Orioles To Turn Down Ryan Mountcastle’s Club Option

The Orioles are going to turn down the $7.5MM club option on first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, reports Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun. Mountcastle will become a free agent for the first time in his career.

When Baltimore avoided arbitration with Mountcastle last winter, the sides agreed to add the club option for next year. But the Orioles are now moving on after the 29-year-old Mountcastle endured a lost season. He fractured his left foot in early April, and just as he was about to begin a Triple-A rehab assignment in late July, he suffered a serious oblique strain. Mountcastle didn’t play again, limiting him to eight games in what could go down as his final season with the Orioles. It was the second straight disappointing and injury-shortened year for Mountcastle, who hit .250/.286/.367 and registered a career-worst 82 wRC+ over 89 games and 357 plate appearances in 2025.

Mountcastle’s stock has fallen over the past couple of years, but he once looked like a legitimate building block for the Orioles. The 2015 first-round pick (36th overall) debuted during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign and slashed an excellent .333/.386/.492 with a 139 wRC+ in 140 trips to the plate. Despite playing just 35 of 60 games, he finished sixth in American League Rookie of the Year voting. Mountcastle has not approached that type of production on a rate basis since then, but he remained an above-average offensive player from 2021-24. Across 2,172 plate appearances in that stretch, he hit .260/.312/.447 (110 wRC+) and swatted 86 home runs. He topped out with 33 during a 144-game, 586-PA showing in 2021.

While Mountcastle saw some time in the outfield over his first two seasons, he has served exclusively as a first baseman/designated hitter since 2022. Mountcastle is a two-time Gold Glove finalist at first base, where he has earned plus marks during his career (5 Fielding Run Value, 4 Defensive Runs Saved, 2 Outs Above Average), but there is no longer a path to playing time there in Baltimore because of the presence of Pete Alonso. The star slugger just wrapped up the first season of a five-year, $155MM contract. Meanwhile, at DH, the Orioles turned to several different options this year. Alonso was their DH on rare occasions, while Coby Mayo, Samuel Basallo, Tyler O’Neill, Dylan Beavers, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Jackson Holliday were also among those who saw time at that spot. All of those players are under control through at least next season, leaving no room for Mountcastle (at least not at $7.5MM) in the team’s estimation.

Mountcastle is now part of a thin first base class that is lacking in regulars behind Jake Bauers and Ty France. As someone who has handled lefties, against whom he has put up a 124 wRC+, the right-handed Mountcastle could at least end up as a platoon first baseman/DH next year.