The Orioles are closing in on hiring their new lead hitting coach, plucking Dustin Lind from one of the best offenses in baseball, according to a source.

Lind, who served as an assistant hitting coach for the Philadelphia Phillies, is one of the first hires to be made for manager Craig Albernaz’s staff. It comes after Baltimore’s trio of hitting coaches departed after the end of the season, and there will be more staff turnover following the exits of bench coach Robinson Chirinos and first base coach Anthony Sanders.

Lind, whose hiring was first reported by Baltimore Baseball, has history with Albernaz. They worked together with the San Francisco Giants when Lind was their director of hitting and an assistant hitting coach.

While in San Francisco, Lind worked under hitting coach Donnie Ecker, who was named Baseball America’s Coach of the Year in 2021. The hitting department there worked to hunt fastballs and do damage. They practiced on full-speed pitching machines to simulate that night’s starting pitcher rather than the soft-tossing batting practice routinely seen.

“We definitely want the ability for him to put his stamp on the staff,” president of baseball operations Mike Elias said Tuesday when introducing Albernaz.

Lind, 37, also has a doctorate in physical therapy from the University of Montana.

Lind joined the Phillies in 2024, where he worked under well-regarded hitting coach Kevin Long. This season, Philadelphia’s .258 batting average was tied for the second-best in the majors, and its .759 on-base-plus-slugging percentage was fourth-best. The Phillies outproduced the Orioles by a long shot. Baltimore finished the year with a .235 average (24th) and .699 OPS (21st).

Lind was brought to Philadelphia in 2024, in part, to help the Phillies cut down on their chase rate. In 2023, the Phillies swung at 31.3% of pitches outside the strike zone, per Statcast, which was the fourth-highest rate. Lind helped cut down on chase rate in San Francisco. For instance, before Lind joined the Giants, the team’s chase rate in 2019 was 31.2%. By 2021, the Giants chased just 24.2% of pitches, the second-lowest in baseball.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Lind helped the Phillies undergo a similar transformation immediately upon his arrival.

Baltimore has long believed in plate discipline as a pillar of its batting strategy. Lind should fit that mold. Of course, the Orioles didn’t chase much last season and still struggled.

The Orioles swung at pitches outside the strike zone only 27.5% of the time, better than the Phillies’ 30.3% chase rate. But what Philadelphia managed was this: fewer strikeouts and more walks. The Phillies made hard contact at a similar rate as the Orioles, but their average launch angle skewed more toward line drives than fly balls.

Of course, having Kyle Schwarber hit 56 home runs helped the team’s overall stats.

But as Albernaz molds his coaching staff, he envisions a “diverse offense” that can score in multiple ways.