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Cody Asche

Orioles To Name Cody Asche Hitting Coach

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The Orioles plan to name Cody Asche hitting coach, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (X links). Kubatko also reported earlier today that Baltimore was hiring Tommy Joseph away from the Mariners as an assistant hitting coach.

Baltimore parted ways with former hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte at the end of the season. Borgschulte landed with the Twins as their top hitting instructor last month. Kubatko reports (on X) today that Fuller is headed to the White Sox as director of hitting.

Asche will take a larger role in their stead. The O’s hired the former big league third baseman/outfielder as offensive strategy coach during the 2022-23 offseason. Asche had something of a de facto third hitting coach job in that capacity for two years. The O’s now seem content to turn the lead job over to the 34-year-old.

Most of Asche’s five-year playing career came as a member of the Phillies. The left-handed hitter played in Philadelphia between 2013-16. The final of those seasons overlapped with Joseph, a former first baseman who played 249 games for the Phils between 2016-17. Joseph made the transition to coaching in 2021. He spent a trio of seasons working with minor league hitters before joining Seattle’s staff as an assistant hitting coach. The Mariners shook up their hitting staff a couple times last season but kept Joseph in the fold all year. He’ll move on after one season to work with his former teammate in Baltimore.

Baltimore also has a bench coach vacancy after parting with Fredi González at the end of the year. The O’s haven’t settled on a replacement, but one notable name is connected to the job. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reports that the Orioles have interest in David Ross for the position, though he cautions that it’s unclear if that interest is mutual.

Last winter, Ross rebuffed interest from the Yankees regarding their bench coach job. That came within a week of his surprise firing as Cubs manager when Chicago jumped on the chance to hire Craig Counsell. Ross seemingly didn’t have any desire to take a non-managerial coaching job at the time. It isn’t known if that has changed, though he has close ties to Baltimore skipper Brandon Hyde. The O’s manager was on the Cubs’ coaching staff while Ross played for Chicago in 2015-16.

Orioles Notes: Angelos, McCann, Asche

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John Angelos was the chairman of the Orioles from 2020, when he formally took over from his father, Peter, until earlier this year, when his family sold the club to new owner David Rubenstein. Initially, Angelos was expected to remain with the club in a senior adviser role, but it seems as if that arrangement didn’t last long. According to Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun, Angelos is no longer connected to the team in any capacity after selling his remaining shares to Rubenstein’s ownership group this past August.

Angelos was hardly popular within the Orioles fanbase. The team’s payroll shrunk dramatically under his leadership, and he often complained about the lack of financial resources available to smaller-market organizations. In 2023, he told The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner that the only way to keep all the team’s young stars would be to raise ticket prices “dramatically.” Yet, he reneged on his promise to show reporters the complete “financials of the Orioles” (per the Associated Press). With Rubenstein’s takeover came the hope that the O’s would start spending significantly more on player payroll, and the news that Angelos is no longer exerting any influence over the team’s decisions can only increase that optimism. Baltimore’s payroll was significantly higher in 2024, though still well below league average. Earlier this month, general manager Mike Elias said he was “pretty confident” the payroll will continue to increase in 2025.

One task the Orioles will face this offseason (though hardly their most expensive decision) will be re-signing or replacing backup catcher James McCann. On that subject, Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports recently pointed out that McCann initially had the O’s on his five-team no-trade list back when he signed a four-year, $40.6MM deal with the Mets during the 2020-21 offseason. Needless to say, he ended up approving a trade to the Orioles anyway. What’s more, including the Orioles on his five-team no-trade list doesn’t necessarily mean McCann was opposed to playing in Baltimore. At the time he signed that deal, the Orioles were one of the basement-dwellers of the American League. That’s no longer the case. And it bears repeating that he ultimately accepted the trade that sent him to the Orioles – after they proved they were opening their window of contention with an 83-win season in 2022. Still, it’s a tidbit of information worth keeping in mind as the veteran backstop approaches free agency. McCann is well-liked by his Orioles teammates and has gotten plenty of playing time over the past two years as a backup for Adley Rutschman.

In one more note of interest, Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com discussed the Orioles coaching staff today, specifically the hitting coach vacancy left behind after co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller was let go and fellow co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte returned to the Twins. Dubroff pointed out that Cody Asche, technically the team’s offensive strategy coach, also functioned as a third hitting coach for the club. It’s unclear if Asche will change roles next season, but Dubroff does mention that Asche is “respected in the clubhouse.” He has been with the organization since 2022, first as a minor league hitting coordinator before joining the big league staff for the 2023 campaign. Previously, he was a minor league hitting coach in the Phillies organization. At 34 years old, he is still young for a big league coach, but he is certainly a name to keep in mind as the Orioles look to find their next hitting guru.

