That's because Mike Barnett, who has been with the Astros in that role for the past two seasons, is in the mix to be Baltimore's hitting coach.
From the Baltimore Sun's Dan Connolly:
From 1998-2001, he was the hitting coach for Tucson, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate. The big-league manager of the Diamondbacks for most of that time was Buck Showalter, the Orioles’ new manager.
Barnett also worked in the New York Yankees’ baseball operations department in the 1980s while Showalter was a minor-league player and manager in the Yankees’ system.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
