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In taking the job as the Nationals’ new hitting coach under first-year manager Blake Butera, Matt Borgschulte finds himself back in a familiar situation.
When Borgschulte was named the Orioles’ co-hitting coach with Ryan Fuller ahead of the 2022 season, he was tasked with getting the most out of a lot of highly touted, yet still developing young hitters on an up-and-coming team.
Now, after a stop as the sole hitting coach with the Twins last year, the 35-year-old is again tasked with the development of some young hitters who still possess immense potential.
“The youth of the group is awesome. And then the potential,” Borgschulte said earlier this week on a Zoom call with reporters. “We have a lot of different types of players, but ultimately, the desire, the competitiveness that these guys have to want to continue to improve, I think, is a really, really big benefit. Because sometimes guys think they get to the major leagues and then, OK, they've made it, let's just play and have fun. And obviously it's a game. We want to continue to play and have fun. But the growth never stops. And the moment that that does stop, then we start to see some guys kind of fall back. So having the desire for them to continue to try to reach higher and higher and continue to improve is something that I'm truly excited about.”
The Orioles had a top farm system in baseball in 2022, their long rebuild starting to pay dividends. Yes, Borgschulte inherited a lot of talented players when he went to Baltimore, but he had to make sure their presumed potential was reached at the major league level.
He did so with immense success.
Gunnar Henderson made his debut in 2022 and returned in 2023 to have one of the best rookie seasons we’ve seen in recent years. He hit .255 with an .814 OPS, 28 home runs, 29 doubles, nine triples, 82 RBIs and 56 walks en route to being named the American League Rookie of the Year unanimously, finishing in the top 10 in MVP voting and winning his first Silver Slugger Award.
He followed that up with an even more impressive 2024 campaign, hitting .281 with an .893 OPS, 37 homers, 31 doubles, seven triples, 92 RBIs, 78 walks and 21 stolen bases. Henderson was named an All-Star for the first time and finished fourth in American League Most Valuable Player voting.
Adley Rutschman, the former No. 1 overall pick and face of the Orioles’ rebuild, burst onto the scene as a rookie in Borgschulte’s first year. The young catcher hit .254 with an .806 OPS, 13 homers, 35 doubles, 42 RBIs and 65 walks, while finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting and 12th in MVP.
He too had an even better second year, hitting .277 with an .809 OPS, 20 homers, 31 doubles, 80 RBIs and 92 walks (to only 101 strikeouts) while also being named to his first All-Star Game, finishing in the top 10 in MVP voting and winning a Silver Slugger.
Rutschman was named an All-Star again in 2024, but struggled last year after Borgschulte’s departure for Minnesota. Though he also dealt with some injuries that limited him to just 90 games.
Jordan Westburg also saw improvement from his rookie year to his second (when he was also named an All-Star) under Borgschulte’s tutelage. But then he took a few steps back this year after Borgschulte left Baltimore in an overall down year for the Orioles.
Even Jackson Holliday, another former No. 1 overall pick, figured some things out at the major league level while working with Borgschulte. After a horrid start to his career following his promotion, Holliday clearly improved over his last 50 games.
“I think the biggest thing that I've kind of taken away from those two experiences is just the understanding of how (young players) are transitioning to the major leagues,” Borgschulte said. “We had several from Baltimore. Whether that's Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg, you can go down the list, right? But every player kind of goes about it just a little bit differently. But there's a transition process that happens where there's an adjustment that needs to be made in some aspect of their game and they're trying to do it at the highest level, which makes it extremely difficult. So learning about that process is something that I'll continue to take with me.”
Borgschulte has now brought those experiences to Washington, where he’ll apply them to helping the likes of James Wood, Dylan Crews, CJ Abrams, Daylen Lile, Robert Hassell III, Brady House and Harry Ford tap into their own potential.
The new hitting coach also has a good track record with veteran players. Anthony Santander got better each year working with him in Baltimore. The outfielder ultimately was named an All-Star and Silver Slugger winner in 2024 while finishing in the top 15 in MVP voting.
And this year in Minnesota, Borgschulte helped Byron Buxton recapture his previous form, as the 11-year veteran was named an All-Star for the first time since 2022, received MVP votes for the first time since 2020 and won his first Silver Slugger.
“There are certainly a lot of similarities,” Borgschulte said of his approach coaching young vs. veteran players. “We want the player to be involved in the process. We want them to give us as much information as they can about their career and where they've been and what they've done. I think it's a little bit different with players that have been around a little bit longer. Generally, they've had some success already at the major league level, so we have those time frames to pull back on and glean some positives, negatives from those experiences. Whereas younger players are more apt to be able to make adjustments.
“Every player is going to have to make some adjustments in their career. And even if you've been in the league for 10 years, there's going to be a point where you start to struggle and you're going to have to make adjustments again. So having all of these young players – and I think that's the biggest hurdle for a lot of young players is that sometimes they don't hit a real struggle until they get to the major leagues – having to figure that out on the fly while they're on the biggest stage is an extreme challenge. But then also understanding that this isn't the first adjustment that they're going to have to make and it won't be the last. They're going to always have to continually make adjustments because what pitchers are doing nowadays is extremely challenging. We have to work as hard as we can to make sure we can prepare ourselves to have success against it.”
Borgschulte’s track record seems to be the perfect fit for this Nationals team that is looking for “another gear to tap into” with its young players, as new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said. And he’s already on his way to establishing relationships with those young hitters so they can all hit the ground running when they report to West Palm Beach for spring training in a month.
“Pretty much every hitter at this point I've had a chance to connect with,” he said. “And man, a couple things that stick out are the competitiveness and the desire that these guys have, not just to be good players, but to continue to get better. It’s really exciting for me to hear guys that are really interested in improving and wanting to be the best. Not just better, but the best. Those are the kind of players you want to work for and work with. I think that's part of being where you want to be. But also, good people that I've found, so I'm excited to get to know them even better and get this thing rolling.”
