{"id":635153,"date":"2026-03-21T08:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/635153\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T08:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T08:52:10","slug":"jon-meoli-the-orioles-kept-their-elite-pitching-coaches-for-a-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/635153\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Meoli: The Orioles kept their \u2018elite\u2019 pitching coaches for a reason."},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing much changed for the Orioles\u2019 coaches when last season mercifully ended in September. They\u2019d known from Brandon Hyde\u2019s dismissal in May<\/a> that change was likely coming, and many handled the uncertainty once the season wrapped up and the club accelerated its staff overhaul by doing what they\u2019d have done anyway.<\/p>\n

They kept working. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to continue to work until they cut my computer off and tell me I can\u2019t come here anymore,\u201d pitching coach Drew French said. \u201cAs a staff, we met with players over Zooms and we were having those meetings in terms of talking about development and what the plan was moving forward. I don\u2019t really think for one second that we ever batted an eye that we were going to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could be a boon for the Orioles in 2026 and beyond that, in a season when so much is different, the pitching group of French, assistant Mitch Plassmeyer and strategy coach Ryan Klimek was kept intact to build on the progress of the last couple of years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe next step [is] for us to continue to find these North Stars for what\u2019s impactful to having success, whether it\u2019s count leverage or altering or changing a pitch type for the sake of handling a certain bat side,\u201d French said. \u201cBut I think we\u2019re going to be better off knowing how to handle these conversations and the things that have worked, so we can just kind of cross those off, as this is like a big-ass science experiment. We know, with some of these guys, where to go with certain things, and we also don\u2019t know with certain things. That was the beauty of this offseason \u2014 being very direct and very specific about what we\u2019re after and then watching these guys self-organize and ask the right questions to get to those things. All those things are going to equal wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

More intimately than most of his peers in the coaching room, French understands what\u2019s happening in other areas of the club, having joined the Orioles from Atlanta after the 2023 season to replace Chris Holt as pitching coach. Plassmeyer was an internal addition to the big league staff after serving as minor league pitching coordinator, while Klimek had been with the major league team for several seasons. <\/p>\n

French knew, as the newcomer, there could be apprehension in how ideas were communicated, how roles developed within the group and how the previous work would be factored in. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou maybe felt like you were behind the eight ball in terms of developing the player or developing the coach,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

There was a feeling-out phase as they learned how players worked and what type of attention they\u2019d given to pitch development and their deliveries. Two-plus years of addressing those things and building a foundation with the team\u2019s pitchers have, French said, made them \u201cstronger and closer together, and ultimately \u2014 hopefully \u2014 that is impactful for our players and our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he thinks about what might have been lost if the group hadn\u2019t been kept intact, Plassmeyer cited the \u201creciprocal trust\u201d they\u2019d built.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know that we know them pretty well and can kind of leverage the things they do well but also understand some of the things that we\u2019ve been working on and how we\u2019re going to deploy that over time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can kind of have a deeper conversation with guys. When you first meet them, first sit down at your first spring training with them, it\u2019s kind of like, here\u2019s the big rocks we have. The guys we\u2019ve had for a couple years, we can get into the more minute things but also remind them of some of the core principles that make them who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Orioles manager Craig Albernaz, right, watches a spring training game with pitching coach Drew French, center, and pitching strategy coach Ryan Klimek. (Ulysses Mu\u00f1oz\/The Banner)<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s pitching staff includes players who have been with this group for years \u2014 Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers in the rotation, plus Tyler Wells, Yennier Cano and Keegan Akin in the bullpen. Keeping them progressing will play a large part in the Orioles\u2019 fortunes, but there may be even larger tasks ahead for this coaching group. <\/p>\n

New assignments include helping trade acquisition Shane Baz deliver on his top-of-the-rotation potential and helping to develop a bullpen with fewer proven pitchers than years past, creating the opportunity for a lot of turnover.<\/p>\n

Manager Craig Albernaz said the pitching coaches were \u201cstuds\u201d at December\u2019s winter meetings and called them \u201celite\u201d both then and at the start of camp. He recalled an early-spring meeting with a pitcher when he didn\u2019t say a word because the prep work and dialogue were so comprehensive. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just speaks to how well they\u2019re prepared, how well they review and also how much they\u2019re invested in the pitchers\u2019 development,\u201d Albernaz said. \u201cEverything that was up on the slide decks, it was easily digestible, great back-and-forth with the pitcher and also the pitching coaches. It wasn\u2019t one-sided. It wasn\u2019t a teacher up there with a PowerPoint just dictating everything. It was a very two-way conversation, getting the players\u2019 feedback, checking for understanding, making sure they understand what they\u2019re presenting and what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

That dynamic has resonated with a lot of pitchers over the years, and opening day starter Rogers is one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Alby came in, I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, if he just doesn\u2019t touch the pitching department, it\u2019s going to be great,\u2019\u201d Rogers said. \u201cObviously that doesn\u2019t mean nothing coming from me, but that was my thought. And just to know that nothing changes on our side, I was fired up, because they do such a great job of getting us ready, getting us prepared and just that communication that we have and that relationship that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nothing much changed for the Orioles\u2019 coaches when last season mercifully ended in September. They\u2019d known from Brandon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,182,4635,4,62,9930,12212,125,151],"class_list":["post-635153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-florida","tag-grapefruit-league","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-nyy","tag-os","tag-orioles","tag-spring-training"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116266321893954586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}