Even during short season, the search for MLB success goes on

He had a very decorated minor league career. He was the Orioles' No. 1 prospect at the end of the 2016 season and twice was in Baseball America's top 100 nationally. He hit .340 while winning a batting title in the Single-A South Atlantic League and he's played twice in the All-Star Futures Game.

But 25-year-old catcher Chance Sisco is still searching to find big league success.

He hit .210/.333/.395 in 198 plate appearances last year. His bat was on fire last May at Triple-A Norfolk, where he batted .348. But in his first 27 games in 2019 with Baltimore after his call-up June 3, he batted .263/.363/.523 with an OPS of .885. In Sisco's last 32 games, he hit only .152/.302/.253 with a .555 OPS. That was quite a fall-off at the plate, just when it looked like he was settling in at the big league level.

His winter work included making some adjustments and changes, and he spent some time with noted hitting coach Craig Wallenbrock. Then he got to basically continue what he started over the winter and tweak it further after baseball was shut down in mid-March.

It's a big season for Sisco to show more on offense while trying to prove his doubters wrong about his defense. And he has only a 60-game season to make an impression.

"I know he put a lot of work in this offseason with some swing-mechanic changes," manager Brandon Hyde said Wednesday. "And I thought there was definitely a difference mechanically in his swing in spring training. He's really continued that. Watching him take BP the last few days, there is a noticeable difference. Ball is really coming off his bat. He's able to stay inside the ball a little easier. Stride direction is better and he's able to get his back side through the baseball and backspin it. He hit an opposite-field home run in live BP to left-center the other day that sticks out. He really stayed behind the ball and stayed through it.

"Last year I think he was pressing. Came up and really swung the bat well early, got into a little bit of a funk and was trying to swing his way out of it. And kind of got away from his game a little bit for me. He's not a guy that chases outside the strike zone, which I love. But I just thought he was pressing the last month or two of the season to try and get results. And kind of chasing hits instead of just taking that really good at-bat he was taking when he first got there. I like the swing adjustments and the mechanical changes he's made. Now it's just do it in a game."

During an interview yesterday Sisco said there was a continuation of what he changed and focused on during the winter after the first spring training was halted.

"Absolutely. I'd say going into spring, obviously, I was doing some (new) things hitting-wise," Sisco said. "And I kind of got a trial run in spring training to see what worked for me and what didn't. What I liked to do and what I didn't like to do out of those things from the winter. Kind of got to do a reset in quarantine time and learned some things I did and didn't like and try to apply them to this time."

Sisco went 2-for-14 with seven strikeouts back in February and March in Florida. In the majors last season, while his walk rate was solid at 11.1 percent, his strikeout rate was 30.8.

Sisco lives in Sarasota, and that is usually a big advantage for him during the winter. But not this year. Soon after spring training shut down, the Sarasota complex did also.

"It was, honestly, very strange," Sisco said. "I live there in the offseason, so I get to go into the clubhouse and use the complex in the offseason to work out, train and hit. To be in Sarasota and not being able to go into the complex was very strange. But out of that I got a home gym and met some cool other people who live in the area that have cages in their backyard. So that was fun to be able to go somewhere else and hit. But it was very strange."

How about the first few days of camp at Camden Yards?

"I think it's going well. Obviously, a lot of things are different, but for right now it's the new norm for us. Just trying to get used to all the different little things we have to do. But, you know, it's going well. Me personally, it's going well. Still have to get our work in. Try to treat everything on the field as normal as possible. Once we get out there it's the same game. It makes being out there a lot more comfortable I guess because in the clubhouse it's a lot different."

In Sarasota, Sisco was able to catch some O's pitchers, some of the same ones he's reunited with now at the ballpark. He was asked about playing an intrasquad game in a facility in downtown Baltimore where he's he used to seeing fans in the stands.

"Obviously, it's going to be very strange for everyone to not have fans in the stands," Sisco said. "But, I guess, for right now it's something we have to get used to. We usually played scrimmages and intrasquads in Sarasota with no fans, but doing it here is going to be a little bit different. With Camden you have the extra deck and stands in the outfield. It kind of creates like a bowl. It's just a different feel, but something we have to get used to."