SARASOTA, Fla. — In all likelihood, neither ball off Ryan Mountcastle’s bat in Tuesday’s spring training game would have been a home run last year at Camden Yards, and Mountcastle became used to that.

The deep left-field wall at his home ballpark exasperated hitters as much as it bailed out pitchers. It stole 50 home runs last season and, since 2022, no player became more vexed by the wall than Mountcastle. The first baseman lost 11 homers, the most of any batter, and as a result Mountcastle’s pull-side power waned.

Why pull it to left when there would be little or no reward?

Mountcastle still performed at a high level. He finished the season with a .733 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. But he finished with 13 homers, the fewest of his career during a full season of play, and the pull-side hesitancy likely played a large role.

“Mounty can hit. I think, when he swings at strikes, he does a lot of damage,” manager Brandon Hyde said after Mountcastle’s two-homer game Tuesday. “It’s great to see him get to some pull-side homers here. I think that’s one thing that went away from him a little bit last year, was driving the ball to the pull side. He’s a good hitter to all fields, but to see him really tap into his power in spring, especially the last couple of weeks, has been fun to watch.”

In 2021, before Camden Yards underwent a renovation that moved the left-field wall farther from home plate, Mountcastle hit a career-high 33 homers and did so with a pull-side fly ball rate of 20.5%, according to Statcast. Last year, that rate dropped to 10.1%, the lowest of his career and about six percentage points below league average.

Mountcastle lined his timing up so he would hit up the middle and the other way more (he posted a career-high 33.4% opposite-field rate), and that approach is beneficial for many batters who tend to swing and miss at off-speed pitches. But Mountcastle is a slugger, and while the Orioles are hoping to limit strikeouts up and down their lineup, there’s a desire for Mountcastle to maximize his hard-hit fly balls.

In 2021, Mountcastle’s best season, he hit the ball into the air 64.5% of the time. That tapered off to 55.6% in 2024 — still high but, when accompanied by the fact his barrel rate dropped from 15% in 2022 to 8.8% last year, there’s an issue.

There’s a limited sample for Mountcastle this spring, and given the fact players are constantly working on various facets of their game, it’s unwise to put much stock into those stats. But those spring stats are encouraging.

Mountcastle has driven in 14 runs in 13 games. He’s gone deep five times, and his OPS is 1.130. He’s doing that by pulling the ball 43.3% of the time thus far, per FanGraphs. He seems prepared to take that into the season, beginning with a four-game series in Toronto at a stadium where he has long performed well.

“He’s a good hitter to all fields, but to see him really tap into his power in spring, especially the last couple of weeks, has been fun to watch.”

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde on Ryan Mountcastle

“I feel like I’m seeing the ball well right now, and hopefully I can bring it into Toronto going into the year,” Mountcastle said.

More than any other hitter in the Orioles’ lineup, Mountcastle suffered from the deeper left-field wall. Baltimore has drawn the wall back in toward home plate this offseason, hoping to create more of a happy medium.

It’s still deep. But, after years of seeing hard-hit balls land short, Mountcastle could benefit by lifting the ball in the air to left field once more.

“It’s exciting,” Mountcastle said. “It was pretty far back there and, for them to bring it in, I think it’s going to help the lefties and righties out.”