Mountcastle has senior status in young Orioles infield

CLEVELAND - Ryan Mountcastle doesn’t feel old. He’s just a product of his environment.

Mountcastle at age 27 is the respected elder of the Orioles redesigned infield. He scans the diamond and sees 20-year-old second baseman Jackson Holliday, 23-year-old shortstop Gunnar Henderson and 22-year-old third baseman Coby Mayo. Muscles begin to ache and he fights the urge to drive with his blinker on or write a check at the grocery store.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Mountcastle said. “For how young they are, how talented these kids are, it’s pretty remarkable. I guess being 27, the old guy in the infield, is pretty crazy.

“I guess I’m the mentor. I was coming up to bat (Friday) and I was like, ‘All right, you guys better drive papa in today.’”

I shared a STATS note Friday that the quartet was the fifth-youngest in Orioles history at 23 years and 169 days. The leaders are shortstop Ron Hansen (20), third baseman Brooks Robinson (21), second baseman Jerry Adair (21) and first baseman Bob Hale (24) at 22 years and 47 days on Sept. 28, 1958.

“I ruined it,” Mountcastle quipped. “I ruined their record.”

The three 1956 lineups that rank ahead of the 2024 Orioles infield had 19-year-old Robinson. Yeah, I’ve heard of him. But you’ve been around the block a few times if you also remember 22-year-old Hale, 19-year-old second baseman Wayne Causey and 29-year-old shortstop Billy Gardner.

That’s a young three-fourths when the 29-year-old guy doesn’t kill its ranking.

The Orioles played a doubleheader against the Senators on Sept. 30, 1956 and used the same infield.

Right below the fearsome foursome of young infields is the combination of first baseman Eddie Murray (21), second baseman Billy Smith (23), shortstop Kiko Garcia (23) and third baseman – yes, third baseman – Rich Dauer (24) on June 27, 1977 against Cleveland. The combined age was 23 years and 175 days.

Dauer is burned in my mind as a highly dependable second baseman, a guy who seemed to make every routine play. I really don’t recall him playing third base, but he did in 242 games.

I’ll blame the 964 that he played at third for my faulty memory.

Injuries contributed to the 2024 infield’s makeover. Jorge Mateo has a dislocated elbow and Jordan Westburg fractured his right hand Wednesday. The club was bound to make room for Holliday’s return and Mayo’s debut. The trade deadline also led to significant changes to the roster.

The sound of a shakeup still echoes.

“That’s just the nature of the 162-game season,” Mountcastle said. “You’re gonna have guys filtering in and out all the time, and just trying to do your job and whenever you come up here and be ready and try to win games.”

The Orioles didn’t do much winning in Mountcastle’s early years in the majors. He arrived at age 23 on Aug. 21, 2020, the pandemic-shortened season, and played left field. Renato Núñez played first base, Hanser Alberto second, Pat Valaika shortstop and Rio Ruiz third.

Mountcastle made his initial start at first base on Sept. 15, 2020 against the Braves, and he was joined in the infield by Alberto, Ruiz and Jose Iglesias.

“It’s an exciting time for you,” Mountcastle said. “A little different situation with COVID, but these guys seem pretty excited and it’s always a life-long dream of theirs. Just hope that they get comfortable and get their feet wet and get going.”