Ryan Mountcastle's late-season plate discipline produced impressive results

For a player that has been a key member of the Orioles’ everyday lineup for three full seasons after playing 35 games in the shortened 2020 season, there are many opinions about first baseman/DH Ryan Mountcastle. He can hit the ball hard and far and set an O’s rookie record with 33 homers in 2021, but fans are often divided on whether he will be a sure-fire future slugger for this club or someone that might not quite reach his potential.

His 2023 season was interrupted twice by injured list stints and the first one when he dealt with vertigo and missed time from June 13-July 8 caused some real concern. For the year, Mountcastle was limited to 115 games and 470 plate appearances.

Yet he produced his best full-season batting average of .270 and OBP with the club at .328. He also had a 7.9 walk-rate, topping his mark of 2021 (7.0) and 2022 (7.1). His OPS of .779 produced an OPS+ of 117, which was better than what he posted in 2021 (114) and 2022 (108).

The time missed in addition to the challenge of hitting one out to left field at Camden Yards left his homer total at 18 after he hit 33 in 2021 under the old dimensions and 22 in 2022 with the new ones.

Mountcastle was really struggling when he went to the IL due to vertigo. He batted .231 with an OPS of .691 in the first half and .322/.893 in the second half. That was a big difference and a big finish to his season even though he went on the IL in September also with left AC joint inflammation.

His 117 OPS+ was behind other regulars on the Orioles, but, by just a few points with Adley Rutschman at 128, Gunnar Henderson at 125, Ryan O’Hearn 122 and Anthony Santander at 121.

Had he enough plate appearances to qualify for league leaders an OPS of .779 would have ranked 28^th in the AL. Just ahead of him would have been Santander (.797), Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena (.789), Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.788), Boston’s Masataka Yoshida (.783) and Josh Jung of Texas (.781). He was probably keeping better company than some thought.

And there is this stat and it’s unexpected for Mountcastle: This past year his OBP was .269 in his first 70 games when he had only two games of two walks. But he had six such games and an OBP of .418 his last 45 games. 

That is quite the bump in OBP for a player who suddenly was chasing less and getting deeper in counts more. No explanation was really given for why Mountcastle suddenly had a strong OBP, but he walked 25 times and fanned 36 in those 45 games. He also batted .327 in that span with a .481 slugging and .899 OPS. It was an impressive stretch of hitting with good plate discipline. It was a bit of an outlier for this player over his career.

In a late season interview with Orioles' co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller, I asked him about Mountcastle’s late-year gains in OBP.

“His focus has been tremendous, and I think that stems from feeling healthy,” stated Fuller. “Going up there and feeling like himself. Right now, his swing decisions are improving a little bit. Where last year a two-walk game was a career-high, he has had multiple occasions as of late.

“For Mounty, he can send the ball a long way, but being able to just get on base when they present you with a walk, he’s been huge for us recently.”

Has Mountcastle turned a corner with an improved batting eye and less chasing?

“We’ll see," Fuller said in that interview. "Last year he ended the year really well with his swing decisions. But for a guy like Mounty, his profile his whole career has been high slug, a little bit of chase. When we decrease chase and stay in the zone and focus on the heart of the plate, he’s going to be in good shape. Stay focused on the simple things that work."

Mountcastle’s strong second half and especially those plate discipline numbers later in the year were attention getters. He turns 27 next month as O’s fans, even after seeing him for a few years, may still be trying to figure out just what kind of hitter he will be going forward.