At the ripe “old” age of just 31, Anthony Villa is about to begin his third season as one of the top front office members running the O’s farm system. He is the club’s Director of Player Development.

Villa, hired by the Orioles ahead of the 2020 season, has been a fast riser in the organization, spending time as a hitting coach and as the O’s minor league hitting coordinator for the 2023 season. The next year he moved into his current role.

Villa makes a second appearance on my podcast after joining me for an interview at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen in the middle of last summer.

If you want to go back and hear that interview from last June, click here.

Villa oversees just about all aspects of the Baltimore farm, involved in everything from the staffing of coaches and managers to instruction throughout the farm. If there is a player on an O’s farm club he knows him and wants to help that young man advance to the majors.

Last year Villa and his staff were proud of and thrilled for instance to see Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers both make the Orioles. These are two players they worked closely with from the first day they joined the organization, all the way through the higher minors and on to Baltimore.

Getting a player to the “show” is a big moment for any farm system.

This podcast was first a radio interview on 105.7 FM the Fan, when I recently filled in for Ryan Ripken on the “Hot Stove League” show and Villa was a guest on the show.

We discussed many topics to include how the O’s keep tabs on the minor league players over the winter to a rundown of some players recently named top 100 prospects.

Late in this podcast you may find his answer quite interesting when I asked Anthony how much the O’s practice bunting on the farm?

The Steve on Baseball podcast is back and hopefully will become a more regular feature here as it was all throughout the 2025 season.

Enjoy the interview with Villa!

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