In Year 2 with Orioles, O'Hearn more than a surprise star

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Spring Training is the time that lays the groundwork for MLB's surprise stories during the upcoming season. Quite a few standout players will emerge from seemingly nowhere, something that has happened quite frequently in Orioles camp in recent years.

For example, Ryan O'Hearn.

There were a handful of backup first base/corner outfield type of players battling for a spot on Baltimore’s roster last spring. None of them broke camp with the big league team. Not even O’Hearn, who raked during Grapefruit League action before getting sent to Triple-A Norfolk to open the 2023 campaign.

By season’s end, O’Hearn had logged a career-high 112 big league games, posted an .802 OPS and even made 57 starts as the O’s cleanup hitter.

“Sitting here this time last year, I wasn’t expecting Ryan O’Hearn to do what he did for us,” manager Brandon Hyde said.

It was the best first year in a new organization imaginable for O’Hearn, who was traded by the Royals in exchange for cash considerations in a transaction that garnered little attention when it occurred Jan. 3, 2023.

O’Hearn couldn’t dream up a better way for his time in Baltimore to begin. Little could beat being a key contributor in the heart of the order for a team that won 101 games and captured the American League East title.

“It exceeded any expectation or any hope I could have ever had,” the 30-year-old O’Hearn said. “Everyone here is awesome -- coaches, the people who work in this building, obviously my teammates. I enjoy coming to work every day, showing up here and in Baltimore as well.

“It’s just a blast, man. I can’t explain it. I feel very blessed to have landed here, and especially at this time, when the team is so good.”

O’Hearn played 342 games over five seasons for Kansas City from 2018-22, but he could never stick in the Majors. He showed power potential early (12 homers in 44 games in ‘18, then 14 across 105 games in ‘19), but he finished his Royals tenure with a .219/.293/.390 slash line.

The untapped potential was there, though. Orioles co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte said as much last spring, when he recalled watching O’Hearn from an opposing Minor League dugout during Borgschulte’s stint as the hitting coach for Triple-A St. Paul in 2021.

Entering last year’s camp, both sides of this newly formed player-coach partnership couldn’t wait to get work. And O’Hearn’s first year in orange and black may have even been more enjoyable than Borgschulte could have expected, too.

“He’s one of our favorite guys to work with, because he knows how to put in the work, has the discipline and is willing to make the adjustments that he needs to to be as good as he can be,” Borgschulte said. “It was such a fun year to watch him bloom and take off. We saw that he had it in there, and for him to bring it out and let that bat play was an exciting part of last season.”

O’Hearn put in a lot of work in the batting cages throughout last year, learning more about his swing and targeting his deficiencies. He cleaned up his mechanics and spent time trying to better master “the art of hitting,” as he put it.

There was never an issue with hitting the ball hard -- as you can tell from the annual red next to average exit velocity and hard-hit percentage on O’Hearn’s Baseball Savant page -- but he worked with the hitting coaches on improving his posture and swing decisions to maximize his strengths.

“We happened to mesh pretty much right away, and I got better, obviously, I think, as the year went on,” O’Hearn said.

Borgschulte wanted O’Hearn to allow his hands to “work a little bit more independent of his body,” so he could adjust to any type of offering an opposing pitcher threw his way.

“Honestly, that’s what we saw,” Borgschulte said. “He was able to cover every part of the zone really well, and it’s impressive when you see his skill set to be able to make solid contact with pitches in almost every part of the zone.”

After setting new career bests in batting average (.289), hits (100), doubles (22) and RBIs (60) last year -- and slugging 14 home runs to go along with them -- O’Hearn is firmly in the Orioles’ plans for the start of the upcoming season, which is much different than his standing a year ago.

O’Hearn, who is well-liked and respected in the clubhouse, will split time between first base and designated hitter, and he could get some starts in the corner outfield, where he’s made sporadic big league appearances. That would help get his bat into the O’s lineup even more often.

Year 2 in Baltimore may end up even more enjoyable than Year 1 for O’Hearn -- especially because he has big expectations for his team.

“We won 101 games last year. We won the East,” O’Hearn said. “I mean, I think we can win the World Series.”