Anthony Villa settles into expanded role in O's player development operation

In late October, coming off a 101-win season and an AL East championship and after the departure of Brad Ciolek, the club’s director of draft operations. for a job with the Nationals, the Orioles announced several promotions in their front office.

It was a bit of tweaking of and promotions within their scouting and player development operation. Two key staffers that have helped the club rise to No. 1 in farm rankings, once again have big roles in 2024 with promotions and slightly different titles.

Matt Blood was promoted from director of player development to vice president of player development and domestic scouting. Joining Blood to help head up player development now will be Anthony Villa, 29, who has been with the Orioles since the 2020 season. He is Blood's replacement as director of player development. Villa was first an O's minor league hitting coach, then a minor league hitting coordinator for the lower levels of the farm and last year he was hitting coordinator for the entire farm system.

“The titles are new, the working relationship (with Matt and the O's staff) is more or less the same,” Villa told me at the Winter Meetings. Blood may spend more time now heading up Baltimore's scouting operation and a bit less time in the day-to-day work of player development.

Villa (pronounced Vill-ah) was a 19th-round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2016 and played in the minors for three seasons. He's been a fast riser in the O's organization and now he'll have an even larger role in player development.

“Very proud of Matt and his growth and very excited for him to take on more responsibilities and not just overseeing player development but also scouting. So, there will be some subtle tweaks with that – areas he may not have as much bandwidth to get to and then those responsibilities will be passed along to me,” Villa said.

Villa will tell you that one of his biggest tasks falls under the heading of helping the minor league players any way he can. Whether that is work on a specific skill or helping that player just be more comfortable with his team and role or whatever it may be, he has to be concerned with it.

“It is important in my role. As director of player development now it’s my responsibility and my team’s responsibility to make sure that we are modernizing how we practice, how we develop players, how we develop their skills and get it to transfer to the game,” said Villa.

He added that executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias has given the minor league staff the freedom and resources to do their jobs. But in his role, as head of baseball operations, he provides any input when needed.

“Working with Mike has been great because he has trusted us to do our thing,” he said. “He gives us input when it’s appropriate and when he has things on his mind. We certainly appreciate it. Something the Orioles pride themselves on is working very collaboratively and so that extends to front office and we always love hearing from Mike. We have a great working relationship and when there are things to be giving input on they do and they have a really good trust in us to be able to continue to modernize our player development."