One of the most refreshing things about the Orioles has been the candor of interim manager Tony Mansolino.
He’s been a company man since taking over for Brandon Hyde on Preakness Day, but he’s also been his own man. His honesty has been a highlight in a season that has supplied few of them.
Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias dealt nine players before the trade deadline, including outfielders Cedric Mullins and Ramón Laureano and designated hitter/first baseman/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn. Compounding their absence have been injuries to outfielders Colton Cowser (concussion) and Tyler O’Neill (wrist), who have played in only 56 games and 43 games, respectively.
It has left the Orioles with a major league lineup at the top and a minor league one at the bottom. It went 17 innings without scoring until Ryan Mountcastle gave it a jolt on Wednesday night with a home run that led to an eventual walk-off win on a Jackson Holliday double.
To his credit, Mansolino hasn’t tried to sugarcoat the major and minor chords of the lineup, referring to and relying on the top 5 hitters — Holliday, Jordan Westburg, Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Mountcastle. I think Coby Mayo gives them a sixth, but Mansolino isn’t including him just yet.
On Tuesday, when the Orioles were shut out for the 13th time, the Mariners’ George Kirby pitched seven of those innings. Afterward, Mansolino was asked about an offense that wasted eight innings of one-run ball from Dean Kremer.
“If we’re going to be a team that wins in the playoffs, those five guys are going to have pressure on them,” Mansolino said. “They’re going to have pressure on them there. So is it debilitating pressure? I wouldn’t say so.
“Has it been a tough few days? Sure. Do you have to give credit to Kirby? Absolutely. He’s pretty good. I just think one through nine we’ve just got to do probably a better job of working some deeper counts and stringing together some at-bats and create a little bit more traffic.”
To picture the 55-66 Orioles as a playoff team in 2026 takes effort. Elias is counting on the core — Holliday, Westburg, Henderson, Rutschman and Cowser — to lead the way back to the postseason after a dismal 2025. There are signs that the group is good enough, particularly Henderson, Holliday and Westburg, but Rutschman and, especially, Cowser have work to do. Mayo’s emergence could be a big factor. So might the arrival of top prospect Samuel Basallo, a catcher/first baseman.
That presents a possible logjam at first base, especially if Mountcastle is still on the roster. The Orioles seem determined to use Mayo strictly at first, but he appears to be a good enough athlete to play a corner outfield position to keep his bat in the lineup and give the Orioles more flexibility. It might be something the Orioles work on in spring training.
What they should start fresh with next season is a stronger starting rotation. Trevor Rogers has established himself as a possible ace, with a 1.43 ERA after 11 starts, including seven innings of one-run ball against the Mariners on Wednesday night. That followed Kremer’s eight-inning gem. On Thursday, Tomoyuki Sugano, who seems to have made the adjustment to the major league schedule and its hitters, threw 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball in a 5-3 Orioles win, his 10th.
Kyle Bradish, who seemed to be on the verge of becoming an ace, will be back after Tommy John surgery, as will Tyler Wells, who gives them the flexibility that Albert Suárez offered before he injured his rotator cuff. If Grayson Rodriguez returns to form and stays healthy, which is a huge if, after having a bone spur removed from his elbow, the Orioles’ pitching prospects are much brighter.
There’s still thought that Elias might make some bold moves during the offseason after making pragmatic ones last year, but if O’Neill can bounce back from an injury-marred season, it’s the equivalent of adding a major league hitter. And Elias should be able to augment the roster with the prospects he got in return for the nine players he traded.
One person I don’t expect back is Mansolino, whose patience and professionalism has been tested — first with replacing his friend Brandon Hyde and next with managing a team that’s completely different from Opening Day, and even before the trade deadline.
After the Orioles lost to the A’s, 11-3, in a sad performance on the Orioles’ Hall of Fame night, Mansolino was introspective.
“With where the roster’s at … there’s going to be good nights and there’s going to be bad nights,” he began. “You start to think about the Opening Day roster and how many of those guys are still here, right? And a lot of the guys who are here now started in Triple-A, so they weren’t in the big leagues because they had things to work on, and now they get thrust into the big leagues.
“With that, once they get here, there’s going to be some tough nights. There’s going to be some really good moments, and we’ve seen that since the roster kind of turned over. And there’s going to be nights where they get beat up, and that’s just going to be part of the deal here for a little bit until they get more experience and more time and are able to slow the game down a little bit.”
Mayo is doing that. Next will be outfielder Dylan Beavers’ turn, and maybe Basallo’s before the season is over. If the core can show the way, this mess of a 2025 season might be an aberration. What ever good comes out of it, Mansolino deserves credit for staying positive and doing all he could to keep the wheels from completely coming off the bus.
He’s shown what a good baseball man he is. He’s shown what a good man he is.