Orioles Announce 2019 Coaching Staff

The Orioles on Wednesday formally announced their coaching staff for the 2019 season under first-year skipper Brandon Hyde.

Don Long will serve as the team’s new hitting coach, and Howie Clark will reprise his previous role as assistant hitting coach, making him the lone holdover from last year’s big league staff. Doug Brocail, meanwhile, will join the organization as the new pitching coach and work alongside former O’s minor league pitching coordinator John Wasdin, who is being promoted to bullpen coach. Arnie Beyeler and Jose Flores will handle first and third base coaching duties, respectively. Tim Cossins has been named Major League field/catching coordinator, and Jose Hernandez will join the club as a Major League coach. It seems, then, that Hyde will operate without a bench coach in his first year on the job, as Baltimore’s release makes no mention of the position.

Several of the new hires have ties to Hyde or new Orioles GM Mike Elias. Brocail, 51, spent a combined six years as a pitching coach with the Astros and Rangers before being replaced in Texas just this offseason. His time with the ’Stros from 2011-13 overlapped with the early stages of Elias’ time in Houston. Similarly, the 48-year-old Cossins is a known commodity to Hyde, as the two spent time together in the Cubs organization, where Hyde was the Cubs’ first base coach and bench coach and Cossins was the organization’s minor league field/catching coordinator. Flores, too, comes to the Orioles with Cubs connections. The 48-year-old spent the 2013-17 seasons as Chicago’s minor league infield coordinator before being hired as the Phillies’ first base coach in 2018.

While Clark is the lone holdover from former skipper Buck Showalter’s staff, there are still a pair of O’s minor league coaches joining the MLB staff. Hernandez, 49, may be a familiar name for some O’s fans, as he’s spent the past six seasons as a coach with the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk. He should have plenty of familiarity with the bevy of young players who’ll receive an extended opportunity at the MLB level in the early stages of Baltimore’s rebuild. Wasdin could be described similarly, having spent the past two years as the Orioles’ minor league pitching coordinator.

The 54-year-old Beyeler spent the past three seasons as the manager of the Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate and has been involved in baseball as a manager, coach or scout for nearly three decades. Long, meanwhile, joins the Orioles on the heels of a five-year stretch as the Reds’ hitting coach. The 56-year-old has more than three decades of coaching and managerial experience, having also spent time with the Angels, Phillies, Pirates and Braves.