SARASOTA, Fla. – The transition is in such a young phase that some players don’t know whether changes are forthcoming in the way that the Orioles teach hitting or to what extent. Whether the general philosophy will be tweaked. If the approach will be scrambled a bit from the past.

The full squad didn’t have its first workout until Tuesday. Meetings are on the docket. But the early impressions are that the key attributes will go untouched.

Co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte are gone. Fuller is the White Sox’s director of hitting and Borgschulte returned to the Twins as hitting coach. The entire setup is scrambled with Cody Asche promoted to offensive strategy coach and the Orioles employing Tommy Joseph and Sherman Johnson as co-coaches. Johnson also remains in his role as upper-level hitting coordinator. Joseph is the lone outsider after spending last summer with the Mariners.

“I think we’ve got a good lineup, so I think they’re just gonna let us do most of our own thing but give us some feedback here and there and whatever information they can to help us succeed,” said first baseman Ryan Mountcastle. “I think last year they did a really good job of it and I’m sure this group will, too.”

“Obviously, one new face,” said shortstop Gunnar Henderson. “Asche and Sherm, they’ve been here It’s familiar to us. We still have kind of a core of the same teachings, but just other things we’re going to try out and continue to work at.”

The restructuring of the Orioles’ hitting staff begins at the top with Cody Asche’s bump from offensive strategy coach. A familiar face and voice are put in a new role within a new design.

No more co-hitting coaches in Baltimore. Asche is the lead guy, with Tommy Joseph and Sherman Johnson serving as assistants. Joseph had the same job with the Mariners last summer and Johnson was given additional responsibilities beyond upper-level hitting coordinator.

Asche is entering his third season in the organization. Ryan Fuller left the Orioles to become the White Sox’s director of hitting, and Matt Borgschulte went back to the Twins as their hitting coach.

“I expect it to work similarly (to last year),” Asche said in December on WBAL-Radio. “Tommy and Sherman are both people that I hold a very high amount of respect for. I trust them very, very much. Sherman obviously has a ton of familiarity with the organization and our players, so that transition will be smooth. Bringing in Tommy, he’s got the personality to fit right in with our crew. The players are going to love him.

“But I think at the end of the day we all have this mindset: that our No. 1 goal and the people that we are accountable to is the players and their careers. So with that mindset, it just helps everything transition very smoothly.”

The Orioles, as they did during the 2024 season, will have three hitting coaches working with their position players again in the 2025 year.

This time around, Cody Asche returns to the staff as primary hitting coach. The assistant hitting coaches are Sherman Johnson and Tommy Joseph. Johnson will also serve as upper level hitting coordinator.

Johnson, 34, spent last season as the O’s minor league upper-level hitting coordinator. He was the hitting coach at Triple-A Norfolk in 2023, his first professional coaching position after a nine-year playing career.

Joseph, 33, completed his first season as an MLB coach in 2024 as the assistant hitting coach for the Seattle Mariners. He joined the Mariners after three seasons as a minor league hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants with High-A Eugene in 2023 and with the New York Mets for Double-A Binghamton in 2022 and Single-A St. Lucie in 2021. Joseph appeared in 249 MLB games with the Phillies from 2016-17.

Asche, 34, spent the last two years as the O's offensive strategy coach. He served as the organization’s upper-level hitting coordinator in 2022. He was also a guest on a recent addition of the “Hot Stove” radio show on WBAL Radio.

The first Winter Meetings with Mike Elias in the Orioles’ front office wasn’t about improving the product on the field. Six years ago, the new executive vice president/general manager stayed busy interviewing candidates to fill positions in departments that needed to be built or restructured, and hiring his first manager – the news of an agreement with Cubs bench coach Brandon Hyde breaking as Elias met with media in his hotel suite.

Elias is in Dallas this week searching for at least one starting pitcher and reliever. He’s already found his right fielder and backup catcher, moves he can’t discuss publicly until contracts are signed. Priorities since the 2018 offseason have shifted like tectonic plates.

