The Orioles are promoting Sherman Johnson to the major league coaching staff, writes Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner. The 34-year-old will work alongside hitting coach Cody Asche and assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph on the offensive side. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com suggested this morning that a promotion for Johnson could be in the cards.
It’ll be Johnson’s first work on an MLB staff. He has moved very quickly up the coaching ranks. He was playing professionally in the independent American Association as recently as 2022. A Florida State product, he had a nine-year minor league career. Johnson briefly reached the big leagues as a member of the Angels in 2018. He went hitless in 10 at-bats. A lefty batter, he showed good plate discipline with minimal power in the minors.
Johnson didn’t move into coaching until 2023. Baltimore hired him as a hitting instructor with their Double-A team in Bowie. He spent this past season as a minor league hitting coordinator. It seems he built a quick rapport with a number of the O’s prospects. Johnson coached Jackson Holliday, Heston Kjerstad and Coby Mayo with Bowie and should get to work with them again at Camden Yards.
Baltimore has opted for a fairly inexperienced group of hitting instructors. Asche, also 34, is a lead hitting coach for the first time after two years as an assistant on Brandon Hyde’s staff. Joseph, 33, is going into his second season as an MLB coach. He spent this year with the Mariners in an assistant role.
I don’t get all these young coaches,do they really have enough knowledge?
Why wouldn’t they?
Because knowledge is something you acquire with years of experience. I would do anything to be young again but if there is one thing I have more of today it’s knowledge.
Eh, that’s not necessarily true. I’m older and consider myself a lifelong learner. However, I don’t think that makes me “smarter” than younger people. Nor does it make me more capable of doing some of their jobs. I worked in schools for a while and probably learned more from my students than they learned from me.
The world is constantly changing. That means people- especially older people- must continually strive to learn new things. If you’re not learning, then you’re not living.
How much knowledge does one need to be a batting coach anyway? It’s mainly about communicating and developing trust with players. And who better to do that than people who are relatively close to the players’ age?
It’s definitely true. Yeah I am also i lifelong learner and I have learned a lot as I get older. That’s how it works.
Younger people are better athletes. Older people are better coaches. We don’t need to re imagine how the world works dude that’s real.
Older people are not better coaches just because they’re older. Many of them are set in their outdated ways and unwilling to adapt. Also, many younger people work harder than older people. They’re more energetic and more eager to work and prove themselves. That’s something I noticed many times in my professional career. The higher some people move up the ladder, the less work they do. Higher pay rate. Fancy job title. Less work.
There are no hard-and-fast rules in any of this. But to say someone is automatically better at something because they’re older is flat-out wrong. Old ideas are not generally better ideas.
Would be better off adding Sherman Hemsley to staff
Like any other business, younger is oftentimes cheaper. At the ML level Coaches are trying to build confidence so players can repeat the mechanics they should have already learned. Very little retooling is taking place, just repetition of your skill set and having a good game plan in a relaxed environment.
One of the nicest, most sincere people on earth. Dude loves the game and always has time for fans.
Really wish him well