The Orioles are adding two more coaches to their coaching staff for next season.
The Baltimore Orioles are adding two more coaches to their new-look coaching staff.
Baltimore is reportedly hiring Brady North as their assistant hitting coach, as well as Hank Conger to become the bullpen coach. Andy Kotska of The Baltimore Banner was the first to report the addition of North, while Roch Kubatko of MASN initially broke Conger’s hiring.
North has spent his entire professional coaching career with the Tampa Bay Rays and has also spent the last four years as an assistant hitting coach. He was reportedly offered a different role with the Rays, according to Jake Rill of MLB.com. However, the Rays gave him the option to leave if he found a new job elsewhere; by joining the O’s, he will remain in the AL East.
The 34-year-old has ties to Orioles’ new skipper Craig Albernaz; North began his coaching career with Tampa Bay back in 2019 as the hitting coach for the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Rays, while Albernaz was the team’s Minor League field coordinator. The two will now reunite in Baltimore for the 2026 season and beyond.
North will work alongside hitting coach Dustin Lind, who was hired by the Orioles this offseason for that position. Lind spent last season with the Philadelphia Phillies as an assistant hitting coach, and has also previously worked alongside Albernaz when the two were with the San Francisco Giants.
As for Conger, the former major league catcher has spent the last four years with the Minnesota Twins as their first base and catching coach before being let go on November 7. The 37-year-old was also a catcher’s coach for the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball League from 2020 to 2021.
Before coaching, Conger played seven seasons in MLB as a catcher with the Los Angeles Angels from 2010 to 2014, the Houston Astros in 2015 and the Rays in 2016. He also inked a minor league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2017, but played just 58 games in Triple-A before being released on July 28.
Baltimore is continuing to shake up their coaching staff after falling well short of expectations this past season, when they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2022. The other coaching moves the O’s have made were naming Jason Bourgeois as their first base coach, Buck Britton as their third base coach, Donnie Ecker as their bench coach, Miguel Cairo as their infield coach and Joe Singley as their field coordinator and catching coach.
The only coaches that were retained were pitching coach Drew French, assistant pitching coach/interim bullpen coach Mitch Plassmeyer and pitching strategy coach Ryan Klimek, but have yet to be named to official roles.
The coaches who have recently departed the O’s and have found new positions across the league include former interim manager/third base coach Tony Mansolino, who was named the Atlanta Braves’ bench coach. Former hitting coach Cody Asche and first base coach Anthony Sanders were both hired by the Detroit Tigers for those respective jobs, while former assistant hitting coach Sherman Johnson was named the Chicago White Sox’s hitting coordinator.
Former bench coach Robinson Chirinos and assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph have also left the organization, but have not taken coaching jobs elsewhere.
