CLEVELAND — As they sat at a sushi restaurant in the Harbor East neighborhood of Baltimore, Kyle Stowers asked Coby Mayo if the latter would be in the lineup during the series finale against the Miami Marlins.

Mayo told him no, he wasn’t playing. Mayo, a corner infield prospect for the Orioles, hasn’t played much this month. Entering Monday’s series against the Cleveland Guardians, Mayo had received just 11 plate appearances in July.

At Azumi, over plates of sushi, Stowers could relate to Mayo — and offer a hard-earned perspective to assuage any frustration that could be growing within a 23-year-old who just wants to play.

“He’s like, ‘I’m just really happy you’re here. It’s good that you’re here. It’s good that you’re in the big leagues. It’s good that you’re around the guys every day,’” Mayo recalled.

Being here, even in a part-time role, is better than the alternative, in Stowers’ mind.

Stowers’ perspective carries weight with Mayo for multiple reasons. For one, they are friends who spent ample time together in Baltimore’s farm system — time spent equally growing their skills as well as practicing their patience. Stowers is also an example to Mayo and others of how quickly circumstances may change.

A few days after Stowers, Mayo and a few others teammates enjoyed dinner at Azumi, Stowers made his first All-Star Game appearance. National League manager Dave Roberts chose Stowers to participate in the home-run swing-off, and his long ball helped tilt the result in the National League’s favor.

As Mayo reconciles with sitting in the dugout, watching more than playing, Stowers’ words are comforting.

“You’re literally hearing it from somebody who was in the same exact spot, if not in a worse spot, as you are right now a year ago,” Mayo said. “I would say Stowers was in a really bad spot last year, and I don’t think I’m in a bad spot at all right now. I think I’m in a really good spot. And that’s the difference. He was, I think, in a far worse spot and he was still able to find positives. So, that dinner just kind of cleared things up for me.”

The spot Stowers was in: On the outside looking in at a major league opportunity at the age of 26.

He was up-and-down in the first half of the 2024 season, and while he hit .306 in his 19 games, Stowers couldn’t find an established place in the outfield. Then he became part of the package for left-hander Trevor Rogers, and since joining the Marlins, Stowers has realized his potential as a star.

“He never had a clear path, and he kind of knew what the future was for him, and he didn’t let that affect him,” Mayo said. “Kind of just kept grinding away, kept believing in himself and in his work, and he got the opportunity and he ran with it.”

Mayo, meanwhile, is in a similar waiting game. This month, interim manager Tony Mansolino has frequently spoken of trying to find a balance between winning games and developing players. On Monday, with Mayo out of the lineup again, Mansolino said “you would be hard-pressed to find” a manager in any sport who would bench a player who is performing well in order to develop a player.

Perhaps much of that perspective has to do with the looming trade deadline. First baseman Ryan O’Hearn is set to be a coveted bat drawing interest from multiple teams. Infielder Ramón Urías, who primarily plays second and third base, has seen some time at first base too of late in a showing of his positional flexibility.

O’Hearn is performing. He’s recently coming off his first All-Star appearance and holds an .835 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Urías, though, has a .661 OPS entering Monday. With limited time to find consistency, Mayo hasn’t flourished. He’s hitless this month in those 11 plate appearances. But in June, when he did feature more frequently, Mayo hit .246.

There seemed to be no better time for Mayo to develop through playing than now, while first baseman Ryan Mountcastle recovers from a hamstring strain. Mountcastle will soon embark on a rehab assignment; unless O’Hearn is dealt, the few opportunities for Mayo may become fewer still.

To Mansolino, though, there’s value in having Mayo watch games from the sideline.

“That is part of the reason Coby is here,” Mansolino said. “We’re not fools. We understand carrying him here and him losing some at-bats down in Triple-A. We understand we’re kind of making a choice, and the choice we’ve made is to get him at-bats here, a certain amount, as much as we can, but also to watch the game, slow the game down and mature.”

Mayo has also made a concerted effort to look at this through a positive frame of mind.

He watches O’Hearn’s at-bats closely, and Mayo took special notice of how O’Hearn didn’t sell out for a fastball in a full count against right-hander Ryan Pepiot on Sunday. O’Hearn stayed within himself, adjusting his timing to account for the changeup, and throttled it for a solo homer.

“The game is in such a hard spot to be a hitter right now, they’re adjusting not week-to-week or series to series, they’re adjusting at-bat to at-bat, pitch to pitch,” Mayo said. “Manso always tells me, ‘Hey, hang around [Ramón] Laureano and O’Hearn. Those are the guys you want to be around.’”

Of course, Mayo wants to play. Every player in that clubhouse hopes to have their name on the lineup card that night.

But Mayo maximizes his time pregame, working defensively with coach John Mabry at first. Then he watches the subtleties of a major league game with Stowers’ advice ringing in his ears.

That advice was particularly poignant the next day, after their Azumi dinner. Stowers finished 5-for-5 with three home runs against his former club. During the game, Mayo turned to Jackson Holliday and wondered, “What the hell did he eat last night that we didn’t?”

Apart from the joke, though, Mayo sees inspiration. He’s on the bench now. He may not always be there.

“Seeing how he’s kind of flipped his career around in a matter of less than a year, it’s really inspiring,” Mayo said of Stowers. “It just goes to show you, you need a little bit of wiggle room, a little bit of opportunity, and you can run with it.”