WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Dan Hennigan answered the FaceTime video call in the winter of 2022 and saw Ryan O’Hearn’s face bouncing on the screen. The hitter, who had just left Hennigan’s performance training center outside Philadelphia the day before, moved golf bags in his garage and then propped his phone up on a box so Hennigan could see O’Hearn’s swing.

That’s not typical, and Hennigan would know. He’s the founder of Brain and Barrel, where he works with many major leaguers on improving their hitting, but their weekend trips to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, tend to be a fire hose of information that requires the batter to digest over the course of the season.

“They leave, and you’re just hoping, ‘Did this make sense?” said Hennigan, who’s also the minor league hitting coordinator for the Houston Astros. “You just hope for the best.”

There was no hoping necessary with O’Hearn. Those FaceTime calls became common, with a jury-rigged phone stand inside the batting cage of his garage.

O’Hearn realized his time with the Kansas City Royals was up at the end of the 2022 season. He had hardly played that year. The trip to see Hennigan was part of his efforts to prolong his career, to make sure the end in Kansas City wasn’t the end of O’Hearn’s time in baseball.

“There’s no magic trick,” though, Hennigan said. When players fly in for a weekend learning from Hennigan how to improve the mechanics of their swing through in-depth analysis of their body physics, those few days won’t change muscle memory. What made O’Hearn stand out, then, was his perseverance — the thoughtful questions he asked Hennigan the next day, and the day after that, and the next week.

Even as O’Hearn studied the biomechanics of his swing and better understood why certain outcomes occurred based on the way his bat moved through the strike zone, there was no guarantee he would receive an opportunity to showcase the improvements he was making. He was designated for assignment shortly after arriving with the Orioles in a cash considerations trade. He cleared waivers and entered spring training as one of several backup first baseman options. He didn’t make the opening day roster and shipped out to Triple-A Norfolk.

Then O’Hearn arrived in Baltimore. In a matter of moments, he made himself a critical piece in the lineup — the sort of player whose leadership and production make him a clubhouse stalwart.

And now O’Hearn is a favorite to become a first-time All-Star as a 31-year-old playing better than ever before. If he keeps this up, he may be the most coveted hitter in the trade market at the end of July. His impending free agency this winter should include ample suitors, all because of his flourishment in Baltimore.

“I was excited to move forward to a fresh place and kind of put that work to the test,” O’Hearn said.

But even he had to admit: “This is better than anything I thought could happen.”

Maybe he’s selling himself short. Because those around him? They knew a breakout on this scale wasn’t a given but it was always possible for a player who has bided his time as long as O’Hearn.

“Not a lot has been given to him in this game,” interim Orioles manager Tony Mansolino said. “He’s earned everything. He’s kind of been left for dead, and he’s returned with a vengeance.”

Parallel paths: O’Hearn and John Mabry

John Mabry could sense when the frustration was building within O’Hearn. He’d look to the end of the dugout, see the first baseman and corner outfielder secluded, and he would understood the emotions raging inside.

O’Hearn received 145 plate appearances during the 2022 season. He was on the Royals’ roster for the full 162 games, yet he played in only 67. Many of those appearances were as a pinch hitter, asked to come off the bench and compete without the benefit of regular playing time to aid him.

“That’s a lot of time on the bench,” O’Hearn said. “And as a young player, frustrated, hurt that you’re not playing — all of the things that you would think you’d feel — I did my best to support the team and be the same guy every day, but it was incredibly hard.”

Mabry, the hitting coach for Kansas City from 2020 to 2022, could relate to O’Hearn’s predicament. There were times during his 14-year major league career that he was a bench player who struggled to break into the lineup.

So Mabry called to the end of the dugout.

“Hey, fella,” he’d yell. “Come here and sit next to me.”

Then Mabry would narrate the game to O’Hearn, pointing out the minute details that helped players perform at the highest level. The opportunities weren’t arising for O’Hearn, but Mabry hoped the lessons instilled during games spent watching rather than playing — along with the cage sessions they shared routinely — would set O’Hearn up for success when his time arrived.

More than anything, though, Mabry didn’t want O’Hearn to sulk. To sink into despair would only make it that much harder to take advantage of the limited chances for playing time he received.

“You can be your own worst enemy sometimes as a player,” Mabry said. “I mean, I’ve been there myself, with what your thoughts are and what you’re thinking about. You try to turn those thoughts into something productive for yourself rather than something that’s going to take away from what you’re trying to do.”

Midway through that season — O’Hearn’s final with Kansas City, the club that selected him in the eighth round of the 2014 draft — his average was .182. He had received only 66 at-bats in those first 86 games prior to the All-Star break, and as poor results mounted, he grew more stressed.

Then O’Hearn decided to let go. If this was going to be the end of his baseball career, he thought, he better enjoy his last months in a major league clubhouse.

“I’m just going to be me and have fun and play as hard as I can and see what happens,” O’Hearn said. “I really have nothing to lose at this point.”

From July 14, 2022, onward, O’Hearn batted .294 with a .748 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Those results came in only 29 games, but they gave O’Hearn a boost in confidence as his Royals tenure ended. At the end of that season, Mabry’s time as hitting coach also concluded.

“It was the last year in Kansas City for a lot of people in that building,” O’Hearn said.

Mabry joined the Miami Marlins as a hitting coach. O’Hearn visited Hennigan at Brain and Barrel, hoping to prepare for whatever came next.

