Craig Albernaz’s coaching staff has its first name.
The Orioles are hiring Dustin Lind as hitting coach, a source with direct knowledge of the move confirmed to The Baltimore Sun on Friday. Lind was an assistant hitting coach with the Philadelphia Phillies the past two seasons and overlapped with Albernaz on the San Francisco Giants during his four-year stint as an assistant on their hitting staff.
The 36-year-old is the first coach to be solidified onto Albernaz’s staff since Baltimore hired the first-year manager last month. The club already parted ways with its three hitting coaches — Cody Asche, Sherman Johnson and Tommy Joseph — as well as bench coach Robinson Chirinos and first base coach Anthony Sanders.
Lind, who carries a reputation for preaching strong plate discipline, worked under Donnie Ecker in San Francisco and Kevin Long in Philadelphia — both of whom have won World Series titles as well-traveled hitting coaches.
Lind never played professionally, carving out a college career at Montana State University-Billings and Idaho State University before getting into coaching. Lind was as an independent hitting consultant until 2018 when the Seattle Mariners hired him as their minor league quality assurance coach.
BaltimoreBaseball.com was first to report the news of Lind’s hire.
This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Matt Weyrich at mweyrich@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200, x.com/ByMattWeyrich and instagram.com/bymattweyrich.