If watching Coby Mayo struggle at third base makes Orioles fans upset, I’m not going to argue with that.
Right now, Mayo is failing.
The fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft is one of the weakest bats in the lineup (.521 OPS, 31 strikeouts). He is one of MLB’s worst defensive third basemen by multiple measures: a fielding percentage of .922; an Rtot of -5, tied for last at the position (in a Baseball Reference metric that puts a run value on defensive play); and an Outs Above Average (via Baseball Savant) ranking in the 13th percentile.
One of Mayo’s loudest mistakes came Thursday night against the Marlins. He bobbled a high chopper, then bounced a throw past Pete Alonso at first — allowing Miami to walk off the 4-3 game on an error (his fourth of the year).
But if people are upset with the 24-year-old, it’s worth considering redirecting their ire. If Mayo can’t do what the Orioles ask him, at what point does the accountability change hands to the franchise leaders and coaches who won’t accept what their eyes are telling them?
The Orioles have known for at least a year that Mayo can’t stick as a big league third baseman. They just won’t stop playing him there — and setting him up to fail.
When I saw Mayo’s gaffe to end Thursday’s game, the first thing I felt was sadness. Among the Orioles I’ve gotten to know over the last few years, Mayo is one of the friendliest.
It’s hard to miss his work ethic: When he switched positions to first base last year, he was practicing his picks on the field before every single game. Now that he’s back at third, he puts in time there, too.
“I’m gonna always do what I can to help myself out and get better,” he told me in March, when we talked about his positional whiplash from the team signing Pete Alonso. “There’s nothing to gain out of sulking and being upset about moves a team has made.”
It is through-and-through Mayo, too, that he took his medicine after the game and broke down the play in front of cameras and press. It was doubly painful because some of his former Norfolk teammates whom the Orioles traded away (instead of him) are having respectable careers with the Marlins. Miami is also Mayo’s backyard, and his family and friends attended this series for their hometown hero.
I don’t think Mayo has failed at third for lack of effort. It is simply a position that he mechanically struggles to play.
His 6-foot-5 frame makes it so he has to bend farther for the athletic plays required at the hot corner. His arm slot, which has been wonky for years, tends to fail him on throws when he’s too upright or too rushed — making him bounce balls that are much harder to field at first.
I thought of manager Craig Albernaz talking about Mayo back in March, and his tendency to get too mechanical on certain plays: “That’s usually when things go awry.”
If Albernaz’s months-old observation feels like a forecast — well, yeah, it is. More than other fielders, Mayo’s body dimensions give him less margin for technical errors.
When Mayo is at third, it is only a matter of time before he gets rushed and puts a laser into the dirt.
The Orioles know this. They have known this. They saw him make errors at third through five seasons of minor league ball (66 errors at the position, .911 fielding percentage), but still forced him through at that spot — perhaps because a power-hitting third baseman is a more valuable trade asset than a power-hitting first baseman.
Right now, Mayo is neither a power hitter nor a proper third baseman. Only one of those things has been apparent for years.
I wondered as early as spring training in 2025 why Baltimore was so intent on keeping Mayo at third. It didn’t seem to be working, and even when Mayo made difficult plays, he looked overly lanky and ungainly. It never seemed like his long-term home.
Consider an alternative approach: A few years ago, the Orioles tried an outfield experiment with Ryan Mountcastle, one that went dreadfully wrong. After he played 46 career games in the outfield, the O’s settled on Mounty at first after June 2021 — and it turns out the second half of his season was stronger at the plate than the first.
I don’t know exactly whether Mayo could eventually be a major league success story, but the Orioles are making it as hard as possible for him. He spent the entire offseason preparing to play first base, only to be switched to third in spring. Imagine how tough it must be mentally for Mayo, attempting to go back to a position that the Orioles decided last year he couldn’t really play.
The stress of his defensive shortcomings likely feeds into his ice-cold bat. Even though his hitting numbers have never popped like the Orioles once hoped they would, they are demonstrably weaker when Mayo plays third base instead of first or DH.
The idea that he is the best stopgap fix for Jordan Westburg’s absence has gone up in smoke since he hasn’t helped much in the field or at the plate. In the short term, it makes way more sense to start the sure-handed Blaze Alexander at third.
That step doesn’t necessarily require Mayo to swallow a demotion to Triple-A if he can be more effective as a right-handed pinch bat and occasional first base starter. While Mountcastle is injured, Mayo can play the limited role that Mounty was meant to have this season.
The way the Orioles are using Mayo isn’t giving him his best shot at career success. It certainly isn’t helping the team — which cannot afford to give up games on walk-off errors.
If you want to be mad about it, choose your target wisely. It may be Mayo making the mistakes on the field, but at some point, the Orioles are the ones who need to end the charade.
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.