SARASOTA—Dustin Lind joined the Orioles as hitting coach last fall after spending the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies as assistant hitting coach. Lind worked for four seasons as San Francisco’s director of hitting and assistant hitting coach along with manager Craig Albernaz. He began his major league coaching career with Seattle in 2019 as director of hitting strategies and development.

This interview has been edited for brevity.

Question: What are some of the new things you’ve brought to the Orioles?

Dustin Lind: “I’m really trying to be individualized with each guy and understand what makes them click. [Assistant hitting coach Brady North] brought some really good ideas over from Tampa just with regards to how we scout opposing pitchers. We have certain things I’ve done in San Francisco and Philadelphia that we felt might work as well.

“We’re just supplementing the foundation that was already here. That’s really important to us because there’s been success at this place before, and we’re just bringing in such new fresh things just in regards to how we gameplan for pitchers that should hopefully simplify a couple of things.”

Question: Do you have specific plans to reduce strikeouts? In Philadelphia, you had Kyle Schwarber, who hit 56 home runs and struck out 197 times last year. Is an out just another out?

Lind: “I don’t think any strikeout is ever productive. Putting the ball in play is step one in being a hitter. We’ve talked about different ways for guys to get to more contact. For some guys, it’s going to be making some swing alterations. For some guys, it’s just going to be taking more shots early in the count, not hitting with two strikes as much.

“It’s about finding what works for each guy, and then really trying lean into what they’re good at as well.”

Question: Colton Cowser has had a very high strikeout rate. How can you help him? Are you working individualized with guys or do you have an overriding philosophy?

Lind: “I think the overriding philosophy is to get a good pitch to hit, and to hit it hard forward, preferably not at somebody and then within that realm, we’re looking at individual ways for each guy to be able to make improvements. For a guy like Cowser, we’re really specifically trying to address the things that cause the most swing-and-miss for him and really drill them out every single day so that he can continue to room and grow and evolve as a player.”

Question: With a veteran like Pete Alonso or Taylor Ward, are you able to able to refine their strokes slightly or do you leave them alone?

Lind: “The nice thing about veteran players in particular is that they usually have a sustained track record of success and we can timestamp the points where they’ve been really productive and use that as our template to keep them on track, and within that, we’re really adjusting based on what the league is doing to us. At different points in time, pitchers will start to attack these hitters differently, and we’ll stay on top of these trends, and we’ll make those adjustments.

“For those guys, they’ve got a good, stable foundation that they can always go back and lean on and say, ‘This is when you were really good. Let’s get back to doing this thing.’”

Question: When you coached with Albernaz in San Francisco, did you think you were working with a future major league manager?

Lind: “Alby’s leadership capabilities were pretty evident just from the time that we met. His ability to connect with people is really, really special and that’s what stood out to me as something that really good leaders are capable of doing.

“They connect with everybody, and they find how to get the best out of each individual person, and that’s something that he’s clearly been doing ever since he was a coach.

“Even when he was a player, he was doing that, and that’s a skill that he’s really refined over many years. His leadership aptitude was really high from the moment I met him and so it’s not surprising at all that he’s coming in  and having an impact in that regard here.”

Question: You have an unusual educational background for a major league coach. You earned a doctorate in physical therapy. How does that translate into what you’re doing now?

Lind: “When I was doing my graduate studies to get my doctorate in physical therapy, I was doing a lot of hitting instruction on the side and those players were starting to play pretty well as they advanced from college and into the pro ranks.

“Professional teams started taking notice of the skill set, being able to combine that knowledge of hitting and biomechanics and the swing and how the human body is put together and how we can effect it, not only in the training room, but also in the weight room and the cages and tie all those three things together.

“It kind of happened that way. The initial thought was I was going to rehab hurt athletes, but at some point, it flipped and really became focused more on hitting and instructing hitting than rehabbing the athlete.”

Note: Outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. was reassigned to minor league camp. The Orioles have 52 players remaining in camp.

Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: [email protected]