One of the most important decisions was made prior to the Orioles' arrival at the Hilton Anatole Hotel. The coaching staff had vacancies that needed to be filled – two assistant hitting coaches, a bench coach and major league coach. The solution was promoting offensive strategy coach Cody Asche to hitting coach, hiring Tommy Joseph and naming Sherman Johnson assistants, promoting Triple-A Norfolk manager Buck Britton to major league coach and hiring former catcher Robinson Chirinos as bench coach.

Johnson also maintains his duties as upper-level hitting coordinator.

Chirinos is making his coaching debut as the replacement for Fredi González. His final season as a player was in 2022, when he appeared in 67 games with the Orioles and backed up Adley Rutschman.

We got more evidence last night that while the Orioles are very aware that their offense fell off big late last season, they still see an overall good offense and one that does not need a major change or overhaul.

We are talking about individuals working to make their own improvements, helping the team improve.

A Baltimore offense that ranked fourth in the majors in 2024 scoring 4.85 runs per game is not going to undergo massive alterations.

On the first edition for this winter of the Orioles “Hot Stove Radio Show” last night on WBAL Radio in Baltimore, O’s hitting coach Cody Asche was a guest.

He knows the offense was part of the blame for the team going 26-27 from Aug. 1 on. The Orioles scored one run in two playoff games.

The Orioles set their coaching staff. They have a ways to go before they can say the same about their roster.

Pitchers and catchers report in February – it’s usually somewhere in the second week – and more storylines will materialize as we plow through the offseason.

I’ve already provided a sampling - how Heston Kjerstad and Coby Mayo fit on the roster, how Adley Rutschman will hit, anything Félix Bautista, rehab progress made by Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells, Grayson Rodriguez’s health after being left off the Wild Card roster, anything Jackson Holliday, what a full season of Zach Eflin could do, whether Daz Cameron can make the club as an extra outfielder, whether Dean Kremer can take the next step, reaction to the left field wall, the bullpen, and whether Cade Povich makes the club.

I focused on Danny Coulombe’s removal from the ‘pen, but now we can add Jacob Webb.

Here are a few more.

When it comes to the Orioles offense, a much, much discussed topic in Birdland since the 2024 season ended, there are a variety of opinions.

Holding the one that counts most, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias expressed his take on the Baltimore offense last Friday – the same day he announced the left-field wall was being moved in for next season.

That should help the team score more runs, but they were never lacking in homers actually, finishing second in the AL and MLB last year with 235.

Maybe the closer wall will help the O’s pursue a right-handed hitter via free agency, although Elias said that was not the reason for the move. This was more about the long-term and a continuing effort to get the home park to play more neutral with offense.

On a related matter, will the O’s offensive philosophy be changing, Elias was asked.

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias wants to tackle the major league roster again but he’s also diving for depth.

The club announced yesterday that it signed infielder Vimael Machin to a minor league contract. No word on whether the deal includes an invitation to spring training.

Machin is 31 years old and two removed from his last big league exposure. He appeared in 112 games with the Athletics from 2020-22 and batted .208/.290/.261 with 14 doubles and a home run in 361 plate appearances.

On the defensive side, Machin made 81 appearances at third base, 15 at shortstop, seven at second base and one at first. Most of his minor league experience also is at third.

Machin played in 52 games with Triple-A Lehigh Valley in the Phillies’ organization in 2023, but he also made stops in Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. He spent most of this year in Mexico and hit .401/.495/.579 with 31 doubles, one triple, seven home runs and 54 RBIs in 85 games.

If we are to believe various free agent predictions, to re-sign pitcher Corbin Burnes, the Orioles are going to need to fork out around $200 million dollars, maybe more. 

Five outlets – MLBTradeRumors.com, ESPN, FanGraphs.com, and two from The Athletic – all predict Burnes gets a seven-year contract. That would take him through his age 36 season. On the low end, FanGraphs has Burnes getting $196 million and on the high end $247 by Jim Bowden of The Athletic. Several outlets ranked Burnes as the No. 2 free agent behind Juan Soto.

