Ryan Mountcastle placed on 60-day IL, Orioles scramble for depth

SARASOTA, FLORIDA - MARCH 11: Ryan Mountcastle #6 of the Baltimore Orioles reacts during the sixth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a spring training game at Ed Smith Stadium on March 11, 2026 in Sarasota, Florida. (Photo by Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Along with near-daily injuries suffered by the Orioles comes daily roster moves. The team made another flurry of moves to keep a healthy set of players up on the MLB roster ahead of Monday’s game against the Diamondbacks, with two players landing on the 60-day injured list, one getting selected from Norfolk to MLB, and another being acquired from outside the organization and sent to Triple-A.

The full set of moves:

• Ryan Mountcastle placed on 60-day injured list
• Weston Wilson contract selected from Triple-A Norfolk
• Christian Encarnacion-Strand acquired from Reds for cash considerations and optioned to Norfolk
• Yaramil Hiraldo transferred to 60-day injured list

Mountcastle going straight to the injured list due to his broken metatarsal shows that the team knows he will be out for quite a while. It’s uncommon even for serious injuries to have a guy go straight onto the 60-day, but in this case the team needed to make room on the 40-man roster just to add any infielder into the mix.

Wilson, 31, has appeared in parts of the last three seasons with the Phillies, playing a variety of infield and outfield positions while batting .242/.328/.428. It’s not a bad overall batting line, though his worst season was last year, the year that he played the most. He made enough of an impression in spring training for the Orioles to give him the chance here. Since he has a bit more defensive flexibility than Mountcastle, he might even play a bit more often. He was not hitting well in Norfolk at the time of this roster move.

Encarnacion-Strand, 26, was in “DFA limbo” after having been cast off by the Reds. He has also appeared in parts of the last three seasons, totaling a .233/.275/.404 batting line. In this instance, the Orioles probably grabbed him just to have a semblance of infield depth in case there’s another freak injury, because with Wilson in Baltimore, there’s basically nobody down there worth bringing up. Not that either Wilson or Encarnacion-Strand are guaranteed to prove to be worth bringing up.

Hiraldo had been on the 15-day injured list since April 5 due to shoulder inflammation. Moving him to the 60-day injured list opens up a spot on the 40-man roster, which they needed to bring in Encarnacion-Strand as infield depth. The 30-year-old righty had a rough first few outings this year before landing on the injured list.

Additionally, earlier on Monday, the Orioles recalled Dean Kremer from Norfolk and optioned Cade Povich to Norfolk. Everyone can stop wondering why Kremer is still in the minors now. Tough luck for Povich, who pitched quite well yesterday. It seems the team is not planning to do a six-man rotation after all.

One player who did not get added to the active roster is catcher Sam Huff, who is around on the taxi squad from Norfolk. It probably does not matter all that much whether Huff or Maverick Handley is the backup catcher for as long as Adley Rutschman is out.