The Orioles’ injured list will one day shrink. But today is not the day. The team used Monday as a day off to place first baseman Ryan Mountcastle on the injured list because of a sprained left wrist. With a roster spot open, the Orioles brought back infielder Livan Soto from Triple-A Norfolk.

Mountcastle’s trip to the injured list is retroactively dated to August 23rd. The last game Mountcastle played in was the 22nd, when there were concerns he may have injured his wrist on a slide. Given that he hasn’t played since that day and is now on the injured list, it seems quite reasonable that the concerns were valid. Although the team pretended he was day-to-day and potentially available as a substitute in recent days, it hasn’t worked out that way.

There are eight Orioles who have achieved at least 2.0 bWAR this season. Mountcastle is one of them. There is no denying that he has contributed to the team’s success this year. But it is also true that, like many others on the team, he has been in a slump recently.

Mountcastle has hit just one home run in 30 games since the All-Star break, and a .697 OPS from July was followed by a .567 OPS in August, including zero home runs in August. Those two bad months have dropped his OPS for the season to .730, making him an above-average hitter for the season, but not above average among the league’s regular first basemen.

In the short term, Mountcastle’s playing time against left-handers will likely go to recently claimed off the waivers list Emmanuel Rivera, who appeared in two games for the Orioles and has no hits and three walks with an OBP of .750.

This is the third time the Orioles have added Soto to the roster since acquiring him in a trade with the Reds on July 30. He did not play in either of his previous two appearances, although the last time he played was August 15-22. I suspect this pattern of playing little to no games will continue.

Normally, a player who has been optioned within the last ten days cannot be brought back, but this rule has a major loophole when it comes to a player who has been substituted for an injured player. Since Soto replaced Mountcaste, the ten-day rule is bypassed.

There was another Oriole who was hurt in recent days. Centerfielder Cedric Mullins had quad soreness and missed some time. The team had placed outfielder Daniel Johnson on the taxi squad in case Mullins had to be placed on the injured list later. Perhaps it is an encouraging sign for Mullins’ recovery that the team did not place him on the injured list on this off day either.