More on Mayo's arrival in the majors

CLEVELAND – Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias phoned Coby Mayo on Wednesday morning after the trade deadline passed to review the club’s handling of their No. 3 prospect. To go over again why he remained at Triple-A Norfolk and to make certain that he understood the club's thinking and how much the front office believed in him. Stay patient and the call will come.

Mayo got it the following night.

Have your passport handy for the upcoming Toronto trip and hop on a morning flight to Cleveland.

Mayo insisted yesterday that he didn’t know about his promotion before manager Buck Britton told him Thursday night. He wasn’t alerted in the morning or able to figure it out after his removal from the game.

“Sometimes, you can make sense of the situation and what’s going on,” he said, “but I definitely did not know that I’d be here today.”

The Orioles went from searching for right-handed bats to being flush. They traded for Eloy Jiménez, who profiles as a platoon designated hitter, and outfielder Austin Slater. They also traded for Cristian Pache - a defensive specialist with limited offensive skills - and designated him for assignment Thursday. The Marlins claimed him on waivers.

Mayo was a solution all along except that the Orioles wanted him to keep working on his throws at third base and to try getting more comfortable at first. Each day that passed brought him closer to maintaining rookie status in 2025, with that deadline only two weeks away, though at-bats must stay below 130.

You’re living right when you can make upgrades to your club at the deadline by also dipping into the minors, which produced Jackson Holliday and Mayo this week.

“It’s a really healthy farm system when you have a lot of prospects at Triple-A putting up the numbers they have the last couple years,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “We’re following them very closely and take a lot of pride in what our guys have done in the system and the organizational rankings and all those things. Not all the time it translates into the major league level, but we believe in their ability and feel like it’s going to.”

A player of Mayo’s caliber doesn’t get called up to sit, but crafting lineups can get complicated by roster construction.

Plenty of games could unfold with Mayo at third base against a right-hander and Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn at first base or as the designated hitter. To counter a left-handed starter, the Orioles could play Mayo at third, put Mountcastle at first and use Jiménez as the designated hitter.

Jordan Westburg tended to get overlooked because of the other prospects but he made the All-Star team, was playing every day at third and second, began working out at shortstop and made a start there after Jorge Mateo dislocated his left elbow. Second baseman Connor Norby was traded, Westburg fractured his hand – with help from a Yerry Rodríguez fastball – and the Orioles had to curse their luck and the timing.

Mayo spoke to Elias on the same day that Westburg was injured, also odd timing. He was removed from Norfolk’s game around the same point that Holliday was hit on the left hand at Progressive Field. Holliday stayed in the game and on the active roster and last night produced his first multi-hit game in the majors.

“You can see by someone’s reaction right away,” Hyde said. “It got him in a good part of the hand, but yeah, we’re getting hit on the hand a little bit too much.”

Ramón Urías has made 46 starts at third base and none at second this season. Mayo’s arrival and having Holliday at second puts him back on the bench most nights, and that’s the whole idea. His value comes in his versatility as a super-utility player, not an everyday presence in the lineup.

Urías is 6-for-19 in his past seven games and 9-for-30 in the past 14. He slashed .341/.463/.477 in 18 games in July.

“Ramón’s been playing pretty well here for the last couple weeks,” Hyde said before Thursday’s game. “He’s taking some good at-bats for us. To be able to be versatile … He hasn’t played second base this year or shortstop in a while but he has in the past. And so having as many infielders play as many positions as possible, especially right now, is really important.”

A homegrown infield was inevitable and here it is with Mayo at third, Gunnar Henderson at shortstop, Holliday at second and Mountcastle at first. Westburg was a fifth before his injury. The outfield could do the same before Heston Kjerstad’s latest departure, when it included Cedric Mullins and Colton Cowser, or with Kyle Stowers before the shuttle dropped him off in Miami. We shouldn’t count Anthony Santander, a Rule 5 pick, but the Orioles developed him from Class A to All-Star status.

Young players making the jump into the most difficult competition don’t always stick the landing. Point deductions are made to averages, on-base percentages and slugging percentages.

“It’s just realistic,” Hyde said. “You hope that (Mayo) gets off to a good start, you hope that he plays well, but you really never know, honestly. The Triple-A level to the major league level, it’s not even close, it’s not even in the same atmosphere or universe. The level is so much different. The pitching he’s gonna face, the speed of the game, third deck, fourth deck at times. It’s a way different game, and you do all you can to prepare a guy for this moment.

“Sometimes it works out great, sometimes not so much. You do your best job of predicting the guy’s ready or not, and we’re hoping that Coby’s ready.”

Three at-bats last night that ran the count full, with two walks, were an encouraging start.