Change is coming to the Orioles’ coaching staff for next season, and at this point, that’s all it really feels like: change for the sake of change.

That doesn’t make it good or bad. But if the ultimate decision of the early phase of the Orioles’ self-scrutiny is that massive course-correction isn’t required, then it’s hard for me to get worked up about such an outcome.

This is particularly true in the case of co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte leaving the team, with the Twins adding Borgschulte to their staff and Fuller likely to be a sought-after coach based on his success here.

I don’t believe the fact that neither will return should be read as the team laying the offense’s second-half swoon and early playoff exit at their feet. Perhaps the coaches saw that coming and took the opportunity to dodge the ax, but it feels more likely their departures are one last bit of service to an organization they owe nothing to — but that owes them plenty.

This, in a sense, allows the Orioles to continue to expand on what they’ve built over these last few years, without the organization having to indict its offensive processes to move on from them.

Fuller, per our reporting, left on his own accord. Borgschulte was talking to other teams in the past week, including the Twins, but wasn’t included in last week’s initial wave of coaching changes, which indicates that the door was at least open to him returning.

The fact that Fuller and Borgschulte are now gone feels like chum for a frustrated fan base that wanted somewhere to direct responsibility for an Orioles season that ended incredibly early, relative to expectations. It also wasn’t very fun toward the end, given some offensive struggles.

But this is not a dramatic change in philosophy for the Orioles. Whoever they hire for those spots will likely retain the general philosophy of controlling the strike zone to get pitches that can be hit hard. As recently as the July amateur draft, they reinforced that they believe what they believe in, and it’ll take them hiring someone completely old-school for me to think that has changed. These moves are not a refutation of what these coaches preached.

Borgschulte has another job and Fuller likely will soon because the Orioles’ offense was in the top five in baseball in almost any way you slice it.

I don’t feel the need to list them but will anyway: runs scored (fourth), home runs (second), on-base-plus-slugging (fourth), weighted on-base average (fifth), weighted runs created plus (third), hard-hit rate (third) and ground ball rate (fourth-lowest).

But they’re gone because the Orioles’ situational hitting deteriorated in the second half. A lot of that — like most of their offensive decline as the season went on — came down to Adley Rutschman’s issues. But Executive Vice President Mike Elias himself said hitting with runners in scoring position is tricky to predict, and “there’s a lot of evidence that can be difficult to control on a year-over-year, month-to-month basis.”

He also said they’re going to pretend they can control it, and here we are. The Orioles will likely replace the hitting coaches with philosophical peers and most importantly, work-ethic peers. Because the job is about instruction, yes, but it’s mostly about work. Work to prepare the hitters for what they’ll see that night from a data perspective, but also the literal act of recreating those pitches in the cage so the hitters can attune their eyes to the shapes and movement.

To be as process oriented as the Orioles are, top-to-bottom, is to practice a lot, and it’s on the hitting coaches to facilitate whatever the hitters need. When habits built in the minors involve challenging cage work, those carry over. So, presuming Cody Asche is back in some capacity, and the Orioles add from within or find another external voice a la Borgschulte, things will be fine.

Just remember a few things: The staff that included Fuller and Borgschulte is likely going to have its second Rookie of the Year award winner in Colton Cowser.

That group also helped several players, including Ramón Urías, Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays, pull back from the abyss as the season progressed.

And then those same hitting coaches spent the last week of a season in which they caught rafts of grief from fans helping Jackson Holliday transition from a leg kick to a toe tap. That move has the potential to jump-start the former top prospect’s major league career. It could mean that Fuller and Borgschulte’s most significant impact (on a long list of them) is the result of the last major adjustment they made.

Ballpark Chatter

There are a lot of former Orioles from the rebuild days who were never heard from again. On the flip side, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to Evan Phillips pitching well out of the Dodgers bullpen in October.

Phillips was one of four players to come to the Orioles in a trade that sent Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day to the Atlanta Braves at the 2018 trade deadline, and had a 7.36 ERA with a 1.867 WHIP in parts of three seasons with the Orioles before he was released from the organization in August 2021. He ended up with the Dodgers and has a 2.28 ERA and 0.935 WHIP with 10.2 strikeouts per nine in three years with the Dodgers.

His sweeper became a true weapon after he left here, and he’s gone on to have a really nice career. He remains well-liked by those who knew him on the Orioles; it’s not like many would have predicted this.

📫 Have a question? Write to me here.

🚀 Talent pipline

The Arizona Fall League isn’t what it used to be in terms of prospect quality, but the Orioles have someone who’s doing some damage out there in outfielder Jake Cunningham. The 2023 fifth-round pick had a tough full-season debut but ended at High-A Aberdeen and made a quick impression in the AFL with a 115-mph grand slam, his first of two home runs out west. The second went a mere 411 feet at 110 mph.

📰 For further reading

🥈 Second base struggles: The strangest thing to me about the Orioles’ second base struggles, as Paul wrote about here, is that Jordan Westburg had an .845 OPS at third base and .693 at second base. No idea what to make of that, but I think it’s probably going to be helpful to him to have one position to worry about in 2025, same as Gunnar Henderson. (The Baltimore Banner)

😲 How’d he get so good? I saw far less of Jack Flaherty in his few months with the Orioles than I did Phillips in his years here. I am no less dumbfounded by how things went so badly for him here, compared to the success he’s had this season. He’s been dominant. Imagine how helpful it would have been for the 2023 Orioles to have the version of him discussed in this article. (FanGraphs)