Orioles To Add Cody Asche To MLB Coaching Staff

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The Orioles are set to add Cody Asche to their major league coaching staff, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. He’ll take on the role of offensive strategy coach. The remainder of Brandon Hyde’s staff is expected to return for 2023, Kubatko adds, meaning the O’s are just adding an extra position.

It’ll be the first big league coaching work for the 32-year-old Asche. A University of Nebraska product, he’s a former fourth-round draftee of the Phillies. Asche reached the majors with the Phils midway through the 2013 campaign and spent the next few seasons in a fairly regular role bouncing between third base and the corner outfield. Asche spent part of the 2017 season with the White Sox, then played the next two years in the upper minors. His playing career wrapped up with the cancelation of the minor league campaign in 2020.

Asche began his post-playing endeavors in 2021, serving as a Low-A hitting coach in the Philadelphia organization. He joined the Orioles this year, spending this past season as a hitting coordinator in Baltimore’s upper minors. He’ll quickly make a jump to the MLB coaching ranks, while Anthony Villa takes over additional responsibilities as the organization’s minor league hitting coordinator, per Kubatko.

Hyde, a potential AL Manager of the Year candidate, will be back for a fifth season at the helm. Fred González returns as bench coach, while the O’s will again deploy co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte with Chris Holt as pitching coach.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/20/19

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Twins signed infielders Drew Maggi, Cody Asche and Jack Reinheimer to minor league contracts, per an announcement from Triple-A Rochester director of communications Nate Rowan. Maggi, 30, returns to the organization for a second season after posting a .258/.380/.407 slash in 516 plate appearances last year. He’s yet to crack the Majors to this point in his pro career. Asche was once one of the Phillies’ better prospects but never managed to cement himself as a big leaguer despite numerous chances. The corner infielder/outfielder is a .234/.293/.376 hitter in 1349 MLB plate appearances but a .275/.352/.467 batter in parts of six Triple-A seasons. Reinheimer, meanwhile, can play all over the infield and is considered a solid defender. The 27-year-old has a career .271/.338/.363 batting line in 1767 Triple-A plate appearances. Rowan also confirmed the Twins’ previously reported signings of lefty Danny Coulombe and Caleb Thielbar.

Earlier Moves

  • The Angels have signed shortstop Elliot Soto to a minors pact with an invitation to major league camp, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. A 15th-round pick of the Cubs in 2010, the diminutive Soto (5 foot 9, 160 pounds) hasn’t gotten past Triple-A ball among his three professional organizations – Chicago, Miami and Colorado. The 30-year-old Soto did, however, show well at the minors’ highest level last season in the Rockies organization, as he batted .305/.380/,480 (111 wRC+) with 10 home runs and eight stolen bases over 463 plate appearances.

Red Sox Activate Eduardo Nunez, Tzu-Wei Lin Placed On Injured List

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The Boston Red Sox activated infielder Eduardo Nunez from the 10-day IL today, per an official team release. Infielder Tzu-Wei Lin heads to the injured list in the corresponding move.

Nunez went down on April 18th with a mid-back strain after a rough start to the year. The 31-year-old was hitting only .159/.178/.182 at the time of the injury. He was primarily utilized at second base to start the year, but top prospect Michael Chavis has staked a claim to the keystone in the interim. With Nunez, Dustin Pedroia and Brock Holt all on the injured list, Chavis, 23, took full advantage by hitting .310/.442/.619 with four home runs and ten RBIs. Nunez will have to fight to take back playing time coming off a disappointing .265/.289/.388 in 2018, his first full season in Boston. Nunez makes $5MM this season, and he will be a free agent at the end of the year, so it’s not inconceivable to think the Red Sox could cut bait if Nunez doesn’t start producing – though injuries to other Boston infielders and his pedigree as a useful .277/.312/.406 career hitter likely grants Nunez a fairly long leash.

Lin, 25, becomes the latest Boston infielder to occupy the injured list in 2019. He sprained his knee in Chicago on Friday and now heads back to Boston to undergo testing. Lin is primarily a middle infielder, though he has played all over the diamond during his Boston tenure. He was 4-20 so far this season as one of the many Boston infielders to sample second base.

In a related depth move, former Phillie prospect Cody Asche joins Triple-A Pawtucket after having his contract purchased from the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Independent League, per the Skeeters. Asche made good use of his time in Sugar Land, hitting .250/.375/.400 in six games with the Skeeters since signing in mid-April. Last appearing in the majors in 2017 for the White Sox, Asche, 28, spent time with both New York organizations in 2018.

