This, that and the other

The month of October can be slow for teams that aren’t in the playoffs. That’s sort of the idea. The spotlight shines on the ones who remain in the championship chase. The others quietly take care of their business and wait until free agency begins and other important dates arrive. Big announcements are frowned upon.

The last Orioles transaction is left-hander Tucker Davidson choosing free agency on Oct. 7 after he was designated for assignment on Sept. 29. However, changes are being made in the front office.

According to a source, Bill Wilkes, Ben Sussman-Hyde and Sam Berk will not return to the advance scouting and strategy department in 2025.

Wilkes served as the Orioles' manager of major league strategy since October 2021 after spending three years as advance scouting operations manager. Sussman-Hyde was major league video/run creation strategist manager after three years as major league video/advance scouting coordinator. Berk finished his first year as an advance scouting analyst after his promotion from advance scouting fellow.

Director of baseball strategy Brendan Fournie remains in the department.

The Orioles also must replace co-hitting coaches Ryan Fuller and Matt Borgschulte, bench coach Fredi González and major league coach José Hernández. Borgschulte is returning to the Twins organization as a hitting coach.

Sherman Johnson makes an intriguing candidate for one of the Orioles’ vacant hitting coach positions. Keep his name in mind, just in case.

Johnson was Double-A Bowie’s hitting coach in 2023 and served this year as upper-level hitting coordinator. He was a frequent visitor to Camden Yards in the second half of the season.

Top prospect Coby Mayo is one of many Orioles who have worked with Johnson and speak highly of him.

Johnson also offers playing experience with 10 games with the Angels in 2018 and 896 in the minors over nine seasons.

Triple-A Norfolk manager Buck Britton also should be in the discussion, perhaps as bench coach if the club isn’t looking for another veteran. Fredi González thought he’d be back in 2025, but the Orioles are making a change.

Britton was named International League’s Manager of the Year in 2023, when Norfolk won the Triple-A championship. He also was the  recipient of the Cal Ripken Sr. Player Development Award.

I asked Jordan Westburg about Britton during one of last October’s workouts before the Division Series. Westburg asked how much time we had to talk.

“He meant everything,” Westburg said. “I think Buck is one of, if not my favorite managers so far coming up through professional baseball. I got to spend 2021 with him in Bowie and then I got to spend parts of 2022 and the entire first half of 2023 with him, so I’ve got a lot of experience with Buck. I love him as a manager. I think he’s great for young guys, I think he’s great for old guys. I think he keeps the clubhouse light but also pushes guys and knows when to be hard on some guys.

“I can’t say enough good about Buck Britton, so I could make this a long-winded answer. I just love that guy, I think the world of him, and it’s no surprise that every team he’s coached has had success and had young guys and old guys kind of turn the corner and revamp their careers and find their footing in professional baseball. I don’t think that’s a surprise.”

Heston Kjerstad celebrated Norfolk’s 2023 title from afar after the Orioles put him on their expanded roster. We talked at his locker about tracking the games and what they meant to him.

“And the head of it all is Buck Britton,” he said.

“He’s a great manager. He takes care of you. He gets to know you as a player, but also gets to know you as a person. He does really well managing the team day to day and making sure you stay locked in and focusing on the main goal, but also remind you to have fun, enjoy it, understand the process, keep working, and also enjoy who you’re around and who’s in the locker room with you and to have a good time.”

* Right-hander Domingo Germán has elected free agency after the Pirates designated him for assignment on Sept. 5 and sent him to Triple-A Indianapolis. I mention this because he’s been linked in media reports to the Orioles in the past.

It’s never true. They’ve had no interest. I don’t think they’d have interest now.

Germán pitched in seven games for the Pirates and posted a 7.84 ERA and 1.839 WHIP. He received an 81-game suspension in 2019 for violating the league’s domestic violence policy and went on the restricted list last year with the Yankees after showing up at the ballpark intoxicated , confronting manager Aaron Boone and destroying a television.

Hopefully, the Orioles rumors don’t have any more life in them.

* Right-hander Houston Roth posted a 3.35 ERA in 33 appearances with Double-A Bowie and struck out 65 batters in 48 1/3 innings, but his first few games in the Arizona Fall League haven’t gone the way he’d hoped.

Roth has pitched twice for Surprise and allowed eight runs and three hits with four walks, two strikeouts, two hit batters and two wild pitches in 1 1/3 innings.

The Orioles selected Roth in the 29^th round in 2019 out of the University of Mississippi, back when the draft had a 29^th round.

Preston Johnson tossed 2 1/3 scoreless and hitless innings Wednesday before Roth replaced him with one out in the sixth. Johnson, a seventh-round pick in 2022 out of Mississippi State, didn’t pitch in 2023 and had a 4.72 ERA and 1.518 WHIP this summer in 24 games with High-A Aberdeen. He averaged 6.3 walks and 12.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

Catcher Creed Willems, the organization’s No. 22 prospect, had another hit Thursday and began yesterday batting .360 (9-for-25) with two doubles, a home run, five RBIs and a .989 OPS in six games.