The Orioles’ new approach to hitting meetings gives players more input — and more responsibility

Last week, as the Orioles neared the two-month mark of the season, the consistent self-analysis from manager Craig Albernaz and his coaching staff reached a daily ritual: the pregame hitting meeting.

To that point, Baltimore’s 13 batters and its hitting coaches all gathered after batting practice to evaluate that night’s opposing starting pitcher. They discussed, as all teams do, the scouting report and attack plan from a general and individual sense. But after internalizing feedback from players and coaches alike, the Orioles made a change.

Gone was that big group meeting. Instead, the Orioles put the onus on their hitters to study reports sent the night before a game, and once they arrived at the ballpark, those hitters met individually with coaches to discuss their plan at the plate.

“We’re constantly re-evaluating everything we do,” Albernaz said. And that extends to the coaching staff and how they go about preparing their players, which led to this one specific change in how Baltimore implements its tactics.

Win or lose, Albernaz said, Baltimore’s staff is analyzing ways to improve. It’s no secret that the offense hasn’t performed at the level they expected to begin the year, and it’s too soon to say if this tweak is what will allow for a breakout. But as Albernaz and his staff place their stamp on the direction of the club, an openness to change is paramount.

“Just like a classroom, there’s going to be a handful of students who kind of shell in the back and don’t speak up,” Albernaz said of the group hitting meetings. “They’re not going to say they don’t understand. So now it’s tailoring everything individually to them.”

In a WhatsApp group message, hitting coaches send the advanced scouting report and possible attack plans to their hitters the night before a game, utilityman Blaze Alexander said.

The onus, then, is on the players to do the work before arriving to the ballpark. And once there, their individual homework is reinforced by meetings with hitting coaches Dustin Lind and Brady North.

“The team aspect, getting a general plan, is great,” shortstop Gunnar Henderson said. “But getting your own specific plan just for you is definitely probably going to help you more in the long run and being able to kind of do that so you’re not having to rely on guys doing that for you.”

There’s an ownership element to this, players in the clubhouse said. Alexander said he often deferred to veteran players, such as Pete Alonso, during group hitting meetings rather than speak up for himself. In an individual setting, there is no hiding in the back of the classroom, so to speak.

Every hitter is different, as well, and infielder Jeremiah Jackson said hearing instructions and advice for other hitters may subconsciously change one’s own approach — “which can be good and bad,” Jackson said.

At this point of the year, Jackson said, everyone’s familiarity is stronger. The hitting coaches have a better idea of what each player requires and how different information is internalized. That allows for individual meetings to take the preferred form for the player — a quick chat in the batting cages or a more structured sit-down, depending on the batter.

“One on one can be very beneficial,” Jackson said. “Obviously, not all of us are going to have the same approach. Not all of us are going to have the same swing. I think any time things can be individualized to make you better and help you win is probably a good idea.”

The timing element has been well received, too. Alexander said in the past, the hitting meeting occurred after batting practice. He would have already gone through his pregame drills and taken swings before studying video and the possible attack plans from that night’s set of pitchers.

“You went in there an hour and a half or whatever before the game, and that’s the first time you’re talking about it,” Alexander said. Now he is studying the next night’s starter a day early, and again when he wakes up.

“I’m going to come to the field and how I perceived pitcher, my homework, now I can put it into my drill work, instead of doing drill work, BP, then the meeting,” Alexander said.

Outfielder Taylor Ward, one of Baltimore’s veteran batters, said a change from a group meeting to individual meetings doesn’t alter his methods much. At his house before a series starts, he goes through each pitcher and jots down a quick description of what his arsenal looks like, how he might use it and how Ward plans to attack it.

He prints out those instructions and keeps it in his helmet locker in the dugout. Before an at-bat, he can quickly remind himself of his approach.

“We’re all different,” Ward said. “Everyone’s heat map is different. So, maybe looking in different spots for certain guys. I think, as long as you have a plan going up there and you stick to it, that’s all that matters. However you get that info and however you get committed to your plan, as long as you’re committed to a plan, that’s all that matters.”

In a sense, these individual meetings are an opportunity for other hitters to engage in that same process. It doesn’t reduce the role of a hitting coach — their instructions, sent in a WhatsApp group, still guide the team. But it starts the scouting process earlier.

“Most of these pitchers in the league don’t go based off their stuff, they go based off you,” infielder Coby Mayo said.

And who knows a hitter better than the hitter themselves?

“How you approach that pitcher is going to be different ways,” Alexander said. “I don’t think the meetings were bad, but it makes each guy do their own homework.”

With that responsibility on the players’ shoulders, perhaps this small change — part of the coaching staff’s never-ending introspection — will help the Orioles fulfill their potential.