Insider Reveals Baltimore Orioles Slugger 'Not Close to Playing'

Despite some injured of the Baltimore Orioles getting closer to making their returns, it sounds like one of their key players is still a ways away.

Aug 11, 2024; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Baltimore Orioles first base Ryan Mountcastle (6) looks on while on deck to bat against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning at Tropicana Field / Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles are facing some dire straits right now.

After going 4-6 over their last 10 games and almost getting no-hit in Friday's loss to the Detroit Tigers, they now trail the New York Yankees by three in the AL East standings.

Barring a truly devastating collapse, the Orioles should still be in the playoffs with only 14 contests remaining in the regular season and them being 4.5 games up in the Wild Card race.

But how deep of a run they can make becomes the real question based on how they're playing right now.

Of course, things might look a whole lot more positive if they got healthy.

With Jordan Westburg, Grayson Rodriguez, Jacob Webb, Danny Coulombe, and Ryan Mountcastle all currently on the shelf, they need things to change in a hurry so they can get back their key contributors.

There have been some positive developments when it comes to Coulombe, Webb, and Westburg, but based on what Roch Kubatko of MASN said in his latest piece, Baltimore is going to be without their slugging first baseman for the foreseeable future.

"... especially with Ryan Mountcastle in Sarasota rehabbing a sprained left wrist and apparently not close to playing," he wrote.

That's not what Orioles fans wanted to hear.

Although Mountcastle hasn't had the same amount of power in his bat this year like he has in the past, he still slashed .265/.305/.425 with 13 homers, 44 extra-base hits, and 61 RBI in 118 games before going down with this wrist injury.

His replacement, Ryan O'Hearn, has not had much success at the plate lately, going 2-for-28 since largely taking over as the full-time first baseman.

This will be something to continue monitoring, but the hope is he can return before the regular season is over.