Truth be told, I wasn’t nearly as bad as the majority of you.
In column form, the worst I could find was:
“The purpose of this column is not to denigrate Ryan Mountcastle, a quality baseball player and person. It is to consider how Mountcastle fits within the Orioles’ pursuit of building a World Series winner in the coming years. It is instead to consider whether a player with a career .307 on-base percentage can be a centerpiece player for a championship team.”
On Glenn Clark Radio and my 105.7 The Fan shows, it was probably a bit more pointed. While I can confidently say that I never flat-out suggested the Orioles should part ways with Ryan Mountcastle before he returned from his bout with vertigo, I know I insinuated that such a decision would be understandable. I probably even suggested it might prove inevitable given the success of Ryan O’Hearn and Anthony Santander and the pending arrival of Heston Kjerstad.
I attempt to be measured and reasonable instead of falling into “hot takery,” so I’m not terribly ashamed of anything I said about Mountcastle during the worst of his struggles this season. And yet, I still feel the need to say this.
“I’m sorry, Ryan Mountcastle.”
I’m not vain enough to believe that I get to speak on behalf of an entire city or fan base. But I know there are plenty of others who have either said the same or have simply hoped no one will ever comb through their history on the website formerly known as Twitter. We said things. We overreacted to a putrid stretch (17 strikeouts, 12 hits against Triple-A pitching) during a prolonged rehab assignment. To be fair, the Orioles themselves were clearly concerned and waited until the last possible moment to activate him.
But we were wrong. Plain and simple. Turns out, it IS far easier to hit “when you’re just seeing one baseball instead of three.” Who knew? Mountcastle has been spectacular in his return, hitting .402/.463/.634 since his return on July 9. In fact, he’s even raised his CAREER on-base percentage by a whopping nine points in just 27 games since I authored my initial column. He’s been an absolutely vital part of the Orioles maintaining their grip on the best record in the American League.
And his in-season turnaround is just part of a story of a season where almost no player on the team has been consistently great for all four-plus months, save for Félix Bautista. The team has been carried by different players in different stretches. “Every game is a different star,” you might say. You might even say “that’s the magic of Orioles baseball.”
Even the most maligned players like Jorge Mateo have had their moments — including an insane dash to the plate to score a go-ahead run against the Mariners on Aug. 13, a run that only a few players in the entire sport would have been capable of scoring. Adam Frazier has been one of the worst defensive players in baseball this season, according to advanced metrics. And yet when Yordan Alvarez sent a screaming ground ball toward right field in the fifth inning on Aug. 10, there was Frazier, laying out to make the play and keep the Orioles’ “not getting swept” streak alive.
There’s something about the culture of this team. There’s probably something about the leadership of Brandon Hyde. Struggles just don’t doom this group of players. Mountcastle has perhaps been the most dramatic example, but he’s been far from the only.
“The way the clubhouse is built right now with super chemistry, it seems like everybody is so supportive,” 105.7 The Fan analyst and former Orioles shortstop Mike Bordick said on Glenn Clark Radio August 14. “They understand that there are going to be tough times and I think that they all rally around each other, knowing that better days will be ahead if a guy is struggling a little bit.”
There’s no metric that can quantify the value of this culture. That’s not a shot at metrics. I scrapped an entire Ramón Urías column I had planned to write this week because I recognize that no matter what our eyes tell us, we cannot deny the reality of the metrics. It’s just a reminder that not everything about the sport is fully quantifiable. The ability for Orioles players to withstand their most difficult stretches this season and prove to be heroes later simply cannot be measured.
So yes, we owe Ryan Mountcastle a collective apology. But we also owe sincere thanks to the leadership of this club for creating a culture that allows for players like Mountcastle to work their way through their worst moments.
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