Soto’s projections by the way range from 12 years and $540 million to 15 years and $622 million. But you get a shuffle with that remember. 

That brings us to O's outfielder Anthony Santander for which we see a wide range of predictions. On the low end, ESPN predicts a three-year deal for $69 million. MLBTradeRumors.com goes with four years and $80 million. FanGraphs has him getting five years and $100 million while The Athletic goes with five years and $105 million. Jim Bowden has it six years and $142 million.

That is some range – from $69 to $142 million. The low-end predictions here seem to be in the Orioles wheelhouse, and I would imagine are very doable for the club. But would the Orioles go five years and $100 million for a player that ranked third in the majors with 44 homers?

Orioles' catcher Adley Rutschman was a Silver Slugger winner at the end of the 2023 season. One where he finished with 20 homers and 80 RBIs. But this season his production has gotten better and he’s on pace for 28 homers and 107 RBIs.

He has elevated his slugging and OPS production even as his walk rate came down. Earlier this year it was way down. He’s started to draw more walks recently and maybe that is a result of pitchers be more careful with a hitter who had an OPS of .806 in 2022 and .809 in 2023 and that is now .820. His slugging percentage this season is .470 after it was .445 in 2022 and .435 last year.

To simplify it, Rutschman has been more aggressive at bat this year and his walk rate early on dropped big time. But it's climbing back up now, and he is showing all his talents as a hitter with recent games of two homers and another with five hits.

He is seeing fewer pitches per plate appearance and his walk rate, which was 13.8 in 2022 and 13.4 last year is now 7.4. That walk rate was lower than that earlier this year, but Rutschman, who has walked 25 times this year, has drawn 11 of those in the last 14 games, a span where his on-base percentage is .394.

“I don’t think there was any specific decree to Adley, ‘we need you to do more.’ That is pretty tough to ask a guy who just won a Silver Slugger to do more,” O’s offensive strategy coach Cody Asche said on Sunday. “It was kind of the way the season started (with less walks). Guys do things different for one reason or another, you know, maybe you see guys are attacking you differently and that’s just the way things go.

One way to show statistically how good the Orioles' offense has been this year is to look at the numbers from Monday morning, after back-to-back games when the team scored one run each.

The Orioles still led the majors in runs per game heading into last night’s game and by a big margin. Heading into the Guardians series, the Orioles were scoring 5.23 runs per game and Phillies were second at 5.06.

The Orioles and Guardians (5.05 runs per game) are the only two American League teams averaging 5.00 or better runs per game as of game time Monday. Baltimore led the majors in homers, slugging and extra-base hits. They also ranked first in the AL and second to the Dodgers in team OPS.

The team has three hitting coaches and they seem to work very well together as a well-oiled machine in getting hitters prepared. Prepared so much so that recently they hammered aces like Zack Wheeler and Luis Gil. No, they didn’t hit every quality starter, but they have held their own most nights.

As for their titles, Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte are listed as co-hitting coaches while Cody Asche is listed as offensive strategy coach.

HOUSTON – As the Orioles look to salvage one game in their three-game series at Houston and avoid being swept today, they face a tough lefty in Houston’s Framber Valdez (5-5, 3.91 ERA).

He finished 11^th for the American League Cy Young Award in 2020, was fifth in 2022 and ninth last year.

In these past two years he has gone 29-17 with a 3.13 ERA over 399 1/3 innings. But in those two years, as he has had high Cy Young vote finishes, he faced the Orioles once each season and they fared well against him. In the two games, they scored 13 runs off Valdez (10 earned) in a combined 12 1/3 innings.

In an interview with local media today, O’s offensive strategy coach Cody Asche talked about the challenge of facing Valdez today and how the O’s batters might approach it.

“I think a lot of our guys will kind of lean on their experiences last year," he said. " I thought we had really good at-bats last year at Camden. And I think even two years ago, we kind of ended that quality-starts streak against him.

Even when you are the No. 1 overall MLB Draft pick and rise to become the No. 1 prospect in baseball, the process to improve is still important, even with a driven player with massive talent.

