Ryan Mountcastle of the Baltimore Orioles has been frustratingly average through the team’s first 45 games of the 2022 Major League Baseball season.
Coming off a very solid 2021 campaign where Mountcastle hit 33 home runs, 23 doubles, and logged 89 RBI, many (if not the majority) of baseball fans expected him to continue to build off his first full year in big leagues. Coming into Friday night’s game for the Baltimore Orioles at the Boston Red Sox, Mountcastle has hit five home runs and driven in 18 runs. His slash line is not horrible by any stretch of the imagination (.256/.288/.391). However, looking at his numbers, the biggest issue that has stood out to me has been his on base percentage (.288).
That on base percentage is a number that many fans could agree needs to improve. His walk percentage is only 3.6% where the Major League average is at 8.8%. It’s understandable that he is a free swinger and there is nothing wrong with that, but one would hope he begins to get a better feel for the strike zone and can start filling the bases more often.
On the bright side, Mountcastle is still hitting the ball hard with his hard hit percentage (47.4%) well about the MLB average at 38.6%. The reason the power has not been there so far in 2022 is partly due to his drop in fly balls (24.7% this year versus 33.9% last year).
In 2021, Mountcastle had a fly ball rate just over a third of the times he put the ball in play. This season, that has dropped significantly. If Mountcastle can increase his fly ball rate, the power numbers are going to come hand in hand with that. Hitting the ball hard can quickly make up for the lack of walks.
When I look at his numbers, I am not alarmed. Let’s just hope that his hard hits start finding more air time and his future will only continue to look promising.
If everything goes as most people within the organization expect, the Baltimore Orioles could have the talent to once again be towards the top of the American League East. If he can improve his on base percentage and find the fly ball in his swing again, Ryan Mountcastle could be right in the middle of it all for years to come.