ORIOLES ANNOUNCE 2024 MAJOR LEAGUE STAFF
The Orioles today announced their 2024 Major League staff, led by 2023 American League Manager of the Year BRANDON HYDE. The club has named DREW FRENCH *Pitching Coach, *MITCH PLASSMEYER *Assistant Pitching Coach, and *GRANT ANDERS *Major League Development Coach. All other coaches remain in their same positions: *CODY ASCHE *as Offensive Strategy Coach, *MATT BORGSCHULTE *and *RYAN FULLER *as Co-Hitting Coaches, *TIM COSSINS as Major League Field Coordinator/Catching Instructor, FREDI GONZÁLEZ as Bench Coach, JOSÉ HERNÁNDEZ as Major League Coach, RYAN KLIMEK *as Pitching Strategy Coach, *TONY MANSOLINO as Third Base Coach, and ANTHONY SANDERS as First Base Coach.
French, 39, joins the Orioles from the Atlanta Braves, where he spent the past three seasons as the Bullpen Coach, including on the 2021 World Series champion team. Prior to his first Major League coaching role with the Braves, he spent five seasons (2016-20) as a Pitching Coach in the Houston Astros organization. In 2020, he worked as one of two Pitching Coaches at Houston’s Alternate Training Site. He then joined the Astros for the end of the regular season and playoffs as the Pitching Coach for the club’s Major League taxi squad. In 2019, he served as Triple-A Round Rock’s Pitching Coach. Under his guidance, Express pitchers set a franchise record with 1,265 strikeouts and posted 12 shutout victories, the most in the Pacific Coast League. He joined the Astros in 2016 as the Pitching Coach for Short-Season A Tri-City. In the following two seasons, he helped teams win championship titles, first as Pitching Coach for the 2017 Midwest League Champion Quad City River Bandits (A), and then as Pitching Coach for the 2018 Carolina League Champion Buies Creek Astros (A+). Before coaching in professional baseball, French spent nine seasons in similar roles with four different universities. He graduated from Concordia University (TX) in 2006 with a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Minor in Communication.
Plassmeyer, 28, was promoted from Minor League Pitching Coordinator, a role he had held since May 2022. Prior to joining the Orioles, he worked at the University of Missouri-Columbia as Pitching Coach (2022) and Director of Player Development - Baseball (2021-22). He began his coaching career at Premier Pitching and Performance (P3) in Missouri, where he served as Pitching Trainer (2019-22), Director of Remote Pitching (2019-21), and Director of Pitching (2021). Plassmeyer pitched three seasons at Bradley University (IL), where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Leadership from the Foster College of Business in 2019.
Anders, 27, was promoted from Major League Player Development Analyst, a role he had held since December 2021. He joined the Orioles organization as Double-A Bowie’s Development Coach in November of 2019, serving in that capacity through the 2021 season. Prior to joining the Orioles, Anders spent the 2019 season as a Baseball Operations Trainee with the Cincinnati Reds and the 2017-18 seasons as a Minor League Video Intern in the Kansas City Royals organization. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Radford University (VA), where he served as the Director of Player Development for the Radford Highlanders baseball team from 2015-18. He earned his Master of Sports Law and Business from Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2019.
Hyde enters his sixth season as Manager after being named to the post prior to the 2019 campaign. In 2023, he led the Orioles to an AL-best 101-61 record, the first time since 1997 that the Orioles claimed the top seed in the AL. The 2023 season saw the O’s clinch their 10th AL East title and first since 2014, as well as their first playoff berth since the 2016 AL Wild Card. Hyde guided the Orioles to their first 100-win season since 1980, joining EARL WEAVER *as the only O’s skippers to manage a team to a 100-win campaign. He has now led the Birds to their first back-to-back winning seasons since 2013-14. He was voted the Baseball Writers’ Association of America AL Manager of the Year, becoming the fourth Orioles skipper to win the award. He was also voted the \Sporting News *AL Manager of the Year by fellow American League managers for the second consecutive year.
Asche returns for his second season as Offensive Strategy Coach and his third in the Orioles organization. Borgschulte and Fuller return for their third seasons as Co-Hitting Coaches and third and fifth seasons in the organization, respectively. Cossins returns for his sixth season as Major League Field Coordinator/Catching Instructor and his 23rd as a professional manager, coach, or Major League bullpen catcher. González enters his fifth season with the Orioles organization, third as Bench Coach, and 35th as a professional coach or manager, 10 of which were as a Major League manager. Hernández enters his sixth season on the Major League staff and 15th as a coach in the Orioles organization. Klimek returns for his second full season as Pitching Strategy Coach and his eighth in the Orioles organization. Mansolino enters his fourth season as the club’s Third Base Coach and Sanders enters his fifth season as First Base Coach.
The Major League training staff will once again be led by BRIAN EBEL, who returns for his seventh season as the Orioles Head Athletic Trainer and 40th year with the organization overall. MARK SHIRES, entering his 26th year with the organization, and PATRICK WESLEY, entering his 21st year with the organization, each return for their seventh seasons as Assistant Athletic Trainers, while CHRIS POOLE returns for his third season as Assistant to the Head Athletic Trainer and 12th in the organization. KYLE CORRICK enters his sixth year in the organization and third as Physical Therapist, while AQUILES TORREALBA *enters his second season as Massage Therapist. *NICK WHITE *returns for his third season as Head of Strength and Performance, along with Strength and Conditioning Coach *TREY WIEDMAN (third season) and Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach CARLOS GONZÁLEZ (second season). *ROGELIO REALZOLA *returns as Sports Performance Analyst.
In Baseball Operations, Manager of Major League Strategy BILL WILKES and Manager of Major League Video/Run Creation Strategist BEN SUSSMAN-HYDE will each reprise their roles. SAM BERK has been promoted from Advance Scouting Fellow to Advance Scouting Analyst. All three will report to Director of Baseball Strategy BRENDAN FOURNIE.
CHARLES ESCALANTE *will serve as Manager, Team Travel. Home Clubhouse and Equipment Manager *FRED TYLER returns for his 52nd season with the Orioles, while his older brother JIM TYLER *will enter his 63rd season with the club and 12th as Umpires’ Attendant. *ANDREW GUINART *also returns for his third season as Visiting Clubhouse Manager. Assistant Equipment Managers *IRVING “BUNNY” GERMAN *and *PATRICK “PT” THOMAS will each return, along with Clubhouse Attendants RYAN ARNOLD, PAT DURKIN, ROBERT NAKADA, and DALTON PAULSON. *MATT CURTIN *will serve as Bat Boy and *JEFF SCHULTZ *returns as Clubhouse Kitchens Manager.
BEN CARHART *(fifth season) and *JOEL “YOGI” POLANCO *(sixth season) will serve as Bullpen Catchers, and *RUBÉN FRANCISCA as Batting Practice Pitcher.