Orioles assistant hitting coach Sherman Johnson is moving to the White Sox as a minor league hitting coordinator, reports Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner. Kostka also reports that Tommy Joseph, another assistant hitting coach, won’t be returning to the O’s next year. Those may not be the only changes for the Baltimore coaching staff, as Andy Martino of SNY reports that first base coach Anthony Sanders has been given permission to talk to other clubs.
The Orioles will have a new manager in 2026. Brandon Hyde was fired during the 2025 season. Third base coach Tony Mansolino took over as interim manager for the remainder of the campaign. It was announced yesterday that Craig Albernaz will now skipper the club. It’s common for managerial hirings to lead to coaching staff shake-ups, as the new bench boss will sometimes bring in his own guys or simply just have different ideas about the best way to move forward.
Johnson, 35, was just hired in November of last year. The 2025 season was his first on a big league staff. He had a brief playing career, with ten big league games for the Angels back in 2018. He played in the minors and independent ball through 2022 before transitioning into coaching. The O’s hired him to work as hitting coach for Double-A Bowie in 2023. He was a minor league hitting coordinator in 2024 before getting bumped up to the big leagues. He’ll now return to the minors in a role with the White Sox.
Joseph, 34, played for the Phillies in 2016 and 2017. He then transitioned to coaching, working in the minors with the Mets and Giants. He got a big league job with the Mariners in 2024, getting hired as an assistant hitting coach. He was hired away by the Orioles for the 2025 season but will be moving on after just one season in Baltimore.
Sanders, 51, played in the majors from 1999 to 2001. He later transitioned to coaching, working with the Rockies in the minor leagues. He worked his way up to the majors and then jumped to the Orioles as first base coach for the 2020 season. It’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll be leaving the O’s but it seems he is at least exploring the possibility.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Hopefully they will add solid pieces to the roster to supplement that young core this offseason. I’ve been saying that for a few years now on other sites and I was told to shut up and I’m stupid they know what they are doing. How did the doing almost nothing approach work out?
Hopefully Elias has figured out that most of the time if you want quality players you’re going to have to pay a premium price either through free agency or trades. I was a debbie downer on the moves made last offseason as well. I would’ve loved to have been wrong about it but here we are.
@scruff they signed one free agent that cost them a few bucks but he wasn’t a game changer. The bottom line is they did nothing to improve last off-season. If they don’t change their business practice this off-season this entire thing is just not gonna work out for them. I know these guys are young but the window only stays open for so long.
If Elias didn’t do anything, how did he dupe everyone into thinking the Orioles had a contending in 2025? The entire professional world of sports (from Vegas book-makers, to industry media, to MLB front offices) said that they were contenders.
So, how’d Elias do it? How’d he fool everyone in and around professional sports?
@O what is wrong with you. What are you talking about? Who’s talking about someone duped EVERYONE into thinking they were going to be contenders? You slammed a couple 40s tonight?
Elias deserves credit for how he built up the team, though all that tanking—which doesn’t reward teams anymore like it used to—didn’t hurt. He may also merit criticism for not doing enough to bolster his young core with enough established vets, though ownership probably bears some responsibility for that, too, depending on how willing they were to spend.
All in all, both things can be true; he played a major role in building up a contender, and has a hand in not doing enough to go even further. It wasn’t just us rondo’s in this comment section who thought the O’s should have done more to land established front-end pitchers, for example.
Finally.
Never heard of them And they weren’t very effective
that was the guy in the hunter pence trade
Too many assistant this and assistant that. Should only be a handful of coaches on each team.
your track record managing winning big league clubs speaks for itself. you tell’em, @Stick.
Nice to screw over Tommy like that. The Orioles continue to be a crap organization.
@NeverRemember
i know that there are a LOT of factors to go into these stats but other than the factor that nearly every new manager brings in their own coaches, there is the fact that the team really struggled offensively. Which is much of what Tommy and Sherman were there to improve.
They’d be a crap org if they DIDN’t shake things up a little from this:
“Their offense also disappointed during the season as they ranked 24th in all of baseball in runs scored (677), batting average (.235) and on-base percentage (.305).”
I do have to give it to you though, I’ve been railing on folks postulating the same complaints, “O’s are cheap”, “Elias is the worst GM in all of history”. You have brought a new argument to the table… “they let Tommy walk,.this is proof positive that Baltimore is a crap organization.”
I bet nobody but you had that on their Bingo card. Bravo. You’re one of a kind.
Changing managers and coaching staff frequently is bound to be a positive. 🙃
From a fans perspective, I think it’s hard to know what the coaches are doing or not doing for the team so it’s hard for me to form an opinion. I will say that I had a couple chance interactions with Anthony Sanders in Seattle and Sacramento this season and he’s a great guy. Talking it up with fans before games and between innings. Not stand-offish like some can be. I hope he comes back, but even if he doesn’t end up with the Orioles next season I believe he’ll be a great asset to any team.
The hitting was horrific and the coaches had to go. They better send off main hitting coach Ashe as well. Adley ops+ down 15, Mountcastle down 27, Henderson down 34, Urias -21, Cowser -34, Westburg -13, Mateo -50. One guy, O’hearn, went up and I’m leaving out the abject failure with Holliday. They still hit the ball hard but Ks way up, grounders thru the Roof.
Always wondered why guys who couldn’t hit in their cup of coffee in the bigs wind up as hitting coaches.
Huh? “Those who can’t do; teach” is one of the oldest adages in the book