More on Soto's return to Orioles and decision to option Mayo

Tracking Liván Soto with the Orioles is becoming a full-time job.

They claimed him twice on waivers and lost him twice. They traded for him at the deadline, optioned him immediately, recalled him Aug. 1 and optioned him the next day while selecting Coby Mayo’s contract, and recalled him again yesterday while optioning Mayo.

The circle of baseball life can make you dizzy.

Soto could stick around a while or just pass through town. Predicting his next move is a dangerous little game.

“It’s been a little difficult, but it’s part of the process and all I can do is learn from it, get mentally tougher, mentally strong and just learn from this experience and be ready to go,” he said yesterday via interpreter Brandon Quinones.

There must be some comfort in knowing that the Orioles can’t quit him. They’ve tried to get him through waivers. They sent cash to the Reds in the deadline deal that also included outfielder Austin Slater. And manager Brandon Hyde talked up Soto’s defensive versatility yesterday as a reason to keep him over Mayo, the No. 10 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline’s fresh rankings.

“I think they like the things I’m able to do on the field,” Soto said, “and if that’s the case, I’m ready to go and show what I’m capable of doing.”

What Soto did at the plate also must have caught their eye. He was batting .355/.412/.581 with two doubles, a triple and a home run in nine games with Triple-A Norfolk.

Soto said he wasn’t working on anything specific.

“Basically, what I’ve already been doing, which is playing multiple positions in the field,” he said. “Some second base, some shortstop, and then focused on taking good at-bats.”

There appear to have been multiple reasons for sending down Mayo after only seven games and 17 at-bats, and after his first major league hit Wednesday night. Hyde conceded that what he observed was a “quick sample,” which is a close relative of the small sample size family. Mayo gained his exposure to major league pitching and the speed of the game at third base. He can take what he learned to Norfolk’s staff and keep working. How to handle being fed off-speed stuff and sliders down and away that can keep the ball off the barrel. Getting more repetitions in the field in a less-pressurized environment.

Hyde also explained the benefits of having someone like Soto to back up in the middle infield, which leads us again to how much the club misses Jordan Westburg.

I’ve heard that another explanation given to Mayo involved the stretch of right-handed starters opposing the Orioles, and their desire to add another left-handed bat. And that the demotion should be temporary. Of course, you can’t be sure about much.

Mayo is batting .306 with a 1.036 OPS against right-handers in Triple-A and .264 with a .762 OPS against lefties. He hit .296 with a 1.008 OPS against right-handers in 2023 and .275 with an .880 OPS against lefties. He wasn’t playing every day with the Orioles and I’m not sure what would have kept him here beyond going on a huge offensive tear and forcing his way into the everyday lineup.

He would have needed to do it immediately.

The Orioles chose Soto over Nick Maton, who’s also a left-handed hitter but isn’t on the 40-man roster. Maton began last night batting .262/.359/.488 with 11 doubles, a triple, 14 home runs and 45 RBIs in 72 games, and he homered again in a 15-1 loss to Gwinnett. He's played everywhere in the infield in his career, and he's pitched in an emergency role in the past two games.

Also bypassed was Terrin Vavra, who started in left field last night for Norfolk and can play second base, shortstop and third. Vavra joined the Orioles on deadline day and was optioned later.

Soto fills a need for now. Where it could get interesting is if the Orioles decide they want a right-handed bat, aren’t as attached to middle infield depth and have J.D. Davis as a corner infield option.

Davis signed with the Orioles on Aug. 7 after the Yankees released him. He owns a career .257/.340/.425 line in eight major league seasons and has hit 72 home runs, including 22 with the Mets in 2019 and 18 with the Giants last year. He wasn’t in Norfolk’s lineup last night and is 4-for-21 with a double and two homers.

Whatever happens from this point, Mayo isn’t a unique figure among Orioles prospects. Sometimes they get sent down. Sometimes they return and stay. Mayo doesn’t strike me as a shuttle guy.

Non-contention would have made it easier for the Orioles to play him every day and live with the slow start at the plate and uneven defense. I made the assumption that he’d get a much longer audition this month, and I wasn’t the only one.

Colton Cowser can relate to what Mayo’s going through as one of those prospects who left last summer and made the 2024 Opening Day roster. He’s in the running for American League Rookie of the Year.

“You really try to show what you can do given the situation that you’re put in, and sometimes you can get out of your element and get out of your game,” Cowser said yesterday.

“I was told this last year, it’s never a bad thing to come up to the big leagues and experience a little bit of failure. What did he have, like 16 at-bats, 17, something like that? That’s nothing. I have all the faith in the world in him.”

So do the Orioles. They just had an interesting and unexpected way of showing it yesterday.