Matt Borgschulte, Orioles’ last remaining hitting coach, leaves for Twins

Since 2022, Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller shared hitting coach duties in Baltimore.

Neither will be with the Orioles in 2025.

A few days after Fuller’s departure , a source with direct knowledge of the situation told The Baltimore Sun that Borgschulte is no longer with the Orioles after accepting a job with the Minnesota Twins.

The Orioles’ offense improved each season since Borgschulte and Fuller took over, scoring the fourth-most runs in MLB this year. But Baltimore’s bats slumped in the second half and mustered only one run in two playoff games as the Orioles were swept out of the postseason for the second straight year.

Borgschulte, 33, was a minor league hitting coach with the Twins from 2018 to 2021 before joining the Orioles alongside Fuller. It’s unclear what role Borgschulte will serve for Minnesota.

His departure leaves the Orioles without a hitting coach. As of now, offensive strategy coach Cody Asche is the only member of Baltimore’s 2024 hitting coach staff still with the organization.

Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said during his end-of-season news conference that he would spend the beginning of the offseason “self-assessing, readjusting and coming up with a plan.” He also confirmed, as expected, that Brandon Hyde would be returning as Orioles’ manager in 2025 despite a second straight early playoff exit.

Eight days later, they made their first major baseball-related changes, as a source confirmed to The Sun that Fuller and two other coaches — Fredi González and José Hernández — would not be returning to the club in 2025. It’s unclear whether the three coaches were fired or did not have their contracts renewed, as an Orioles spokesperson said the team does not comment on personnel matters.

González, 60, joined the Orioles ahead of the 2020 season as Hyde’s bench coach after serving as manager of the Florida Marlins and Atlanta Braves from 2007 to 2016. Hernández, 55, was an original member of Hyde’s staff in 2019, the first year of the Elias-Hyde era, after spending the previous nine years in the Orioles’ minor league system.

Under Fuller, 34, and Borgschulte, the Orioles’ offense steadily improved as the organization emerged from its rebuild. Baltimore’s OPS rank out of 30 MLB teams improved from 20th in 2022 to 13th last year to fourth in 2024. The 2023 offense was carried by unsustainable success with runners in scoring position, while the 2024 club relied on home runs, hitting 235 of them to rank second in the majors.

Those numbers don’t tell the full story, though, as the lineup regressed in the second half. Injuries to Jordan Westburg, Ryan Mountcastle and Ramón Urías were the main reason, but other hitters, especially Adley Rutschman, didn’t look like themselves down the stretch.

Coming through with runners in scoring position went from a strength to a weakness, and the lineup’s overall plate discipline seemed to deteriorate as the slump continued. That was never more evident than in the two playoff games at Camden Yards, in which the Orioles went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and frequently chased pitches outside the zone.

“I definitely experienced the frustration of that. Who didn’t?” Elias said when asked about the Orioles’ reliance on home runs and struggles in high-leverage situations. “Been around baseball and a lot of the very best information out there in baseball my entire life and career. Getting hits and getting RBI with runners in scoring position, there’s a lot of evidence that that can be difficult to control on a year-over-year, month-to-month basis.

“It’s a tricky thing, hitting. That said, I am going to behave as though it is under our control, and we are going to examine everything about our offensive approach, teachings, the mix of personnel and put ourselves in position to where we feel like we’ve addressed any potential shortcomings there.”

As of now, the following coaches are still with the organization: Tim Cossins (major league field coordinator/catching instructor), Drew French (pitching coach), Mitch Plassmeyer (assistant pitching coach), Ryan Klimek (pitching strategy coach), Tony Mansolino (third base coach), Anthony Sanders (first base coach), Grant Anders (major league development coach) and Asche (offensive strategy coach).

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While the offense’s performance in the second half was a disappointment, the way the pitching staff held up despite crippling injuries was commendable under new pitching coaches French and Plassmeyer.

A rotation that lost Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, John Means and the last two months of Grayson Rodriguez’s sophomore season ended the year ranked fifth in MLB with a 3.77 ERA. The bullpen worsened in the second half, but that unit also dealt with injuries to Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb as well as closer Craig Kimbrel’s decline. The relief corps survived, though, with waiver claims and improving the performance of trade acquisitions Gregory Soto and Seranthony Domínguez.

“Absolutely fantastic,” Hyde said at the end-of-season news conference when asked about his pitching coaches. “With the rash of pitching injuries we had, with the bullpen kind of in flux, with Craig and the first half he had and then us going in a different direction and having to piece things together on a nightly basis without set roles, losing a lot of our rotation — I thought they did a great, great job. It was fun working with them this year.”

Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com , 667-942-3337 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer .