O's Ryan Mountcastle will not win Rookie of the Year

He may have ranked first among all American League qualifying rookies in homers this year and second in RBIs, but the Orioles' Ryan Mountcastle will not be the club's seventh Rookie of the Year winner in the AL.

When the three finalists for the Baseball Writers' Association of America award, to be announced Monday, were announced last night, he was not among them. For me, that was surprising.

So the one Orioles player who we thought had a chance to contend for or even win one of the major awards to be announced by the BBWAA next week will not win.

But the Orioles still do win.

Mountcastle is just 24 and won't turn 25 until February. He should be a middle-of-the-order fixture for the Orioles for years to come.

For the 2021 season, over 144 games and 586 plate appearances, he batted .255/.309/.487/.796 with 23 doubles, a triple, 33 homers and 89 RBIs. He produced an OPS+ of 112. But at the end of April, he was batting .196/.229/.286./.515 with one homer and seven RBIs. He was chasing pitches big-time. It seemed like he would need a 50-inch bat to get to some of them. Soon he got locked in, however. And in 119 games from May 1 on, Mountcastle produced a line of .266/.324/.528/.853 with 32 homers and 82 RBIs.

It was indeed Rookie of the Year-worthy. In fact, Mountcastle was the winner of the Major League Baseball Players Association Players Choice Award for Outstanding Rookie. But he doesn't make top three this time.

Mountcastle's 33 home runs led all major league rookies. He is the third rookie in the AL since 1990 to record a season of 33 or more home runs. The Yankees' Aaron Judge did that, with 52 in 2017, as did José Abreu of the Chicago White Sox with 36 in 2014. Both won the Rookie of the Year award. Mountcastle's 33 home runs are tied for the ninth-most by a rookie in AL history and ranked tied for 14th overall in the AL this season.

On Sept. 16, he hit his 29th homer to break a tie with Cal Ripken Jr. from 1982 for most homers by an O's rookie. He topped Ripken and another Hall of Famer, Eddie Murray, on his way to the top of that list. Mountcastle's 89 RBIs are third-most by a Baltimore rookie behind Jim Gentile (98 in 1960) and Ripken (93 in 1982). His 57 extra-base hits are third-most by an O's rookie behind Ripken (65 in 1982) and Murray (58 in 1977).

His name kept showing up on lists that included Hall of Famers. Rookie of the Year honor or not, Mountcastle will come back to rake more for the 2022 Orioles as his career is just getting started.

By the way, if Mountcastle loses some status with Rookie of the Year voters over defense, he at least holds his own in a couple of FanGraphs.com defensive stats among AL first baseman. There were 12 AL first baseman that played 700 or more innings at the position in 2021 (Mountcastle played 704 innings there) and he ranked first among the 12 in FanGraphs' overall Defensive Rating at minus-4.0. He ranked sixth among the 12 in Defensive Runs Saved at minus-1.

Mountcastle will not join the list of previous O's Rookie of the Year winners. They were Ron Hansen (1960), Curt Blefary (1965), Al Bumbry (1973), Murray (1977), Ripken (1983) and Gregg Olson (1989).

Baker added: The Orioles added another player to their seemingly ever-changing 40-man roster Monday afternoon. They claimed right-handed reliever Bryan Baker off waivers from Toronto. He made his major league debut in September, getting into just one game and threw a scoreless inning versus Oakland.

Over 41 1/3 innings for Triple-A Buffalo, Baker, 26, went 6-1 with a 1.31 ERA and a WHIP of 0.85. He allowed just one homer and gave up only 18 hits with 17 walks and 48 strikeouts. In his one major league game, his fastball touched 96 mph.

The Orioles' 40-man roster now holds 32 players.