It was hinted at by general manager Mike Elias and skipper Brandon Hyde that the Baltimore Orioles might be making some changes this winter, and that has transpired just a few weeks into the offseason.
At first, it was revealed that they were moving on from three offensive coaches that included bench coach Fredi Gonzalez and co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller. Later, the other half of the co-hitting duo, Matt Borgschulte, excepted a job with the Minnesota Twins and left the organization.
Well, the Orioles didn’t stop at just those changes.
According to Roch Kubatko of MASN, the advance scouting and strategy department is also undergoing an overhaul after his source told him that Bill Wilkes, Ben Sussman-Hyde and Sam Berk will not be back in 2025.
Wilkes was the manager of Major League strategy, a position he held since 2021 after he was promoted from his role as advance scouting operations manager. His tenure with the franchise first started back in 2006.
Sussman-Hyde is also someone who held multiple roles with Baltimore, most recently holding the title of Major League video/run creation strategist manager after he was formerly the Major League video/advance scouting coordinator three years ago.
Berk is no longer with the Orioles after serving as an advance scouting analyst for this one season following almost three as an advance scouting fellow.
Kubatko doesn’t mention a reason why these changes were made.
He did add that director of baseball strategy, Brendan Fournie, will remain with the team in 2025.
Who Elias and the other stakeholders in this process are looking to hire isn’t known, and since there was no reason stated about why these three were let go, it’s hard to speculate regarding who might take their place.
Baltimore has been busy so far, and that should only continue when free agency officially gets underway.
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