Photographs courtesy Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Oriole Ryan O’Hearn says the time period from January 2023 to this past February has easily been the best time of his life.
After the Kansas City Royals traded O’Hearn, a first baseman/outfielder, to Baltimore for cash considerations early last year, he had a breakout 2023 season.
This past February, he signed a one-year deal for $3.5 million with a $7.5 club option for 2025. The year’s salary more than doubles what the 6-foot-3, 230-pound O’Hearn made in 2022 ($1.3 million) and 2023 ($1.4 million).
O’Hearn’s 2023 success can’t be talked about without mentioning Orioles’ hitting coaches Cody Asche, Matt Borgschulte, and Ryan Fuller. They revamped O’Hearn’s swing, which led to numbers he never produced before.
“As soon as I got here, the Orioles’ hitting coaches had a list of things for me to work on,” O’Hearn says. “Now, there are all these tools in my toolbox that I hadn’t had in the past.”
The 30-year-old O’Hearn batted .289 with a .801 OPS, 14 home runs, and 60 RBIs in 346 at-bats, often batting cleanup.
“I wouldn’t say it was a magical one-day process,” Asche says of O’Hearn’s hitting mechanics. “It was an adjustment here, an adjustment there. His mentality was, ‘I am just going to get better every day. It made our job easy.”
In Kansas City, O’Hearn reached the Big Leagues in July 2018 and hit a home run in his debut. He finished with 12 home runs that season and clubbed 14 the following season. But from 2020 to 2022, his playing time dwindled.
To learn more about his time with the Royals and Orioles, we recently talked to O’Hearn.
Photographs courtesy Baltimore Orioles
How will you have another strong season in 2024?
For me, I have to focus on being that competitor, that dog on the field. Doing exactly what I did last year. I think as a player you have to buy into the mentality of one day at a time. I feel good with where I am right now. My body feels good. My swing feels good. If the team is playing well, scoring runs, and I am hitting in the middle of the lineup, the numbers will be there. I will have a great year. The effort will be there. I will be locked in ready to go.
Talk about the hitting adjustments that led to your breakthrough.
There were some mechanical things I had not been focusing on in the past. It was clicking in spring training. I was hitting balls all over the yard and hitting less ground balls. I finally learned how to hit a breaking ball the right way. It was mainly two things. One was posture. I simplified everything. When I landed with my feet after swinging, I had a habit of hunching over, so I was hitting balls away and down really well. But I was getting exposed to pitches up high. Now, I was landing with good posture. The other thing was to use my legs properly and keep the center mass of gravity where it needed to be. It allowed me to adjust to see a breaking ball the right way or hit a changeup in the strike zone. I seized the opportunity.
What kind of training do you do? Has it changed over the years?
s you get older, you pick more volume with cardio and less heavy, heavy lifting. I still do deadlifts, curls, and squats. I am not maxing out on squats. I want to be more mobile. I am working on mobility, agility work, running, and functional movement. The past few years, I have also really tried to challenge myself on the hitting machine. It’s huge to have a guy (Evan Mistich) throw batting practice and breaking balls and change-ups. Hitting different speeds and locations. You are trying to simulate game at bats as much as possible.
The Orioles’ hitting coaches were instrumental in you blossoming. How would you describe your relationship with them?
We have three of them and they have been amazing. All three have helped me out tremendously. I owe a lot of credit to them. I couldn’t have a better relationship with all three of them. They are a cohesive unit. It’s not like you are hearing one thing from one guy or something else from another. They are on the same page with different drills and things that can help improve each guy in their own individual way.
Tell me about the Orioles great 2023 season of winning the American League East and making the playoffs.
It was really wild. We had this mojo as a team. I don’t think anybody could have predicted a 101-win season. It was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball. There’s nothing like showing up at the ballpark and expecting to win every day. For me personally, the season couldn’t have gone any better. I got designated for assignment and that meant I would be playing somewhere else, or Japan. I still felt I could play in the big leagues and have success as a middle-of-the-order type of bat. With the Orioles, everything seemed to click. The coaches, the atmosphere. I re-fell in love with the game.
Can the Orioles take the next step, win a playoff series, or go on a deep postseason run?
Our goal is the World Series. If it’s not, I don’t know what we are doing. We won 101 games last year, but the front office added some major pieces with Craig Kimbrel and Corbin Burnes. And I think the young stars, Adley Rutschman and Gunner Henderson have another year under their belts. I think the sky is the limit. I feel very confident in our team. It’s a privilege to be on a team like this and have those expectations.
Photographs courtesy Baltimore Orioles
What were you thinking when you were designated for assignment and as a result got traded to the Orioles?
I needed to improve if I wanted to continue to be a Major League player. It’s not easy to overcome the things this game will throw at you. But I have a family and support system. You can’t do it alone. Just being around the Orioles hitting coaches and a great environment helped. I had Major League experience, so I knew what to expect. It was a culmination of a lot of learning from what hadn’t worked in the past and trying to get better over the years. Everything came together with the Orioles.
How do you look back at your time in Kansas City?
I feel like I grew up there. I had so many mentors. A lot of coaches and players I still have relationships with. When I debuted in 2018, I played really well. Then in 2019, maybe I wasn’t mentally ready to be an everyday player and have success. I thought, ‘‘In 2018, I had 950 OPS, 12 home runs, and I was just killing it for two months.” But my batting mechanics had a long way to go. Twenty-twenty was the Covid season and in 2021, I was just a role player. So, I had to buy into that limited role to stay in the Big Leagues. As tough as those years were, I learned a lot. It ultimately helped when I got a chance to play a regular role with the Orioles.
You recently got married to Hannah Moreland in Florida. How did you meet your wife?
I met her on Instagram. I talked to her and went on a date a few days later. I knew early on this was the person I wanted to marry. I dated her for about four years. She’s the best support system I can ask for. We had a beautiful wedding, but a short honeymoon in Saint Lucia. It was a really great time. This year, I think she will be spending time in Baltimore with me.
