Items of interest
Playoffs are out of reach, but there are individual scenarios worth watching in Orioles’ final month
Thanks to the Orioles’ midseason swoon, September won’t feature an improbable run at a playoff spot in the expanded American League postseason field.
This Orioles season was never supposed to be about that, though. It was always going to be about discovering long-term building blocks and seeing which prospects can make the leap to being productive major-leaguers. That will continue to be the focus. Monday’s trade deadline closed the rosterchurning chapter of the season and leaves some interesting storylines for an Orioles team that will emerge from its day off
Thursday at 16-20 with a difficult schedule in the remaining 24 games.
Here are five things that will be worth watching for the Orioles until the end of the month:
Is Ryan Mountcastle the real deal? The Orioles know full well the boost in excitement and energy inside and outside the club that can come from a top prospect being promoted, and the opportunity to watch Mountcastle for another few weeks will provide just that.
In 11 games since his debut last month, Mountcastle is batting .341 with a .937 OPS and two-homer game Sunday on his resume.
He’s impressed manager Brandon Hyde in several ways with what Hyde called “a nice start to his career.”
Late-season call-ups can go a lot of different ways, but the good ones typically include a player starting strong, with the real determinations about his future coming as the
league adjusts to him. Still, Hyde has seen a lot to like so far.
“I’ve been really impressed with Ryan in every aspect — how he’s carried himself, [his] maturity, his athleticism,” Hyde said. “I like his at-bats. He had a tough night [Tuesday] a little bit, but I like the swings.
“I feel like he’s trying to stay on the baseball. I think he’s swinging the bat better than I’ve seen him, he’s playing defense better than I’ve seen him and he’s getting down the line better.”
Specifically, the areas of plate discipline and defense are ones the team asked Mountcastle to work on while he was at the secondary camp at Bowie. Hyde sees improvements in both spots.
“I think he’s really, really improved defensively,” Hyde said. “The difference from a swing-decision standpoint is huge from what we saw and what I’ve seen in spring training and summer camp. I’ve seen a lot less chases. I see a lot better passes at the baseball in the strike zone, and that’s what we’re looking for.
“He obviously really worked on that these last couple months, and he’s done a really nice job — because it’s a marked improvement. I just like the whole athleticism factor. He really gets down the line well. He’s a threat.”
Can José Iglesias win the batting title?
While the two runs that came from Iglesias’ ninth-inning, two-out single in Wednesday’s loss to the New York Mets didn’t ultimately matter to the Orioles, every at-bat is going to count for their veteran shortstop for the next three-plus weeks.
Because he missed time with a hamstring injury, Iglesias is batting .405 in 87 plate appearances, which isn’t enough to give him the 3.1 plate appearances per game to qualify for the batting title.
Iglesias will have to play every day to get to that point, but it’s possible.
As long as the Orioles play their scheduled 60 games, Iglesias needs to get 99 plate appearances in the final 24 games of the season, a rate of 4.125 per game. Batting at the top of the lineup, he’s pretty much guaranteed four every start.
Just as challenging will be seeing whether Iglesias, who has never been this productive in his career, can sustain this high average. He has had multi-hit games and doubles galore with the Orioles.
Who will step up at the back end of the bullpen?
In many cases, it won’t be new faces who replace late-inning relievers Miguel Castro, Mychal Givens and Richard Bleier, who were traded this season. But they’ll be largely new to those roles, and every outing will be a measuring stick of whether they can fill them going forward.
Left-handers Paul Fry and Tanner Scott have both responded well to the new workload that came from Bleier’s trade last month to the Miami Marlins.
Now, Hunter Harvey and Dillon Tate could see significant roles against righthanded hitters, and Shawn Armstrong also will get some looks in those spots once he’s healthy.
Harvey and Tate each has a top-prospect pedigree but endured a winding road to the majors. Each feels at home in the bullpen, where he can really air out his pitches instead of conserving energy as a starter.
Still, former starters often make the best
relief pitchers. A month of high-leverage outings for both will help determine whether the Orioles can count on them in 2021 and beyond.
Can John Means figure things out before the season ends?
A shortened season meant that anyone who had an uneven start or was delayed in getting ramped up might not stand a chance to ever get himself going. That’s what has happened with Means, the Orioles’ lone All-Star a season ago who missed his Opening Day start with arm soreness and spent time away from the team to be with his family after his father’s
death.
Neither of those things can or should be held against him. But Means, whocame into camp throwing harder than ever and full of optimism, is frustrated with how his season has gone with an 8.10 ERA.
There isn’t much time to correct course. He could realistically get only four more starts.
The Orioles’ rotation has gotten younger, but still no one in that group has a bigger role in the team’s future than Means. It would be a long winter for all involved if this turns out to be a lost year for him.
What do the Orioles have in Keegan Akin?
With Tommy Milone traded Sunday, rookie left-hander Akin got the chance to finally start for the Orioles and responded well Monday. His assignments the rest of the way in the rotation will be an easy way of trying to determine if he’ll be able to cut it at the level the Orioles eventually want him to play.
Akin will likely face the New York Yankees in his next two starts, with the possibility that he faces the Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Rays in the following two and finishes up with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Every one of those teams will be in the playoffs this year, barring a collapse, and have the types of offenses that will hit poorly located pitches over the plate a long way.
That’s the exact kind of challenge Akin needs, and it will be a good indicator of whether he’s ready to be counted on in the rotation to begin 2021.