This story was excerpted from Jake Rill’s Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BALTIMORE -- Not every MLB player takes batting practice before every game. Same goes with defensive drills. With 162 regular-season games -- some of which are day contests immediately following night affairs -- it doesn’t always make sense to put in that much pregame work.

For the Orioles, though, there’s at least one constant before every game: Ryan Mountcastle on the right side of the infield dirt fielding a round (or more) of ground balls at first base.

“He might be the only guy I’ve seen in the Major Leagues in the last four years who honestly takes ground balls every single day,” said O’s third-base coach Tony Mansolino, who is also the club’s infield instructor. “There was probably an epidemic in the big leagues there a few years ago where guys weren’t going out on day games, they weren’t taking them every day. I feel like it’s flipped a little bit here recently. I feel like you’re starting to see guys out there more often.

“But Mounty’s been out there every single day. He wants to get better at it. He takes a lot of pride in it.”

As the 27-year-old should, especially for somebody who wasn’t a first baseman early in his professional career. When Baltimore selected Mountcastle out of Paul J. Hagerty High School (Oviedo, Fla.) No. 36 overall in the 2015 MLB Draft -- a compensation pick at the end of the first round -- he was a shortstop.

Over Mountcastle’s first four seasons in the Minor Leagues, he exclusively played shortstop and third base. He had a ton of offensive upside, but the club wasn’t sure where he’d best fit defensively once he reached the Majors. That's why he started to play first base and left field when he got to Triple-A Norfolk in 2019.

After playing both first base and left field over his first two MLB seasons (2020 and ‘21), Mountcastle has exclusively played first since the beginning of the ‘22 campaign. He’s since settled in nicely as Baltimore’s primary first baseman (237 starts the past three years).

Casual baseball watchers may think first base is among the easier positions -- no deep throws across the diamond or long runs across the outfield -- but it’s challenging in its own right. And Mountcastle has learned what it takes to be successful there.

“Just being ready for anything -- any type of throw, any type of batted ball,” Mountcastle said. “Just always on your toes over there, just because, most of the time, stuff hit at you is not very soft, and you also never know where an infielder is going to throw the ball. You’ve just got to be ready at all times.”

Mountcastle showed tremendous defensive improvement from 2022 to ‘23, when he was an American League Gold Glove Award finalist.

In a two-year span, Mountcastle improved in several key defensive metrics:

• 2022: .995 fielding percentage, 1 Defensive Runs Saved, 0.6 Ultimate Zone Rating

• 2023: .997 fielding percentage, 2 Defensive Runs Saved, 1.7 Ultimate Zone Rating

“His defense really turned the corner for me second half of last year,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “For me, that’s really when you saw the confidence just go through the roof defensively.”

The Orioles have two starting-quality first basemen on their roster in Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn. However, O’Hearn has made only three starts at first this year because the team wants to have Mountcastle (28 starts) there as much as possible.

Hyde believes Mountcastle has developed into such a talented first baseman because, “he is athletic, he is long, he’s got really good hands.” The exceptional diving plays executed by Mountcastle -- such as a pair he made April 1 and April 2 vs. Kansas City -- are ones Hyde and the O’s are coming to expect.

It’s possible this could be the year that Mountcastle wins his first Gold Glove. His case may only improve as he continues to put in the necessary work to excel.

“Always trying to get better over there,” Mountcastle said. “I feel a lot more comfortable now, obviously, than I did. I feel pretty solid right now.”