Baltimore Orioles: Thoughts on Dave Trembley and the coaching staff

The Baltimore Orioles continue to work on building a coaching staff under Brandon Hyde as the end of 2018 draws closer

Christmas is over. Finally. The holiday season can be enjoyable, but sometimes it’s entirely too stressful. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it and got everything you asked for. And hopefully Brandon Hyde is enjoying his working vacation, and the Baltimore Orioles are getting closer to filling out their 2019 coaching staff.

Any potential free agent acquisitions will likely come later in the off-season, and there’s little happening in Birdland. The biggest thing for the Orioles at the moment is getting their new coaching staff in place.

There have been grumblings about Dave Trembley potentially reuniting with the Orioles. This is…eh

Trembley was hired in 2003 by the Orioles to manage the Bowie Baysox. He managed in the Orioles minor league system until 2007, when he was promoted to the bullpen coach role in Baltimore.

After the Orioles fired manager Sam Perlozzo mid-way through the 2007 season, Trembley was promoted to interim-manager. From June of 2007 until he was fired in June of 2010, Trembley managed the Orioles to a 187-283 record, the second worst managerial record in franchise history.

During his tenure in Baltimore, especially toward the end of it, Trembley was widely criticized for many things, including the Orioles continued losing, mismanagement of the bullpen, and the lack of a winning mentality in the clubhouse.

Trembley not only has familiarity with the Orioles, but also with Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal. Trembley was hired by the Astros after the 2012 season and served as their third-base coach for two seasons. Trembley has also worked in multiple roles with the Braves.

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I’m likely not the only person in Birdland who is more than skeptical about Trembley potentially returning to a role in the Orioles’ clubhouse. I’m not confident that Hyde would be interested in bringing Trembley back, but we’ll see what happens.

Either way, the Orioles need a new pitching coach. With all due respect to Roger McDowell, the job hasn’t been getting done in Baltimore the past two years.

The Orioles posted a collective 5.18 ERA in 2018, easily the worst in MLB. 2017 wasn’t much better, with the Orioles’ 4.97 mark good for fourth-worst in the majors.

The Orioles are in desperate need of enhanced player development, specifically on the pitching side. Unfortunately, McDowell doesn’t seem to be bringing enough to the table. I feel confident saying that Dave Trembley wouldn’t help in this regard either.

The Orioles have already made several smart baseball decisions this off-season. They don’t need to take steps backward at this point; it’s time to keep moving forward.