BALTIMORE—On Monday, Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias and interim manager Tony Mansolino summarized the 2025 season and looked ahead to 2026. Mansolino spoke first, followed by Elias. Here are some highlights:
Mansolino’s fate hasn’t been decided
Despite managing the team for nearly three-quarters of the season, and finishing with a 60-59 record, Mansolino doesn’t know if he’ll return for 2026.
“No. Just under consideration, and Mike can probably talk more about it later. I do feel strong that I’m in good standing here in one form or another. That being said, I also understand the business and know how things kind of go and understand that I might have to wear a different uniform next year. So, hopeful to wear the Orioles’ one and if that doesn’t work out, obviously gonna have to look around and go from there.”
On Sunday, Mansolino said that it was likely that he’d have to look for another job.
“I would love to be here. This is a great place, it’s an historic franchise, it is a place that gave me my first full-time big league job, so ideally I get to stay here in a lot of ways. I’m very comfortable with the people here, I have a lot of respect for the people here. Maybe most importantly, I love a lot of these young players, guys who have been here and grown with myself and also kind of helped raise in a lot of ways here over the last five years. So ideally, yeah, I get to stay, but also up close and personal view of this business growing up in it, understanding coaches might have the least job security in the business in a lot of ways. Rightfully so or not, and most likely not, you do have to kind of hedge and make sure you’re going to be able to pay your bills and take care of your wife and kids and do the whole deal that is necessary in being a normal human being and not just a coach.”
Elias said there will be a managerial search
“Understanding the timing, the manner, the context around how Tony got that assignment, and everything that he needed to do and was in front of him and worked through, we think he did a terrific job as the interim manager with that particular assignment in 2025 with where the players were, with where the organization was,” Elias said. “I thought he added a lot of value and did a great job with that assignment and I got the chance to work with him much more closely during this and I’m very impressed with him as I’ve gotten to know him more. And I think he’s a very talented guy and has a lot of skills that would add up to a great major league manager now or in the future. I’ve told him that we are going to utilize the opportunity of having the permanent chair vacant to talk to other people and learn and see who is available, who’s interested and figure out who the right fit is for this team for 2026. That process is going to include him and he will be a real candidate, but I expect we are going to talk to other people and we’re initiating that process imminently.”
Elias talked about the advantage of hiring an experienced manager
“I think experience is usually, overwhelmingly usually, a big positive. It is, in our particular situation, I think it will definitely carry a lot of weight given all the factors that you just described. But if you look at history, it is not a requisite for managerial success and it’s not necessary and nor does it guarantee success. Like I said earlier, it’ll all be weighed in the portfolio of the candidate and there are other perceived strengths and areas of lacking. We’ll just look at the whole picture and the person and try to decide who’s best for us right now. But you know, experience would definitely be an attractive feature by and large.”
Elias wants to hire a manager quickly
“ASAP for the manager, I got a very busy off season ahead of me. Lot of player business as usual, but a lot of player business this off season, and a lot of hiring. And then also, we tend to lose people to other organizations. So we have a lot in front of us and getting the manager in as early as possible. I also think we’ll have competition on the managerial market this year. So ASAP there. I think I touched on the ownership ability, willingness to spend already. But it’s there, and it’s just about doing so wisely and making the rubber hit the road. That’s so important.
Elias addressed the timetable for his promotion
“So, I know that came out in a bit of an unusual way. That was an arrangement that we reached this year, in the spring, early in the spring, and at that point in time, with everything that we had going on, it wasn’t a huge immediate priority for me to announce that, or for us to announce that. And as we got into the season and things started to go the way that they went, it was nowhere near my mind at that time to address that situation. But that is the case. It does provide us the ability to utilize the general manager title in a way that many, many other organizations and a growing number of other organizations are starting to utilize it to beef up the throughput, but also the talent in the front office. And it’s something that we have begun to consider and explore. But obviously it’s got to be the right person, the right fit, for the Orioles, for the org, for the whole situation and it may not happen imminently, but that is a pathway that’s available to us and it’s something that we may be interested in doing. It may be this offseason, it may not be.”
Elias on hiring a general manager
“I think the answer to that very much depends on who it is. I think what’s very clear to me is there’s a lot of work in baseball operations now running these departments on a day to day basis. It’s a ton of work. We have a relatively small baseball operations department still, and we have room to grow and we’re also very interested in outside perspectives and outside talent. So, that can come in different profiles and backgrounds and job duties and it’s something that I think we would tailor depending on who the person is. But there’s certainly room for more high-level contributions to our department. We want people that can help us. We also want people that can challenge us in a lot of areas, especially after you come off of a year where the organization didn’t meet its goals.”