Elias says Orioles’ philosophy will stay the same with new hitting coaches

After the Orioles’ elimination from the postseason, executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias promised a full examination of the team and its practices.

Six weeks later, two of the team’s three hitting coaches have departed an the left-field wall will be moved in, but Elias said the team’s offensive philosophy will stay the same.

After the Kansas City Royals squeezed out 1-0 and 2-1 wins over the Orioles in the Wild Card Series with the only run coming from Cedric Mullins’ home run, don’t expect the Orioles to start playing “small ball.”

The Orioles had just six sacrifice bunts in 2024, tied for second fewest in the majors, and their 98 stolen bases was far below the league average of 121.

Elias did make a point of emphasizing the loss of Jorge Mateo on Friday. Mateo, who missed nearly the entire second half of the season with an elbow injury that eventually required Tommy John surgery, stole 13 of 15 bases but had only a .229 batting average and a .267 on-base average.

“Overall, we have an offensive philosophy and a group of hitting coaches throughout the organization that are at the top of the field,” Elias said in a video conference call on Friday.

“We had a top 5 offense in a lot of ways this year despite the funk that the team went into and the lineup went into in the second half with a lot of injuries. We still rate among the very top offenses, as you can see.”

The Orioles scored 786 runs, fourth most in baseball, and hit 235 home runs, just two fewer than the New York Yankees.

“There are teams very eager to hire hitting coaches from us,” Elias said.

Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte, co-hitting coaches from 2022-2024, recently took jobs in the American League Central. Fuller will be director of hitting for the Chicago White Sox, and Borgschulte has returned to the Minnesota Twins, where he’ll be a hitting coach.

Cody Asche, who has been the team’s offensive strategist for the past two seasons, will be the lead hitting coach in 2025. He’ll be assisted by Tommy Joseph, who was the assistant hitting coach for the Seattle Mariners last season, and Sherman Johnson, who was the Orioles’ minor league upper-level hitting coordinator.

“We’re always improving, modifying, adjusting,” Elias said. “This is a game of evolution. I think there are areas that we can emphasize better that we can find a better blend and we’re doing that.

“We’re going to have discussions and meetings throughout the organization all winter on ways we can retain the best aspects of our current program, but refine and tweak areas where we think we can get a little bit smarter and a little bit better.”

The Orioles hit .251 with runners in scoring position in 2024, 17^th in the major leagues, a plunge from 2023 when they led the majors with a .287 average.

This past season, the Orioles drew 489 walks, 18^th in baseball. The two leading teams in bases on balls were the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, who played in the World Series.

“We had some individual players, their walk totals weren’t what they were,” Elias said. “We’re hopeful to see some of that improve. The offense was more aggressive this year.”

While shortstop Gunnar Henderson improved his walk total from 56 to 78, Adley Rutschman’s fell dramatically from 92 to 58.

“We have a bunch of guys that have the ability to see the ball well,” Elias said. “Control the strike zone, have demonstrated a lot of walking ability, if not in the major leagues, in the minors.

“I don’t think that was necessarily something that had been intentionally throttled down this season. Pitchers are throwing nastier stuff than ever. It’s more imperative than ever to swing and hit a pitch that you think you can hit because you don’t’ get that many chances in today’s game with how hard and how nasty the stuff guys are throwing are.

“We want to walk. We want to drive up pitch counts. We want to have good swing decisions…We’re going to examine the degree of emphasis we put on some of these topics all winter and come away with a good plan for a better 2025.”

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