When will Orioles make a decision on Mountcastle’s role in 2026? | MAILBAG

Question: Any idea of when a decision will be made as to the future of Ryan Mountcastle with the Orioles’ organization? From: Nancy Giomo 

Answer: Nancy, I don’t know when the Orioles will make a decision on Mountcastle’s future. It still seems unlikely that both Mountcastle and Coby Mayo can co-exist on the 2026 Orioles, but Mike Elias has a way of surprising. I was pretty sure the team wouldn’t offer him a contract for next year, but they did.

The guess here is that the Orioles will try to find a trade partner for Mountcastle and perhaps receive a player with a similar contract in return.

Question: I think the MLB changes to increase the pace of games were fantastic. Where do you see the new ABS pitch challenges going? Since the batter is the only one on offense who can challenge, I’m thinking they will be taught to only challenge in 3-2 counts or other critical situations. Do challenges need to be essentially immediate? I’m concerned teams will monitor from somewhere off field and yell out a code word or sound to challenge. Sorry, the Houston cheating scandal still lingers. From: Rick Staley

Answer: Rick, the challenges have to be immediate. I saw the ABS system last year in a number of spring training games, and the challenges were immediate and didn’t slow things down.

I’m not sure if the Orioles will have any rules from manager Craig Albernaz on when to challenge. Many of the players have experienced the ABS in Triple-A and while it will take a bit of getting used to, I don’t think there’ll be any abuse of the system.

Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. If you’d like to submit a question, send it to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com. Questions may be edited for clarity, length and style.