Cody Asche Signs With Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters

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Former big league infielder/outfielder Cody Asche has agreed to a deal with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League, Mike Ashmore of the Trentonian reports (via Twitter).

Still just 28 years of age, Asche was once one of the more well-regarded prospects in the Phillies’ system and viewed as a possible long-term piece in the organization. Back in 2013, Asche clobbered Triple-A pitching at a .295/.352/.485 clip as a 23-year-old and found himself promoted to the big leagues for the season’s final two months. The 2011 fourth-round pick sandwiched a highly productive stretch (.299/.364/.504 over 33 games) between a pair of slumps during that debut campaign, creating some hope that he’d establish himself the following season.

Unfortunately, that never came to be. Asche’s OPS in each of his first three MLB seasons sat between .689 and .699, and by the time the Phillies eventually cut bait on the once-promising third baseman in 2016, he’d amassed a .240/.298/.385 line in nearly 1300 MLB plate appearances. Asche received a brief look with the White Sox in 2017 but couldn’t get his bat going in a new setting either. He split the 2018 campaign between the Triple-A affiliates for the Yankees and Mets but slumped to the worst minor league performance of his career.

Despite last year’s poor results in Triple-A, Asche is still a career .275/.352/.469 hitter in parts of six seasons at that level. He’ll be one of several former big leaguers on the Skeeters roster in 2019, as the Sugar Land club’s roster also includes James Loney, Alec Asher, Mark Lowe, Ryan Schimpf, Felipe Paulino and Jean Machi, among others.

Mets To Sign Cody Asche

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The Mets have struck a minor-league deal with infielder/outfielder Cody Asche, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). He’ll head to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Asche, who spent camp with the Royals, landed with the Yankees via trade at the start of April. But he was released recently by the Yanks after a brutal start to the Triple-A season. Asche put up a .169/.258/.237 slash with 21 strikeouts in 66 trips to the plate with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

A veteran of five MLB campaigns, the former Phillies third baseman and outfielder appeared only briefly in the majors last year with the White Sox. He carries a lifetime .234/.293/.376 bating line in 1,349 trips tot he plate in the majors.

Yankees Acquire Cody Asche

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The Yankees have acquired infielder/outfielder Cody Asche from the Royals, per a club announcement. Cash or a player to be named later will head to Kansas City in return.

Asche had joined the Royals organization on a minors deal over the offseason. He was expected to provide a depth option there but will instead do so for the New York organization after today’s swap.

The former Phillies prospect has certainly had his chances in the majors, but carries only a .234/.293/.376 batting line over 1,349 plate appearances in his career. He did hit well last year at Triple-A, though, and performed well this spring with a .269/.412/.500 slash.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/14/17

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Here are the latest minor moves, with newer signings at the top of the post…

Latest Transactions

  • The Royals officially announced the minor league signings of both Broadway and third baseman/outfielder Cody Asche via their official Twitter feed.  Asche has a .234/.293/.376 slash line over 1349 career PA from 2013-17, as he has yet to break out after years as a well-regarded prospect in the Phillies’ system.  Asche spent 2017 with the White Sox, where he posted a big .887 OPS over 347 Triple-A plate appearances and also appeared in 19 games with the big league club.

Earlier Today

  • The Rays announced their list of 13 players invited to their MLB spring camp on minor league deals (Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times has the breakdown).  Some of the signings have been reported on MLBTR already, though the list also includes such notable former big leaguers as Jonny Venters, Brandon Snyder, and Colton Murray.  Venters is back for his third year in Tampa’s minor league system, as the former Braves All-Star is trying to make an extraordinary comeback from four Tommy John surgeries, three of which have come since 2013.
  • The Marlins signed infielder Cristhian Adames to a minor league contract, Antonio Puesan of Magnus Media reports (Twitter link).  The deal contains an invitation to Miami’s Spring Training camp.  All ten of Adames’ pro seasons have come in the Rockies organization, including 166 games at the Major League level over the last four seasons.  Adames actually appeared in 121 games for Colorado in 2016, though largely in a backup infield role.  Still just 26, Adames has a .279/.344/.384 slash line over 3314 career minor league plate appearances and a .561 OPS over his 343 PA in the bigs.
  • The Royals signed right-hander Mike Broadway to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invitation, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports (via Twitter).  Originally a fourth-round pick for the Braves in the 2005 draft, Broadway reached the big leagues a decade later, posting a 6.75 ERA over 22 2/3 relief innings for the Giants in 2015-16.  The righty spent last season in the Nationals and Rays farm systems.

