Jon Meoli: Coby Mayo’s history of offseason improvements bodes well for the Orioles

Even before he reached the majors, you could count on Coby Mayo to do a couple things consistently. He almost always ended his seasons well, and he just as often used his offseason to attack whatever challenged him to try to turn that into a strength.

There might not be anything more encouraging for the 2027 Orioles than the possibility that Mayo — who slugged 24 home runs and was one of the game’s best hitters in the second half — continues to build on that success.

He did all that after as challenging a start to the season as anyone on the team faced. In Mayo’s words, “not quitting on those early struggles” set him up for a strong second half and can be the foundation for a productive career.

“I think I’ve dealt with a lot of stuff in my major league career so far with negatives that I’ve gotten to the point where I just don’t care,” he said. “I don’t care about the bad. I don’t care about the good, because it’s going to happen. There’s going to be so much bad that happens throughout a long career. I know that, and I don’t want to let that get to me, so I’m just trying to live in every day and try to get better.”

Mayo, who was moved to first base during the 2025 season and had a .941 OPS that September, returned to third base in spring training after Jordan Westburg’s elbow injury. His season reached its nadir in early May, when he had a game-ending throwing error in a loss to the Marlins on May 7 and a .495 OPS entering the May 11 game against the Yankees.

That night, he hit a go-ahead home run and, proclaiming that his dog still loved him no matter what, set about turning his season around. That week, he went on a throwing program to clean up his arm action and was much improved at third base from that point. And including that game, he had an .844 OPS and 21 home runs in 344 plate appearances the rest of the season.

Around that time, he’d taken the advice of the Orioles’ hitting coaches and moved a little closer to the plate, which allowed him to better lay off the outer-half spin that he’d often chase and make poor contact on. If it looked like it was going to be outside from his new vantage point, it probably wasn’t worth swinging at, and if it didn’t, he’d unload his powerful swing — and often do damage.

His 1.105 OPS against lefties was best in the game, with 16 of his 24 home runs coming off opposite-side pitching. He wasn’t crushing them early in the season, and the confidence that came from that helped his overall production, as did the defensive success.

Mayo also had an .858 OPS against righties in September, helping him to a second-half OPS against righties of .723. But hitting righties is still part of the “clear plan” of what he wants to attack this winter at TBT Training in Florida.

“You’ve got to challenge yourself in the offseason,” he said. “You’ve got to get comfortable being uncomfortable with shapes and challenging yourself and failing, because you want to go into spring training seeing all the best shapes possible — super hoppy heaters, nasty sliders, big curveballs and lefty shapes as well.”

That’s not just lip service with Mayo. He’s taken late-season challenges, such as in Double-A to end 2022 and Triple-A to end 2023, and come back having covered the gaps in his swing that those levels exposed. He did the same in 2024 after his first taste of the big leagues.

Mayo, a fourth-round pick in 2020, debuted in pro ball late in 2021 at Low-A Delmarva with that year’s draft class after dealing with a knee injury and was “adopted” by that group. Colton Cowser said he’s seen since those days that all Mayo needs is time to problem solve, and his talent usually takes over.

“I think the big thing for him was getting the opportunity to adjust,” Cowser said. “… I think he always had the confidence in himself to turn that page, and I think the most important thing is he continued to have that confidence up here. I’ve seen him do freak-of-nature type stuff when it comes to hitting the baseball, so I think it was only a matter of time.”