They never openly discussed the similarities in their careers, but it was apparent to O’Hearn and Mabry all the same. For Mabry, a left-handed-hitting first baseman and corner outfielder, a bright start to his playing career gave way to years as a bench bat. Seeing O’Hearn in a similar predicament — roaring through the minors, then struggling for a place in the majors — may have bolstered the bond between player and coach.

And understanding what Mabry endured as part of a lengthy career solidified O’Hearn’s respect for the coach. It was most apparent during their in-game dugout chats.

“I feel like he kept me sane,” O’Hearn said, “because there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and seeing what he did in his career was inspiration for me.”

He didn’t know how bright that light would become in Baltimore. How could he have?

Unafraid of failure

Mansolino never used to pay attention to the individual statistics of players around the league because, as a third base coach, it wasn’t a necessity of the job. But, while the Orioles were in Seattle last week, the interim manager opened a statistical packet sent by MLB, and he perused the listings for his players.

Right near the top of the list for best OPS: O’Hearn, at .897 this season.

“I was floored,” Mansolino said. “I knew the average was up there, but the OBP, the slug, the whole package, I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness, he’s having an incredible year.’”

At this point, three years into O’Hearn’s time in Baltimore, the success should come as less of a surprise than it did in 2023. He performed well in spring training that year but still opened the year in Triple-A. Then, in his first game in April 2023, O’Hearn drove in three runs on two hits.

It foreshadowed what would come.

O’Hearn can credit multiple factors for the success, and he does. On one hand, more regular playing time healed plenty. But he was capable of maximizing that opportunity in part because of what Hennigan taught him over one weekend — and in subsequent FaceTime calls — that winter.

When Hennigan met O’Hearn, the immediate takeaway for the hitting instructor was O’Hearn’s inability to pull the ball without adding a large amount of topspin. It wasn’t the standard rolling over too early that often plagues hitters. Instead, O’Hearn’s horizontal bat angle “went up so quickly that he was almost acting as if he was a ping-pong player,” Hennigan said, “like he was inducing topspin through this under to over of the baseball really quickly.”

For years, it was hard for O’Hearn to understand why some of his hard-hit balls to the right side of the field crashed into the infield dirt for a groundout. Then Hennigan showed him the physics at play, how his body and his swing created the topspin.

“Essentially,” Hennigan said, “him having a better understanding of what actually mattered and something he could control, I think altered the mindset from, ‘Don’t mess this up, don’t mess this up.’”

For much of O’Hearn’s time in Kansas City, the minimal playing time compounded the pressure he felt to produce. He didn’t want to waste any opportunity. But, as his time came to a close there and by the time O’Hearn became an Oriole, he learned to let go of the mistakes more easily.

That, coupled with the new shift rules put in place for 2023 that prevented a second baseman from lining up in shallow right field, helped O’Hearn make early strides with the Orioles.

“I think now, more so than even the last few years, I’m less afraid of failure,” O’Hearn said. “I’m going to strike out with a guy on third and no outs. It’s going to happen. But being obsessed with the competition puts me at a pretty good spot, and I have a lot of abilities that I think are still coming out, and it’s fun to go out there and compete, because I know how good I can be.”

He’s proving it year after year now, and because of O’Hearn’s hot start in 2025, he has a strong case to become a first-time All-Star. And he could do it with Mabry in the same dugout again.

When O’Hearn moved to Baltimore and Mabry to Miami, they stayed in touch occasionally on the phone. At times, Mabry would send video of a swing to O’Hearn, writing, “Now you’re logging, fella,” or offering a quick tip.

But Mabry joined the Orioles’ staff late last month as a senior adviser, which allows him a front-row seat to O’Hearn’s success. Having watched O’Hearn at his lowest, the blossoming of what could be a long career is fulfilling for Mabry.

“I’m proud of him for all the work he did, for him being tenacious in his approach to it. Proud of him that he had the fortitude to keep going,” Mabry said. “I just tip my hat to him, because he put in the work. He put in the tough stuff to get to where he is.”

To O’Hearn, performing at this high a level is beyond even what he could’ve hoped for when he arrived in a for-cash trade three years ago. The potential was there, though — at least in Hennigan’s eyes.

He saw the combination of size, coordination and biomechanics. When he analyzes draft prospects or free agents for the Astros, players like O’Hearn capture his attention. He had all the indicators of success, if only they could translate to the field.

“He checks all of those boxes,” Hennigan said. “I truly did believe he was capable of this.”

In the three years since O’Hearn first flew to visit Hennigan’s facility in Pennsylvania, the world has changed. He was once an afterthought, a player who was sneaked through waivers after a low-profile trade that offseason. Now O’Hearn is a leader — he sets himself apart from the pack, both on the Orioles and around the league.

When O’Hearn flew to Brain and Barrel last winter, his visit overlapped with several other major leaguers. As Hennigan led tutorials, O’Hearn helped the other players understand a concept. He pushed them in the cage, and he created competitions to help their focus.

“He was undeniably the leader this year,” Hennigan said, “and that was a noticeable shift even from where he was the year before.”

After all, when describing O’Hearn’s evolution as a hitter, Mabry began with his evolution as a person. He once needed Mabry to call him over from the far side of the dugout. Now O’Hearn’s in the thick of it, a clubhouse veteran who is producing the way a rising star should.

“You just point them in the direction,” Mabry said. “And you didn’t need to point him very far, because he was ready to do it.”