Sunday, October 26

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BALTIMORE -- Last offseason, I chatted with Drew French shortly after he was hired as the Orioles’ pitching coach and was preparing for his first Spring Training in the role. He had never previously been an MLB pitching coach. He was still getting to know Baltimore’s roster.

This offseason, French already had those relationships built and has focused on getting O’s pitchers he’s familiar with ready for the season.

We spoke again recently as French enters his second spring with the Orioles.

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MLB.com: How different has this offseason been for you from last year’s?

French: In large, the reason why the offseason is so valuable when you’re returning and there’s continuity is you get a chance to evaluate everything. I didn’t have a chance to do that with basically drinking from a fire hose for three months before I got to camp. And now, it seemed to have slowed down a little bit and we got our ducks in a row and knew there were things we wanted to be better for our players. We wanted a better environment and culture for them, and so we got to work on that immediately, and hopefully, that stuff shows up and shines in Spring Training.

For the most part, you’re not building as many relationships anymore. You’re always building them, but I guess you’re not in the infancy stages of what those look like. Really nice to pick up the phone and call whoever and just check in, whether it’s knowing who their girlfriend is or their wife is or where they vacationed. It was just a lot more comfortable, a lot more slow.

MLB.com: Let’s dive into some new pitchers on the O’s staff. First, Charlie Morton -- a 17-year veteran who you overlapped with in Atlanta from 2021-23.

French: The one thing I know about Charlie is he’s never going to have an air about him that he has anything figured out. I think where that might be perceived by the outside world as insecurity, I believe it’s part of his drive and his hunger to be better. I think you can kind of speak to his maturation and his performance rising and peaking later in his career than most would, and so, it’s really not out of the realm of expectations to understand why he is the way he is.

I think he started to learn what that best version looked like when he got to Houston [in 2017], and then he’s kind of capitalized on that and turned some knobs and some dials along the way. We know that he’s really hungry to be good, and we know that he’s a selfless dude and he thinks a lot about the people around him and the team, especially, first. Just his presence and demeanor is going to be such a huge add for our team.

MLB.com: There’s also Tomoyuki Sugano -- a 35-year-old Japanese right-hander coming to MLB for the first time. What do you know about him, and what do you like about what you’ve seen/heard?

French: Ultimately, what I found out about him is this guy is really dialed into his routine. He knows what his offseason needs to look like. He’s really, really excited about the regularity of pitching and what he’s going to have to do to kind of adapt his normal routine and his normal schedule in-season. We’ve had a few conversations about what that will look like in camp and the way that he’s comfortable getting to those points.

Obviously, we know that this guy is a really good command guy, and you’re not that successful for that long over there with those kinds of hitters without being elite at something. And fortunately, he’s elite at a couple of things.

MLB.com: How do you feel overall about the starting rotation? Corbin Burnes is gone, but there seems to be a good bit of depth there.

French: I’m very high on this group. If you were to name a name, I would tell you how high I am on them and what their offseason has looked like and what the year-to-year maturation process has looked like. Because ultimately, it doesn’t matter how much continuity there is and what names are returning. They’re not going to be the same guy in ‘25 that they were in ‘24. In a lot of ways, we hope that’s for the better, and that’s ultimately up to us with the planning and the communication side. 

Versatility is the first thing that comes to mind. I see guys that we have that can beat you with fastballs. I see guys that have pitchability with stuff, but able to use a dynamic package of sequencing to get guys out.

MLB.com: Do you feel Grayson Rodriguez could take another big step forward and become a staff leader?

French: We know when he’s right, he is a No. 1. ... Everybody wants to see this guy stay healthy and knows that he’s a generational talent. Certainly, the steps that he took last year all the way through the end of August were nothing short of remarkable. I mean, he’s definitely growing, he’s definitely maturing, he’s starting to understand the league.

We are very high on what type of offseason that he’s put in to this point.

Tickets are on sale now for Spring Training games at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Fla. They can be purchased at Orioles.com.

For those planning to attend early O’s Grapefruit League games, here are the scheduled promotions for the first week of exhibitions:

Feb. 22 vs. PIT: Magnet schedule (all fans)

Feb. 24 vs. ATL: Seniors Stroll the Bases (ages 60 and older)

Feb. 25 vs. DET: Heroes Day (all fans)

March 1 vs. PIT: Plush Cow (first 3,000 fans)

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