This article is part of the Know Your Orioles 40-man series, which features an article about each player currently on the Orioles roster. There will be one every weekday until we run out of players.
There was a time, back in 2019, when you worried for Ryan Mountcastle. The hard-hitting youngster, who won International League MVP honors that season, was mashing Triple-A pitching with a .312 average, 25 homers and .871 OPS campaign. Fans were begging Mike Elias to let Mountcastle up to the bigs. Yet amidst a sea of evasive pronouncements by the O’s GM, Mountcastle’s MLB arrival seemed indefinitely delayed.