And so, this is true for the Orioles’ Jackson Holliday, who begins a bid next week to make the club’s Opening Day roster.

On July 17, 2022, the Orioles made Holliday the draft’s No. 1 overall pick. Then the kid from Oklahoma went out and put up a .911 OPS in his first 20 pro games between the Florida Complex League and Single-A Delmarva. He walked twice as many times as he struck out. But for a young man still growing into his body and growing into what his future power will produce, he hit one homer in 64 at-bats.

So, in that quest to make even the best better, the Orioles sent coaches Cody Asche and Anthony Villa to his home that winter for some work on improving exit velocity and launch angles that would later in his career turn some deep fly balls into hits and doubles into balls that could go over the fence.

Last season, this impressive young man that turned 20 on Dec. 4, played at four levels, hit 12 homers over 477 at-bats and rose to become the top prospect in the sport.

The year that the Orioles drafted lefty Keegan Akin out of Western Michigan University, in 2016, they made the playoffs before their season ended in the American League Wild Card Game in Toronto.

A couple of years later, Akin was part of an O’s organization trending the wrong way, one that had seasons of 115, 108 and 110 losses. But within all that losing there were a few bright spots that Akin said told him better days could be coming.

“Just watching the younger guys when we drafted them,” he recalled Saturday during Birdland Caravan. “The first time I saw Grayson (Rodriguez) – I watched him pitch in Florida somewhere when he was 19. Just standing there and thinking, ‘This kid is 19 throwing 100 (mph) and he has five pitches. Where do you get these guys?’

“And then we started bringing more in and more. And then Adley (Rutschman) showed up and (Gunnar) Henderson showed up. Yeah, think we are doing OK.

“It is awesome. I was talking to a fan today about that. It’s crazy in that I’ve been in this org since 2016 and to see things change that fast. I know that was eight years ago, but in baseball terms we had some really bad years and turned it around pretty quickly. It is obviously rewarding and a heck of a lot more fun now to be on the other side and have that part behind us.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Cody Asche gives the compliment and explains how it also can be a curse.

“We’re really fortunate, we have a lot of really good hitters who are almost too good for the minor leagues,” said Asche, the Orioles’ offensive strategy coach, as he sat in the visiting dugout at Tropicana Field before a weekend game. “They don’t get to quite learn the lessons that players of less caliber have to learn when the competition gets better.”

Colton Cowser is in the same boat while navigating the choppy waters in the major leagues.

Cowser made his long-awaited debut at Yankee Stadium on July 5 and went 1-for-3 with an RBI, walk and run scored. Media swarmed his locker before and after the game. The smile didn’t leave his face. Teammates were excited to have his talents and fun personality with them again.

It almost looked too easy.

If two hitting coaches can help the Orioles, maybe three can do even more. So far that is proving correct as the co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte are in their second seasons together on the Orioles staff. This year they were joined by Cody Asche, named before this season as offensive strategy coach.

The “three-headed monster” as Fuller calls it, must be putting in some great work as the Orioles offense is among the best in the game to start this year.

Fuller was a pregame guest Sunday on the Orioles Radio Network.

“Great start,” Fuller said of the offense on the broadcast. “Obviously comparing it to last year we got off to a slow start. We hit balls hard but they were right at people. Felt really unlucky. But this year we get off to a good start, and have a winning record, that is what we wanted to do. Start fast and go throughout the year. We’re really happy but at the same time there are still guys we are looking to get more production out of. Hard to get all nine guys going at once but that is what we are trying to do.”

And the numbers are impressive for an O’s offense that scored 20 runs over the weekend in three games in Chicago and has scored 28 runs the past four games and 49 over the last seven. In 16 games to date, the Orioles have scored six runs or more nine times.

Once he finally got on the field this past season in June, O’s outfield prospect Heston Kjerstad was tearing it up at Single-A Delmarva, batting .463 in 22 games. He didn’t produce similar numbers when he moved up to High-A Aberdeen – yes, that would have been hard to do – but had another great run in the Arizona Fall League.

