Leftovers for breakfast

The Orioles still haven’t announced their coaching staff for the 2024 season, though executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias confirmed at the Winter Meetings the hiring of Drew French as pitching coach. One of the two vacancies filled.

An assistant pitching coach is expected to be named as Darren Holmes’ replacement.

Bench coach Fredi González has received positive feedback on French, who spent the last three years as Atlanta’s bullpen coach.

González said he’s talked to Braves manager Brian Snitker a couple times, “and he raved about him.”

“I’m looking forward to spending the summer with him,” González said this week.

“The Braves develop a lot of pitching from within. And Snit gave him a hell of a recommendation.”

A similar message was delivered by former hitting coach Greg Walker, who was on González’s staff when he was manager in Atlanta. It came unsolicited. Out of the blue, and to the black and orange.

“I talked to Greg just two days ago,” González said. “I saw him down in Savannah, and he did the same thing. I didn’t even ask him a question. He came in and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got a good one.’ So, it’s all good things.”

* The Orioles hired González as major league coach prior to the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He became their first formal bench coach in December 2021 and is back next year.

González and manager Brandon Hyde crossed paths in the Marlins organization. González was their manager and Hyde held the same job in the minors.

Hyde is a two-time Sporting News Manager of the Year who finally received the honor last month from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

“I was so excited,” González said. “I did some radio shows just before that and they were asking me, and I’m like, ‘He should have won it last year.’ He should have two, back-to-back years, in my opinion, if it counts. I’m happy for him that he got recognized by the baseball writers.

“The Sporting News is a good one because it’s from your peers, and for him to win that one back-to-back, and this one, what a nice exclamation point to the 2023 season for him and for Mike. For Gunnar (Henderson), for all those guys.”

The list of award winners doesn’t include Kyle Bradish, but he finished fourth in Cy Young voting.

“That was surprisingly a good thing,” González said. “He pitched well. He just kept getting better as the year went on. His maturity, being comfortable being a major league pitcher. He just kept getting better and better and better, and I’m glad that he got some of that recognition.”

* BetOnline (www.BetOnline.ag) has made Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge an 11/2 favorite to be chosen American League Most Valuable Player. Teammate Juan Soto is 6/1.

Henderson and Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman are 16/1.

The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts are given 11/2 and 13/2 odds, respectively, in the National League. The Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. is 3/1.

The site also gives Bradish 25/1 odds to win the Cy Young and Grayson Rodriguez 40/1. Gerrit Cole is the favorite at 5/1.

* The Rule 5 draft was anticlimactic for the Orioles, who didn’t make a selection in the major league phase for the first time since 2005.

“We had a couple picks that we were considering but they went really early in the Rule 5 draft, and we weren’t surprised with that,” Elias said on the final day of the Winter Meetings.

“I was not aware that it was our first pass since 2005, so we’ll consider that something of a milestone for the franchise.”

The Orioles did make one move, selecting 20-year-old right-hander Nelvis Ochoa from the Rockies organization in the Triple-A phase.

Ochoa, the only Nelvis in organized ball, won’t be assigned to the Norfolk Tides. He hasn’t pitched beyond the Dominican Summer League.

There are at least two Orioles connections to Ochoa beyond his new organization if you’re willing to reach. And I mean, really reach.

The Rockies’ pitching coach in the DSL for the past four seasons is Samuel Deduno, who had a six-year major league career with Colorado, San Diego, Minnesota and Houston. Elias was in the Astros organization during that period.

The Orioles signed Deduno to a minor league deal in February 2016 after he had undergone hip surgery in the offseason. He was released on Aug. 10 after 10 appearances in the Gulf Coast League on a rehab assignment, where he allowed three earned runs and struck out 23 batters in 18 innings.

Deduno didn’t pitch for another affiliated team.

So, it’s sort of a connection to Ochoa based on his pitching coach in the Rockies system. The judges will accept it.