The Orioles' new hitting coaches can't speak to their players. So how are they preparing for 2022?

An inside look at how Orioles co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte are getting ready for spring training, and getting to know each other in the process.

In a typical offseason, one in which the MLB’s owners hadn’t locked out the players and shut the sport down, Orioles co-hitting coaches Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller would have used the winter to visit their players for a first-hand look at their work and begin to build a foundation for spring training. 

Those house calls would be introductory in some cases and more of a catch-up in others, but would certainly be a traditional occurrence for a pair of hitting coaches whose quick rises from unique backgrounds have been anything but.

Instead, the two hitting coaches are carving out time each morning for video calls and tackling one player a day to go over their focus and approach for when the lockout ends and baseball resumes.

“We go through their past few years,” Fuller said. “Here’s what we’re doing really well, here’s some areas they can improve. What can the plan be? Go. He gives his thoughts, and usually they’re very close with what I have, and we go back and forth. You with me on that? Or, teach me a little bit more on what you’re talking about.

“It’s this process of not only going over our hitters or opposing pitchers and game-planning for them, but just learning each other's processes. You have this incredibly smart guy who has gone through virtually every level in the minor leagues, and learning from him every day so the little nuances of, ‘Man, you look for that video? I’ve never thought about that.’ Or, breaking down the data in different ways and connecting it to different metrics, it’s been huge for my developments as a coach. We’ve really enjoyed those morning calls.” 

Borgschulte said: “I think it’s going to be a pretty awesome dynamic that we have here for this coming season. He’s a pretty easy guy to talk to, and get along with. It’s a pretty good fit.”

Fuller spent 2021 as the hitting coach at Double-A Bowie and doubled as the Orioles’ full-season hitting coordinator. Executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias brought him into the interview process to help replace former hitting coach Don Long early in the offseason, and he was in place in time to be part of the team to interview candidates to share responsibilities as well.

Borgschulte, who was with the Minnesota Twins’ Triple-A affiliate in 2021, made an immediate impression. 

“Quickly, we saw that he spoke the same language,” Fuller said. “His personality is terrific, just a really solid, great person, and it was a track record of working with the high-level prospects and major leaguers that the Twins had. [We thought] this guy is going to fit in extremely well philosophically and personality-wise. The guys are going to really enjoy being around him — a really great cage rat.”

The two already can see areas where the other’s strengths fill in gaps well. Borgschulte’s years of experience using occlusion training that helps visually practice pitch recognition and pitch selection is “a perfect marriage between swing decisions and the perceptual and visual cues hitters are picking up on,” Fuller said, noting it’s an area he and the Orioles “don’t feel incredibly confident in.”

While Borgschulte is coming in from the outside, he recognizes that spending time in 2020 at the alternate site with core pieces of the Orioles lineup including Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, and Austin Hays, plus future core pieces Adley Rutschman and Kyle Stowers in 2021 at Bowie, is helping speed up the familiarization process.

For the major leaguers, a trust was formed with Fuller when he was a first-year pro coach at the secondary camp who helped them get better and produce results at the major league level once they got to Camden Yards. Rutschman and Stowers each spoke glowingly of how the Orioles’ hitting program was helping people get better in 2021 as well. Now, they’ll be seeing a familiar face in big league camp next month.

“I think that’s a big piece, that he has that strong relationship with a lot of players, and we can kind of dive in together and he can help me on that front,” Borgschulte said.

Perhaps most importantly, the pair have their shared experience – and their background as first-time, 31-year-old major league coaches – to bind them. In each other, they can share ideas freely in the knowledge that they won’t be offending traditional sensibilities by speaking their mind on a subject. But in the rest of the Orioles’ staff under manager Brandon Hyde, they know there are decades of coaching experience to help them as well.

“We’re thrilled to be able to get to learn from some of the experiences these guys have had,” Borgschulte said. 

Fuller looks at all the experience on the staff as a positive, as the hitting coaches can ensure they aren’t going down the wrong path on certain ideas with a simple walk down the hallway. Hyde, in particular, has been “great” as the process of breaking in the new hitting coaches has continued this offseason.

“We had a lot of time together through the interview process and I think we’re going to do some really special things,” Fuller said. “We have an opportunity to create this incredible learning and training environment every single day and it seems like everybody has just been very supportive and looking forward to seeing the end product. 

“This is the big leagues now. This isn’t just theory. We have to make sure these guys are getting better every single day, and I’m very excited to see what we’ve been doing at the minor league level, especially as guys matriculate up, seeing the success continue and making sure if it’s not, making sure we make quick adjustments to ensure we’re staying on the right track.”

Further reading

In the lively readership period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I profiled Borgschulte and Fuller for the Baltimore Sun. Learn about Borgschulte and Fuller’s path to Hyde’s dugout here and here, respectively.

Programming note

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