Major League Baseball places a limit on the number of uniformed coaches that each team can carry, but manager Buck Showalter indicated that the club might add someone who could assist in breaking down any potential language barriers.
Showalter wouldn't specify whether this coach would be an eye-in-the-sky, saying that he didn't want to get ahead of himself.
"That's one of the things we talked about, a way to do that if there was going to be a need," he said. "You have to make sure there is a need before you look to do it. We feel like, if there's a need in the construction of our club, we can move forward.with some things to make sure that's a comfort zone for everybody.
"As far as baseball terminology and communication skills, you're not in the game the number of years these (coaches) are in the game and not have the communication skills with Hispanic players, and that's something I will lean on. I'm getting better at it. Its not (the players') responsibility, it's ours. There are some ways we can bridge that gap between now and February, and we've talked about it."
Showalter also addressed the "former Oriole" issue.
"I talked to some guys in that respect, and some of them weren't quite ready to make that commitment, quite frankly, and I appreciate that they understood that commitment," Showalter said. "The first place I looked was in our organization. And I had to be careful about robbing Peter to pay Paul. They've done a good job, John Stockstill and the organization, of putting together a real good quality minor league developmental staff.
"The Oriole ties are the things I'll continue to look at and that'll be the tie-breaker for me in certain situations."
Maybe this means that the club will eventually add a former Oriole who speaks Spanish.
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