, but Harvey was limited to just one six-minute session while most of the starters threw twice.
Hyde said afterward that the Orioles are going to be very careful with Harvey after the years of injury that he has endured. Harvey was on the schedule to pitch two sessions, but said the coaches decided after the first one that one was enough.
“It was kind of just up in the air,” said Harvey, who pitched just 32 1/3 innings at Double-A Bowie last season before being sidelined by shoulder and arm soreness. “He wanted to see how it went and he thought take it a little slow the first time out and then next time I’ll probably go two.
“I felt great. My body feels good. My arm felt good. I was was a little rusty but it was good to get back out there.”
Hyde has said all along that the club is going to tread very lightly with Harvey and the other pitchers coming off injuries.
“We’re going to be as careful and we’re going to try to do things right by Hunter Harvey,” Hyde said after the workout. “We want him the break camp healthy. That’s the No. 1goal. We’re all aware of where he’s been at the last few years and the challenges he’s faced. We’re just trying here to be supportive and try to get him to finish his spring training healthy and ready to have a great season.”
Karns, who was shut down all last season with elbow soreness, threw both sessions and said he threw all of his pitches without any issues. He said he was very pleased with the results.
“Definitely, I think the hitters are, too, because I didn’t hit them, so that was the best thing,” he said. “It was nice to get the first one out there, compete, try to work on locating, a little bit of sequence and just kind of see how it plays off against the hitters and I’m pretty happy with how things were able to go.”
Though Karns appears to be on the same schedule as the rest of the staff, Hyde was non-committal about Harvey’s chances of pitching during the early part of the exhibition season.
“He’s going to pitch exhibition games when I think we feel he’s ready,” Hyde said. “Whenever that is, I’m not really sure yet. He had a six minute deal today. He’s going to go back out in a couple days and do it again, maybe get pushed a little bit. But we’re going to be really careful with him, and like I said, I just want him to finish spring training in a great place physically and mentally.”
Around the horn
Right-handers Andrew Cashner, Dylan Bundy, Karns, Davis Hess, Harvey, Cody Carroll, Luis Ortiz, Dillon Tate, Evan Phillips, Gabriel Ynoa, Jimmy Yacabonis and Branden Kline, plus left-handers Tanner Scott and Sean Gilmartin, all pitched live batting practice Monday.
Hyde said the Orioles would ideally carry a left-handed starter in their rotation as opposed to five right-handers to give teams different looks. Josh Rogers, John Means and Chris Lee are the left-handed starters in camp.
Asked whether he expected to start the year with seven relievers or eight, Hyde said the roster construction was still under consideration.
Hyde said the Orioles would not pay much attention to the 20-second pitch clock during spring training games that MLB instituted Sunday. “I want guys to do what they do, and not worry about speeding things up,” Hyde said. “I think it’s just spring training games so I’m not really worried about that.”