Zack Britton: “Just even watching the arms out there throwing and the hitters, it’s a pretty stacked system"

SARASOTA, Fla. – Zack Britton stood behind the row of bullpen mounds Tuesday morning with another former Orioles pitcher, Ben McDonald, and watched the side sessions. He went indoors earlier with a fungo bat in hand to retrieve his glove, unsure whether he might actually use it.

This is Britton’s first experience as a guest instructor, and the enjoyment is amplified with older brother Buck in camp as the new major league coach. The former All-Star closer is settling into a new role and admiring the Orioles’ progress since they traded him to the Yankees at the 2018 deadline and began their rebuild.

“It’s been great, I think just getting around everybody again, getting back in the organization,” he said earlier today. “A lot of memories here, a lot of good ones. Nice to meet a lot of the new front office people, a lot of the new coaches. Fun to see my brother out here interacting with the guys.”

Britton spent 7 ½ of his 12 major league seasons with the Orioles after they drafted him in the third round in 2006. They turned him into a closer and watched him earn back-to-back All-Star selections, his peak season in 2016 with 47 saves in 47 chances, a 0.54 ERA and 0.836 WHIP in 69 appearances, and a fourth-place finish in Cy Young voting. It was one of the finest performances by a reliever in baseball history.

The Orioles played in the Wild Card Game in Toronto, didn’t use Britton in an 11-inning, walk-off loss, and began tearing down the team in the summer of ’18. They didn’t return to the postseason until 2023, the same year that Britton was first out of baseball.

“Obviously when I was here we had some good teams, and then when I got traded, just playing against the Orioles and seeing a lot of the young guys,” he said. “I’ve been hearing a lot about them through my brother, too. It’s fun to see those guys now in the big leagues thriving, doing really well. I think the organization’s in a really good spot for the future.”

Buck Britton also is on the rise, a former 35th-round draft pick of the Orioles who never played in the majors, managed Triple-A Norfolk to a championship in 2023 and finally got the call as José Hernández’s replacement.

Zack saw it coming. It was just a matter of time.

“He was always really good at relating to players, even when he was playing,” Zack said. “It seemed like a lot of guys would go to him for advice, and I did my whole career. He was the guy I talked to, he was the guy who would give me the harsh criticism when others wouldn’t. So I’m not surprised he’s at this level. I think he’s gonna be a good asset for the team.”

Some of that advice must remain private.

“Oh man, there’s a lot of things I probably can’t say,” Zack said.

“I think the best thing that he taught me was, obviously I was a prospect coming up and he wasn’t. He was a guy who grinded his whole career. And there were times when I struggled and went down to Norfolk and we played together, and he would be like, ‘You’ve got all the ability. It’s just more like finding a way to get it done.’ So we had a lot of good conversations. I think probably 2012 when I first got sent down, about how to get back to the big leagues with the ability that I had, putting in the extra effort and really trying to have a big league career.

“It was great advice, and up until my last year of playing, he was the guy that I would call and he’d watch my videos and we’d talk. It was great.”

The brother who stayed in the background is emerging from the shadows, and Zack loves it. This is Buck’s turn.

“I think it’s fun, it’s great,” Zack said. “Being done playing, it’s great to have somebody that’s still in the game and I can pull for him now. He used to watch me on TV. Now I can pull for him and his team. I hope that he does some great things in the game and is around for a long time.”

The itch to get back in the game began to surface and Zack couldn’t ignore it. His first choice was to rejoin the Orioles, but he needed to find out where Buck ended up.

“I just wanted to be around my brother and wherever he was going to be,” Britton said. “Whether it was here or somewhere else, I wasn’t really sure. You never know how that stuff’s going to shake out. But now that he’s back, it’s obviously a perfect fit for me to get involved. Mike Elias and Brandon Hyde, they asked me if I had any interest and I really appreciated the invite, getting back in it.

“It’s a little weird, seeing it from this perspective, but it’s a great group of guys, great coaches. So it was just nice to meet everybody and not playing against them. Get to know some of these players and the coaches. So it’s been great, and hopefully I can be around a little bit more.”

The Orioles made the playoffs in 2012, ’14 and ’16, but Britton believes that the present club has more depth and talent.

“We had a large group of guys who came up at one time, but we didn’t have a ton after,” he said. “Just even watching the arms out there throwing and the hitters, it’s a pretty stacked system, which makes sense. Mike coming from Houston, if you look at how they developed their teams and their championship winning teams is was very similar, the blueprint that he’s following.

“I’ve been pretty impressed with a lot of the things I’ve seen here, things that you don’t see when you’re playing against them. You don’t get to see the prospects. You see who’s up at the big league level. So it’s nice to see the organization here. They look good.”

Britton’s former teammates are gone and the changes around him are innumerable.

“Most of it positive,” he said. “Obviously, the new ownership group here, sounds like they have a lot of great plans for the organization, and maybe some resources that are going to go back into the team, which is great. That was a little bit different than when I was here. We were kind of always like, ‘Hey, what we have in that room is what we have and make the most of it’ kind of thing, and we did. But it’s always nice to know that maybe you’ve got a little bit more firepower behind you to add some pieces, or even improve some things in the stadium. Whatever it is to make your life a little bit easier.

“These guys are in a really good spot and I’m looking forward to watching them and kind of being a little bit more invested in what’s going on here now that I’m done playing.”