Nearly seven years ago, Mike Elias was hired as the Orioles’ executive vice president/general manager, and he needed to find a manager. It was mid-November when Elias was brought in, and other teams with vacancies had filled theirs.
Elias interviewed six candidates — Manny Acta, Mike Bell, Pedro Grifol, Chip Hale, Mike Redmond and Brandon Hyde. After missing out on several other openings, Hyde became Elias’ choice, and it was a good one.
Hyde guided the Orioles through three seasons of losing and a pandemic before the Orioles suddenly improved midway through the 2022 season and finished with a winning record for the first time since 2016.
Two postseason appearances followed, but no postseason wins. After a 15-28 start to the 2025 season, Hyde was dismissed and Tony Mansolino was named interim manager.
Now, Mansolino is in limbo.
On Monday, a day after the regular season ended, Elias said that Mansolino had done “a terrific job,” considering the circumstances, and that he would be “a real candidate” for the job.
Mansolino’s Orioles had a 60-59 record, and considering the unloading of nine players at the trade deadline and difficult schedule, he did a creditable job.
But Elias, who’s now the Orioles’ president of baseball operations, gets to start the managerial search at the beginning of the offseason, not six weeks into it, and the job will be an attractive one.
Coincidentally during Elias’ 44-minute presser, word came that the San Francisco Giants had let go of Bob Melvin, a former Orioles catcher and an accomplished veteran manager.
Melvin will be linked to the Orioles’ job along with others. He’s managed five teams, the Giants, Athletics, Mariners, Diamondbacks and Padres in 22 seasons.
Rocco Baldelli, who was chosen over Hyde for the Minnesota Twins job in 2018, was let go on Monday as well, and he’ll be among a number of names mentioned. Texas and Bruce Bochy parted ways on Monday night, but he would seem an unlikely fit for the Orioles–even if he wants to continue to manage at age 70.
Former Nationals manager Davey Martinez, who won a World Series in 2018; Skip Schumaker, who left the Miami Marlins after last season; Scott Servais, longtime Seattle manager; and Mike Matheny, who managed the Cardinals and Royals, could be candidates.
So could Los Angeles Dodgers first base coach Chris Woodward, who managed Texas; and David Ross, who managed the Chicago Cubs before Craig Counsell replaced him two years ago. Yankees bench coach Brad Ausmus, who managed the Tigers and Angels, wants to manage again.
Other major league coaches who could be candidates are Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann and Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty, who played six seasons in Baltimore.
Besides the Giants and Twins, Colorado and Washington also have openings. Ron Washington left the Los Angeles Angels to have open heart surgery during the season, and the Angels might not bring Washington or acting manager Ray Montgomery back.
Other names will surface, and with Elias describing a more detailed search process than the one he conducted in 2018, it seems unlikely that Mansolino will be the team’s manager next year.
If the Orioles were going to hire Mansolino, why conduct a thorough search that could include interviews with members of the ownership group and Catie Griggs, the team’s president of business operations?
“You have a real integrated and well-functioning organization, business and baseball, there’s a lot of overlap and a lot of cooperation that happens,” Elias said.
“There’s a lot of interaction with the manager’s chair and also she wants the team to win and be successful, and she’s had experience in baseball and worked for Seattle and is very bright and has a lot of good judgment on hiring.
“So, we’re tapping into that resource, but we’re all part of one team, and I think one of the big things I’m most excited about with this ownership group is the growth and development and talent that we’ve brought in on the business side of our operation. And we’re going to be seeing a lot of cool new stuff here at Camden Yards, as a result of that. So we all work together very closely.”
Including owners and other executives in the process isn’t a new idea. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described an exhausting process in 2015 that had him interviewing with many members of team leadership.
With a losing season, attendance was down about 21 percent, and fans are expecting the Orioles to spend aggressively this offseason.
“This was a very disappointing season,” Elias said. “There’s a lot of fallout from that and it affects your attendance in this business we’re in. We’re aware of that. We’re going to put together a team that we and our owners are excited about going into next season. I think that things will take care of themselves if we do what we need to do on the field and win.”
Mansolino is realistic, saying he has a family to take care of, and while it seems unlikely he’ll be the Orioles’ manager in 2026, perhaps he’ll be a coach for another team, or even back on the Orioles’ coaching staff under a new manager.
Some of the names that Elias could be interested in are working on teams that are in the postseason, and maybe that delays the search a little while, but he’ll probably want to have a new manager within a month, by the time the World Series ends and free agency begins. He used the term “ASAP” for his timeframe.
As for the general manager’s job, Elias didn’t seem in much of a rush to hire one, saying it was possible the job wouldn’t be filled this offseason. The manager’s job will be the priority.
Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.