Kjerstad won the Joe Black MVP Award in the AFL, putting him in the same company as previous winners such as Nolan Arenado (2011), Kris Bryant (2013) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (2017). And Kjerstad’s strong AFL showing could mean he will begin the 2023 season with Double-A Bowie and not return to Aberdeen.

“I would say that would be an intelligent guess,” O’s director of player development Matt Blood said recently about Kjerstad moving up to begin next season.

In 43 games with the IronBirds in the regular season, he batted .233/.312/.362 with a .674 OPS, but his bat heated up in the final games of the season, and that carried over both into the South Atlantic League playoffs and into AFL play.

In 22 games in Arizona, Kjerstad, taken second overall by the Orioles in the 2020 MLB Draft, hit .357/.385/.622 with a 1.007 OPS, nine doubles, a triple, five homers and 17 RBIs. He led the AFL in hits (35), doubles, extra-base hits and total bases (61). He tied for third in homers and RBIs, and was sixth in OPS.

Former high draft picks of the Houston Astros were coming and going from the Orioles roster on Wednesday. The club did not pick up the 2023 team option on pitcher Jordan Lyles, taken No. 38 overall in 2008. But later in the day they added via waivers outfielder Daz Cameron, taken No. 37 overall by Houston in the 2015 MLB Draft.

So, the Orioles, at least for now, are parting ways with Lyles, who becomes a free agent. That means he is free to sign with any team including the Orioles, who seem to have interest but at a lower price than $11 million for next season.

On the plus side, Lyles finished 14^th in the American League in innings with 179 and he lowered his homer rate from 1.9 the previous year to 1.3. He was good in the expanded Oriole Park, going 5-3 with a 3.47 in home games and the Orioles went 17-15 in his 32 starts. He also led the club throwing 100 pitches or more 11 times, most by an O’s starter since 2018. He provided outstanding leadership for the young pitchers and enjoyed a role where he mentored that group. He led the club with 13 quality starts and the Orioles went 9-4 in those games.

He wanted to come back.

“I would love to be back here,” Lyles said during the season’s final days. “To see what we’ve done in the last calendar year as an organization, from what was expected of us coming into the season, and the transition to be where we are right now, it’s pretty special. I enjoy the guys. Hyder (Brandon Hyde) has been amazing. Definitely Manager of the Year in my eyes. A good clubhouse. Everything is positive here. I would love to come back.”

A new day brings us to the latest announcement on award recipients, as opposed to just the finalists.

It’s got to be one or the other this time of the year.

The Silver Sluggers will be dispensed tonight beginning at 6 p.m. on MLB Network, which is condensing the show into one hour. Less filler.

Orioles' catcher Adley Rutschman and outfielder Anthony Santander are finalists.

Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk, Oakland’s Sean Murphy and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh are the other finalists among catchers. The outfielders are New York’s Aaron Judge, Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez, Los Angeles’ Mike Trout and Taylor Ward, Toronto’s Teoscar Hernández and George Springer, Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena, Houston’s Kyle Tucker and Texas’ Adolis Garcia.

At just 32, and five years removed from a five-season major league career, Cody Asche became the Orioles' 10^th coach this week. On Tuesday when the staff for 2023 was officially announced, he was the only new addition, hired as offensive strategy coach.

Asche joined the Baltimore organization in 2022 as an upper-level hitting coordinator on the farm. He began his pro coaching career in 2021 as the hitting coach for the Clearwater Threshers, the Low-A affiliate of the Phillies. He played parts of five seasons with the Phillies (2013-16) and White Sox (2017).

He said his role for next season is still being completely defined.

“Right now the way I see it, I will be an asset to (co-hitting coaches Ryan) Fuller and Borgs (Matt Borgschulte), hopefully an asset to Brandon (Hyde) and Fredi (González) in-game-wise. Have contact with the front office and the analysts and just really kind of be hopefully a jack of all trades and just be there to support and help our hitters get better.

“I just feel really fortunate and am excited that the front office believes in me and trusts me to be around their major league assets. And they trust me to help our team get better.”