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For the fourth time in his career, Drew French will succeed Chris Holt as a team’s pitching coach.
The Orioles will hire French, the Atlanta Braves’ bullpen coach for the past three seasons, as their pitching coach, a source with direct knowledge of the team’s plans confirmed to The Baltimore Sun. Holt had been Baltimore’s pitching coach the previous three years in addition to serving as the organization’s director of pitching, but he will focus on the duties of the latter role going forward.
As the pair of coaches climbed the Houston Astros’ minor league system, French, 39, replaced Holt, 54, as an affiliate’s pitching coach three straight seasons from 2016 to 2018. Holt spent 2018 as Houston’s minor league assistant pitching coordinator before joining the Orioles as their minor league pitching coordinator the next year. He was one of the organization’s first hires under executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias, a former executive with Houston.
French served as the pitching coach of the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate in 2019 and was set to repeat the role in 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of the minor league season.
He joined Atlanta in 2021, the year the Braves won the World Series. Across French’s tenure, the Braves ranked seventh in the majors and second in the National League in bullpen ERA.
In addition to no longer having Holt be both major league pitching coach and director of pitching, the Orioles also parted ways with assistant pitching coach Darren Holmes, who had been with the organization since 2020, earlier this offseason.
MASNSports.com first reported French’s hiring.
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