SARASOTA, Fla. — Zach Eflin threw a curveball, watched it land in his catcher’s glove, then immediately walked over to the coaches and analytics staff gathered behind him.

The group chatted as Eflin watched the slow-motion video to see how the ball came out of his hand. Satisfied with the suggested adjustments, he walked back to the mound, tinkered with the ball and threw another pitch. Then it was back to the video and another round of conversation.

Eflin is looking to add depth to his curveball to separate it from his sweeper more, and he’s doing it the only way he knows how: by combining new-school technology with old-school feel. At 30, he’s among the last players who grew up without access to Rapsodo monitors or analytics platforms. Such technology was not widely used in Philadelphia during the early part of his career, he said, because his older teammates didn’t want it used in the bullpen.

But, when he got to Tampa in 2023, he was thrown into an environment that relied heavily on it, essentially forcing him to learn how that side of the game works. Although he appreciates both approaches, Eflin will always feel most comfortable combining both mindsets. It’s how he’s improved every season — and how he intends to continue as the Orioles count on him to lead the rotation.

“Being able to go down there and learn all that stuff, I felt obligated to hear everything that they had to preach,” he said. “Being an old-school guy but going to a new-school organization is kind of a perfect marriage because I’m old school in all my mechanics and then learning all the numbers and stuff that makes me good.”

But it’s not just his pitching style that fits that motto. Eflin is bridging the gap between the old and the new in the clubhouse as well. On one end, he’s a father of four, including a newborn, who spends his free time at camp chatting with locker mates Charlie Morton and Andrew Kittredge, two of the oldest players in the clubhouse. But Eflin is also living in a house with five teammates, some of whom are seven years younger, spending his days in the sun with the Orioles’ young guys.

“It’s like one house of kids to another,” he joked.

Eflin’s spring training schedule is vastly different from his offseason one, when his life revolved around his three daughters, a 3-year-old and twin almost 2-year-olds. He planned his workouts around their nap times — crossing his fingers they would go down and not be too cranky.

Sometimes he would have time first thing in the morning to get some throwing in. Other times, he couldn’t find an open window until midday or the evening. Lucky for him, his gym was only a few steps away in his garage, and he could get by with only a 45-minute or hour session if needed.

In February, just as he was scheduled to report to spring training, his wife gave birth to their fourth child, a boy. He had to leave 48 hours later, saying goodbye to his “little man” Hayden and leaving his three daughters at home without knowing when he would get to see him next.

“You kind of experience pure happiness and pure sadness at the same time,” he said. “My wife is still at home with four under 3 1/2 alone, so it’s not a great feeling.”

When he arrived in Sarasota, he settled into the “compound” he’s sharing with Adley Rutschman, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser, Gunnar Henderson and Ryan Mountcastle. There are no diapers to change or tantrums to work with (that he was willing to admit to, at least), just afternoons filled with fishing, golfing and playing pool.

When Eflin got traded to the Orioles last July, Mountcastle was his in — the two go back to their days at Hagerty High School in Oviedo, Florida. Mountcastle invited Eflin to stay in the house and he’s fallen right in with that crew, even if he can’t keep up with their “Mario Kart” skills. He doesn’t have any practice partners at home, he noted, because his kids aren’t old enough to play.

“It’s easy to fit in with those guys, especially when they’ve developed such personal relationships with each other, and I’m a very personal person,” he said. “I love getting to know people on a personal level, so that was fairly easy.”

During camp, unlike during the offseason, his training is regimented. He arrives at the stadium around 8 a.m., with stretching at 9 and bullpen sessions shortly after. He wants to get his strikeout rate back up to what it was earlier in his career — it peaked at 26.6% in 2020 — and getting his curveball right will be a big part of that. And for him, of course, it will come by finding the perfect combination of the old-school feel and new-school approaches.

“Honestly, I’m learning every day,” he said. “I feel like the day I stop learning is the day I’ll stop playing.”