Orioles OF Colton Cowser hopes that everything will come together by 2024. His track record indicates that it’s a good bet. The Baltimore Banner

Ryan Fuller saw the progress more distinctly in the batting cages tucked within the bowels of Major League Baseball stadiums across the country, away from the cameras and the eyes and the expectations with which Colton Cowser found himself grappling.

He was a 23-year-old rookie. He arrived with the Orioles in July, in the middle of a race toward an AL East title, and Baltimore needed Cowser to produce immediately.

Yet, at just about every level Cowser has ever played, there has been an adjustment period. Fuller, the co-hitting coach for the Orioles, knew it. So, too, did the front office. But the pressure during a postseason push gives a midseason call-up less of a soft landing than his promotions to different levels of the minors — and as such, the leash was shorter.

After a month,

It wasn’t an unmitigated success. But to Fuller, those batting practice sessions out of view showed him how quickly Cowser could adapt, if given the playing time. He was fed a steady diet of off-speed pitches below the zone and fastballs above the zone — the classic pitfalls for young players to chase. Fuller drove home the importance of a strong lower half, using the legs to plant, twist and drive the baseball.