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The Orioles made a lot of noise this offseason, and Pete Alonso arriving on a big contract was the loudest noise of all. The Polar Bear gives Baltimore a genuine middle-of-the-order presence that the offense sorely lacked in 2025. But his arrival also created a puzzle at first base that the front office has yet to fully solve.
Ryan Mountcastle is still on the roster, having agreed to a surprise $6.787M deal in January with a $7.5M club option for 2027. So is the 24-year-old Coby Mayo. And when you add in Samuel Basallo and Adley Rutschman — two bats this team very much wants in the lineup — you’re suddenly staring at five players who reasonably profile as either a first baseman or a designated hitter. Five is a lot. Especially when one is Alonso, whom the O’s signed specifically to play first and hit, and the others—Rutschman and Basallo—are considered franchise cornerstones, or future ones.
That doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for Mountcastle and Mayo to coexist comfortably.
A least a few observers find it curious that the Orioles haven’t moved either yet for the pitching help that still eludes this roster. It’s possible that Mounty is still around because the Orioles intended to package him and others for a top-flight starter like Framber Valdez, failed in this endeavor, and settled for Chris Bassitt instead.
Speaking for the front office, GM Mike Elias’s explanations have been cagey, to say the least. He told reporters this winter: “[I]t is never a problem if you have too many good bats. We saw last year how much depth a baseball team needs, and it’s more than ever, and we really like all these guys. … And we have designated hitter at-bats to go around for these players, too.”
But this doesn’t seem right, even with injuries keeping infield mainstays Jackson Holliday (hamate bone) and Jordan Westburg (oblique, UCL) off the Opening Day roster.
Imagine a hypothetical Opening Day roster with these 13 position players: catchers Rutschman and Basallo, infielders Mountcastle, Mayo, Alonso, and Gunnar Henderson, plus newly signed utility infielder Blaze Alexander and maybe Luis Vázquez to fill in for Holliday and Westburg, and finally outfielders Taylor Ward, Tyler O’Neill, Colton Cowser, Dylan Beavers and Leody Taveras. That’s still a lot of 1B/DH types, isn’t it.
Mayo is getting an opportunity at third base while Westburg is out. But keeping Mountcastle through arbitration felt like a holding pattern, not a plan, and still does.
Maybe one of them gets traded at some point before Opening Day. Maybe one of them breaks out this spring and forces a rethink. Maybe the answer is that someone gets hurt and the problem resolves itself in the most unwelcome way possible. For now, it’s one of the more interesting open questions in Birdland.
How do you see it playing out, Camden Chat?