Hyde excited about Orioles’ new coaching lineup

The Orioles will have four new coaches this season.

Bench coach Robinson Chirinos was Adley Rutschman’s backup catcher for most of the 2022 season, his final one in Major League Baseball.

Major league coach Buck Britton managed Triple-A Norfolk for the last three seasons and also managed Double-A Bowie and Single-A Delmarva. Chirinos replaces Fredi González as bench coach and Britton succeeds José Hernández as major league coach.

Cody Asche, who was the team’s offensive strategist the last two seasons, is the lead batting coach. He’ll be assisted by Tommy Joseph, who was Seattle’s assistant hitting coach last season, and Sherman Johnson, the team’s upper-level hitting coordinator, who will remain in that role.

Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte, co-hitting coaches for the last three seasons, moved on. Fuller is the director of hitting for the Chicago White Sox, and Borgschulte is Minnesota’s lead hitting coach.

“I think you’re always looking to improve, whether that’s roster-wise or coaching staff-wise,” manager Brandon Hyde said at the Winter Meetings in Dallas. “I think there’s some guys that were on our staff that are getting some great opportunities. So I’m excited for them.

“It’s part of the business. It’s part of the game … Sometimes guys change organizations, but the guys that were on our staff that went to different organizations, they did an amazing job for us. I’m really excited for them and their families and the new jobs that they have.”

The 40-year-old Chirinos played seven seasons with Texas and had short stints with the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Houston, Tampa Bay before ending his career with Orioles, playing 67 games in 2022.

“It’s going to be Robbie’s first coaching experience,” Hyde said. “He’s been in the big leagues for so long, and he’s done so many great things. It’s been a pleasure to manage him a few years ago. I think Robbie is going to be an excellent coach.

“He was already a coach as a player there towards the end of his career. Unbelievable with young players, great perspective of the game, really helped change the culture for us a couple years ago. I’m really excited about adding him.”

It seems a natural for Chirinos to move into coaching after the 2022 season when the Orioles increased their win total from 52 to 83 wins.

“I don’t remember talking about it with him during that season because he was — we were playing and trying to get to the playoffs that year,” Hyde said. “I think, once he retired, we’ve seen him a couple times a year, and I know he’s expressed interest to getting into coaching. We talked a little bit about that. Then this off-season, we talked a lot.”

Britton has managed many of the top young players on the Orioles, including Rutschman, Colton Cowser, Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Heston Kjerstad, Coby Mayo, Grayson Rodriguez and Jordan Westburg.

“I’m excited to add Buck to the staff,” Hyde said. “He’s had a lot of success in Triple-A with a lot of players on our roster now. He’s very well liked. He’s got great energy. He’s going to do a little bit of everything. He’s going to help out in a lot of different ways, help to manage with the infielders, being an extra set of eyes and ears on our coaching staff.

“First year in the Big Leagues, I know it’s going to be — it’s an incredible experience to break in and be on a Major League staff. He’s earned it. He’s done a great job in Triple-A.

The Orioles hope their new hitting coaches can help an offense that struggled in the second half of the 2024 season and scored just one run in two games in the Wild Card Series.

“I think we’re going to have some meetings on that going forward,” Hyde said. “We’re getting the hitting coaches together. We scored a ton of runs, especially the first half, and a lot of that came from homers and slug. We had some guys with their walk total down from the normal years. I think you’re going to see that go back up.

“We still believe in creating runs with our speed and contact, but also we have the ability to hit a home run. If you look at our lineup, it’s not a ton of experience in there, and I think that as guys get — year after year, I think they’re going to continue to improve.

“We also were injury plagued [in] the second half as well. Losing Westburg and [Jorge] Mateo, with his run scoring ability, those two guys — losing those two guys, right-handed bats, lost some versatility on the team. But also Westy was arguably our best RBI guy in the first half and the ability to hit the ball to all fields. Hopefully he can stay a little more healthy next year.”

Note: Longtime Orioles minor league manager and coach Len Johnston has died at 95. Johnston was a winner of the Herb Armstrong Award for service to the Orioles in 2010.

Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.