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The Orioles today announced their 2026 major league coaching staff, led by first-year manager Craig Albernaz. Pitching Coach Drew French (3rd season), Assistant Pitching Coach Mitch Plassmeyer (3rd), Pitching Strategy Coach Ryan Klimek (4th), and Third Base Coach Buck Britton (2nd) return to the staff, while the club has hired Donnie Ecker as Bench Coach, Dustin Lind as Hitting Coach, Brady North as Assistant Hitting Coach, Jason Bourgeois as First Base Coach, Hank Conger as Bullpen Coach, Miguel Cairo as Infield Coach, and Joe Singley as Field Coordinator and Catching Coach.
Ecker, 39, spent the last four seasons with the Texas Rangers as the club’s offensive coordinator (2022-25). He also served as bench coach from 2022-24. The Rangers had at least one American League Silver Slugger Award winner in each of his first three years, and the team was selected as the winner of the inaugural team Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award in the AL in 2023 after Texas won the World Series behind a record-setting regular season in which the Rangers led the AL in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. He has also worked professionally for the San Francisco Giants as hitting coach (2020-21), Cincinnati Reds as assistant hitting coach (2019), Los Angeles Angels as Triple-A Salt Lake hitting coach (2018), and a hitting coach for St. Louis Cardinals’ Single-A teams in Peoria (2017) and Palm Beach (2015-16). The utility player was selected in the 22nd round of the 2007 First-Year Player Draft by the Rangers out of Lewis-Clark State College (ID) and played two professional seasons.
Lind, 37, was the assistant hitting coach for the Philadelphia Phillies from 2024-25. He spent the previous four years with the Giants as director of hitting and assistant major league hitting coach, working on the same staff all four seasons with Albernaz, and Ecker for two (2020-21). He worked as an independent hitting consultant with the Seattle Mariners from 2014-17 before joining the organization as a minor league quality assurance coach in 2018 and was promoted to director of hitting development and strategies for the major league club in 2019. The former outfielder played collegiately at Montana State University-Billings from 2007-08 and Sierra College (CA) from 2010-11.
North, 34, had been the assistant hitting coach for the Tampa Bay Rays since the start of 2022. This will be his first role outside of the Rays’ organization after serving as the hitting coach for the GCL Rays (2019) and Class-A Bowling Green (2021). He was assigned to Class-A Charlotte in the same role in 2020 before the minor league season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. North was the director of hitting and mental performance at Top Level Athletes in Orlando, Fla., among other non-professional baseball roles, prior to joining Tampa Bay. The first baseman and outfielder played with Independent Lake Erie and Washington of the Frontier League after playing collegiately at Cumberland University (TN), Jacksonville University (FL), and Hillsborough Community College (FL). The Tampa, Fla. native graduated from Gaither (FL) High School.
Bourgeois (pronounced BOOSH-wah), 43, joins the Orioles after serving as the first base and outfield coach for the Chicago White Sox for two seasons. He spent five years in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, working as a minor league outfield and baserunning coordinator from 2021-23 and as a coach for Single-A Great Lakes in 2019. Bourgeois would have been on the coaching staff for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2020 before the minor league season was canceled. The former outfielder played parts of eight major league seasons from 2008-15 with the White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Rays, and Reds. He was originally selected by the Rangers in the second round of the 2000 First-Year Player Draft out of Forest Brook (TX) High School.
The Orioles’ coaching staff for the 2026 season has three confirmed outside hires and three likely holdovers.
A source confirmed tonight that Buck Britton, Drew French and Ryan Klimek are expected to remain with the Orioles.
Britton finished as third base coach and infield instructor after Tony Mansolino was named interim manager. French completed his second season as pitching coach. Klimek has served as pitching strategy coach since 2023.
Another source said earlier today that Britton might remain at third base but details had to be worked out and nothing was official. The team definitely had shown interest in retaining him.
Britton was promoted from Triple-A manager to major league coach prior to the 2025 season, but Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was fired on May 17, which led to a reshuffling of the staff.
The Orioles honored Corbin Burnes on Friday with his own bobblehead night. He appreciated the gesture and took one home.
It just wasn’t anything new to him.
Teams have come up with the idea to doll up Burnes pretty much at every level after Little League.
“I’ve had a bunch of bobbleheads,” he said. “I had two or three in Milwaukee, I’ve had a couple in the minor leagues. My college (St. Mary’s of California) did one this year at the basketball game they had. I have quite a few Corbin Burnes bobbleheads in the office.”
Burnes isn’t a rabid collector, one hint being that he isn’t exactly sure of the number while pitching for the Brewers.
For a team that ranked last in the major leagues in team ERA last season, the Orioles have made some impressive pitching improvement thus far in the 2022 season. Baltimore’s ERA was 5.84 in 2021 and the next closest team to that was really not that close with Arizona at 5.11.
But this season the Orioles have gone from worst to, at one point on the recent road trip, close to first. They ranked near the top of the league to that point in team ERA, rotation ERA and bullpen ERA.
The club took a step back when it gave up 27 runs in three games at Yankee Stadium, but still is doing overall much better in American League pitching stats. Through last night’s game – a 2-1 loss to Minnesota at Oriole Park – the team ERA of 3.60 is eighth in the league and the rotation ERA of 3.53 is fourth. In bullpen ERA, at 3.67, the O’s are ninth.
Right-hander Tyler Wells gave up one run in five innings last night. It was the 19th time in 23 games that an O's starting pitcher allowed two earned runs or less. That happened 10 times in the first 23 games a season ago. O's starters have an ERA of 1.72 in home games.
It is a nice trend for the better. During the West Coast trip, I sat down with O’s second year pitching coach/director of pitching Chris Holt to discuss some reasons for the potential turnaround. Holt was one of the first hires by executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias after he took over with the Orioles and he headed up the O’s minor league pitching development starting in 2019 and still does today, even with his bigger role now on the major league staff.
