More on the coaching staff and Trey Mancini

While the Orioles have all seven coaches under contract for the 2016 season, they're still in the early stages of deciding on a new assistant hitting coach.

Names are being collected from inside and outside the organization, but the process is delayed while the Royals and Mets play in the World Series. Potential candidates may want to interview for jobs in other organizations.

The Rangers parted ways with hitting coach Dave Magadan, and Orioles minor league hitting coordinator Jeff Manto is expected to be interviewed. The Yankees fired Jeff Pentland and will search for their third hitting coach in three years.

Manto will get consideration from the Orioles, who interviewed him for the position of hitting coach on Nov. 24 before they hired Scott Coolbaugh on Dec. 19. Another in-house possibility is Terry Crowley, their former hitting coach who works as a special assistant and tutors many of the organization's young position prospects.

Crowley has been instrumental in the development of first baseman Trey Mancini, the organization's minor league Player of the Year. Crowley has worked with Mancini at Single-A Frederick and Double-A Bowie.

Triple-A Norfolk hitting coach Sean Berry is a candidate, but I get the sense that the Orioles would prefer to keep him in his current role. They don't want to disrupt a quality staff that includes pitching coach Mike Griffin and field coach Jose Hernandez.

You've heard manager Buck Showalter talk about the dangers of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The same concerns may apply while considering Keith Bodie, who just completed his first season as Bowie's hitting coach, and Howie Clark, who just completed his first season as Single-A Delmarva's hitting coach.

Einar Diaz will continue to work with the Orioles hitters - he's created a nice bond with players like Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop - but the club doesn't want to spread him too thin while also having him throw batting practice and serve as a bullpen catcher. He'll be in a position to assist bullpen coach Dom Chiti.

As I wrote yesterday, Coolbaugh will have input in the hiring of a new assistant, since they're going to be working together. The demands on a hitting coach aren't fully understood unless you're around him. There are 13 position players and various requests for early batting practice sessions or cage work, guys who want to take more swings after games, guys who need more attention than others.

An assistant can remove some of the burden, even if it's providing the soft tossing or overseeing the tee work in the cage.

* Crowley speaks of Mancini in glowing terms, calling him "about as blue chip as you get for as much as he's played."

Mancini, an eighth-round pick in 2013 out of Notre Dame, batted .314/.341/.527 with 14 doubles, three triples, eight home runs and 32 RBIs in 52 games at Frederick and .359/.395/.586 with 29 doubles, three triples, 13 home runs and 57 RBIs in 84 games at Bowie.

"He's a tremendous fastball hitter," Crowley said during a recent interview. "This kid doesn't have to cheat and get it started to hit a fastball. He'll be standing at the plate and if you throw him 96 (mph), he'll turn it around, and if that same pitch is a curveball in the dirt, he won't move a muscle. That's the difference between him and some others."

Crowley compared Mancini to slugger Dave Kingman after spending time with the young first baseman at Frederick in 2014. The pronounced uppercut that could launch baseballs into the stands or create majestic pop-ups. It wasn't a swing that would speed Mancini through the system.

They were reunited in Frederick earlier this year, with Mancini unable to find a spot on Bowie's crowded roster. He was tearing up the Carolina League, and it was only a matter of time before the Orioles moved him up a level.

Mancini hadn't forgotten the advice he received from Crowley.

"I said, 'Trey, your swing is really coming around,' " Crowley recalled. "He was there another week, went to Double-A and really took off.

"This is a good-looking hitter and I don't say that very often. I've learned to take a wait-and-see attitude because hitting is so tough."