SARASOTA, Fla. — This time last year, veteran lefty reliever Danny Coulombe was in camp with the Minnesota Twins, trying to bounce back from a 2022 season that was cut short due to season-ending surgery to repair his left hip labrum.
The Orioles acquired Coulombe in exchange for cash just before Opening Day, and he quickly turned into one of manager Brandon Hyde’s most trusted options. The 5-foot-10, 190-pound left-hander posted a 2.81 ERA in 51.1 innings, striking out 58 and walking just 12. The below-the-surface metrics backed it all up, too.
Coulombe, 34, and the Orioles avoided arbitration with a reported one-year, $2.3 million deal that includes a $4 million club option for 2025. The Orioles can buy out the reliever’s first free-agent year by picking up the option.
Landing with Baltimore has worked out just fine for Coulombe, as it turns out.
“It was a wild end of camp last year. I find out two days before Opening Day that I got traded over here,” Coulombe said. “The first thing I did was look up the roster and see if I knew anybody. I played with Jorge Mateo in Triple-A in 2018. … But that was the only guy I knew on this team. I was just excited to get going. It’s a great organization and I think we’re going to win a lot of games this year.”
Sure, Coulombe had only crossed paths with Mateo — “still fast then, still fast now,” he quipped — but soon, everyone learned to lean on the lefty reliever. He had a 0.84 ERA in 10.2 innings in March and April last year, immediately giving Hyde an effective option from the left side with Cionel Pérez off to a slow start.
Coulombe’s biggest hiccup came in July, when he had a 4.82 ERA. He had a short stay on the injured list in August with biceps tendinitis but returned without missing a beat and eventually turned in two quality postseason outings against the Texas Rangers in October.
Now, Coulombe is working with new pitching coach Drew French to build off his 2023 season. He made sure to let French know about his mindset early on.
“I was like, ‘Early on in camp, maybe we’ll try a few things, but once we get out on the field, I’m just going to want to strike everybody out,'” Coulombe said. “That’s just kind of my mentality. I don’t want to ever be like, ‘Oh, I was just working on stuff today.’ That’s not my mentality. I’ve never been able to have that mentality because I’ve always been fighting for a spot on the team. Even though it’s a little different this year, I’m trying to keep the same mentality during the season.”
In Grapefruit League play this spring, Coulombe has allowed one run and four hits in 4.2 innings. Most recently, he recorded five outs against the Atlanta Braves on March 13 — and needed just eight pitches to do it.
Hyde said Coulombe and Keegan Akin (four outs) were stretched out a bit against the Braves as part of their buildup as Opening Day approaches.
“Just give them a little one-plus — kind of throw an inning, go back out, warm up,” Hyde said. “You’ll see that a little bit as we go.”
If there’s one thing that stands out about Coulombe, it’s spin. He threw six different pitches in 2023, according to Statcast: cutter (42.3 percent), sinker (18.3), sweeper (17.8), knuckle-curve (10.7), four-seamer (8.3) and changeup (2.3).
Coulombe said 2023 was the first time his curveball has been classified as a knuckle-curve even though he threw the pitch with the same grip as the previous 15 years. Regardless, it is one of the most aesthetically pleasing pitches thrown by any Orioles hurler because of the depth he gets on it:
Coulombe said he learned the curveball from former big league pitcher Steve Ontiveros as a sophomore in high school.
“He was like, ‘Try this grip. Not many guys can throw it, but I think maybe you can,'” Coulombe said. “I pick it up and the first time I throw it, it was like what it is now. And then he was like, ‘OK, so now you have a curveball. Now it’s figuring out how to use it and throw it in the zone.’ I’m still not very good at that, still working on that. That’s the guy I picked it up from.”
Coulombe averaged 80.3 mph on his curveball a year ago, roughly in line with his career mark.
“I think the traditional curveball is generally a little slower,” the lefty said. “The harder curveball is kind of the craze right now and the harder breaking ball. Most guys, if you want to throw harder, you spike it. I throw a spike curve. It’s a knuckle-curve, technically.”
Coulombe credits his curveball and arm slot for allowing him to get right-handed hitters out at a high clip. Right-handers only hit .212/.246/.372 against him a year ago, though all four of the home runs he allowed came off the bats of righties. He’s always been able to hold his own (.239/.314/.418), so that’s nothing new.
“My splits have not been always so drastic because I’m way over the top and generally guys that are over the top have more platoon splits,” Coulombe said. “Usually the lower-slot guys are better against same-sided hitters, so I’ve always been successful against righties. Just with the spin, with the depth that I have, it plays well against righties.”
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