Elected Free Agency: Siegrist, Edgin, Hutchison, Locke, Bolsinger, Van Slyke, Maness

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The indispensable Matt Eddy of Baseball America provides an overview of a vast number of players electing free agency following the 2017 season in his latest Minor Transactions roundup. Eddy largely focuses on players with big league service time (significant service time, in some cases) that were outrighted off the roster that are now hitting the open market for the first time. (Players with three-plus years of service that are not on the 40-man roster at season’s end can elect free agency, as can any player that has been outrighted on multiple occasions in his career.)

While the vast majority of these players seem likely to sign minor league pacts this winter — they did, after all, go unclaimed by 29 other teams on waivers — a number of them are still intriguing with recent success in their past and/or multiple years of arbitration eligibility remaining. Eddy’s rundown also contains a number of re-signed minor leaguers and released minor leaguers without big league experience as well as Arizona Fall League assignments on a per-team basis, so it’s well worth a full look.

We’ve updated our list of 2017-18 MLB free agents accordingly, and here are some of the new names now checking in on the list…

Depth options in the rotation

Josh Collmenter, Asher Wojciechowski, Drew Hutchison, Jeff Locke, Kyle Kendrick, Mike Bolsinger, Christian Bergman, David Holmberg

Collmenter is just two seasons removed from being the D-backs Opening Day starter but hasn’t had much success of late. Hutchison had solid Triple-A numbers and once looked like a long-term rotation piece in Toronto before Tommy John surgery. He can be controlled for another three seasons in arbitration. Locke was injured for most of an ugly first (and likely only) season in Miami, and Kendrick made just two starts for the Red Sox.

Wojciechowski (6.50 ERA in 62 1/3 innings with the Reds), Bolsinger (6.31 ERA in 41 1/3 innings with the Jays), Bergman (5.00 ERA in 54 innings with the Mariners) and Holmberg (4.68 ERA in 57 2/3 innings with the White Sox) all soaked up innings for injury-plagued pitching staffs. Bolsinger has had the most MLB experience of the bunch.

Corner Bats

Scott Van Slyke, Tyler Moore, Cody Asche, Conor Gillaspie, Jaff Decker

Van Slyke has long been a solid bat against left-handed pitching but appeared in just 29 games with the Dodgers and didn’t hit well with their Triple-A affiliate or with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate. (He was included in the Tony Cingrani trade to balance out the financial side of the deal.) Moore, also a right-handed bat, showed power but struggled to get on base.

Once one of the Phillies’ top prospects, Asche hit well in Triple-A Charlotte but flopped in a brief stint with the ChiSox. Gillaspie was unable to replicate his 2016 rebound with the Giants, while Decker showed some on-base skills in the Majors and minors but didn’t hit much overall. (He can play center but hasn’t graded well there in the Majors.)

Utility Infielders

Ruben Tejada, Phil Gosselin, Dusty Coleman, Chase d’Arnaud

Each of the four can play all over the diamond, but none provided offensive value in 2017. Tejada has the most big league experience but hasn’t received much playing time since 2015 (and hasn’t performed well when he has gotten opportunities). Gosselin has a solid defensive reputation but a light bat through 551 MLB PAs. Coleman hit four homers in 71 PAs in his MLB debut this year but logged a .268 OBP. d’Arnaud saw his fair share of 2016 action with the Braves but has never produced much at the plate.

Bullpen options

Kevin Siegrist (L), Josh Edgin (L), Seth Maness, Kevin Quackenbush

Siegrist and Edgin are intriguing names for clubs in need of left-handed bullpen help. Both have recent success on their track records, though Edgin wasn’t as sharp in 2017 as he was prior to 2015 Tommy John surgery. Siegrist’s control eroded in 2017 as he missed time due to a back/spinal injury and tendinitis in his left forearm, but he was one of the Cardinals’ top setup options in both 2015 and 2016. Both lefties are controllable through 2019.

Maness drew headlines for returning from a torn UCL in roughly seven months thanks to an experimental new “primary repair” procedure, but while he stayed healthy in 2017, the results weren’t great in the Majors and especially not in Triple-A (6.13 ERA in 47 innings). Quackenbush was excellent as a rookie in 2014 and solid in 2015-16 before imploding in 2017 (7.86 ERA in 26 1/3 innings). He was better but not great in Triple-A (3.90 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9). Maness could be controlled through 2019, while Quackenbush would have three more years of control.

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