BALTIMORE—What happened? Cradling his 2-year-old daughter Gigi through some of his introductory press conference, Craig Albernaz made clear that even though he’s the new manager of the Orioles, he’s learned quickly about Baltimore.
In his first answer to a question about what he brought from Cleveland, where he served as bench coach and associate manager, he alluded to the Ravens.
“I think everyone in Baltimore can see the Baltimore Ravens and what John Harbaugh has done with going from Joe Flacco to Lamar Jackson,” he said. “That’s a big change. I think the best coaches, the best managers in this game, they adapt to the players around them. They don’t have one set way of doing things.”
Albernaz’s wife and three young children were at the press conference and so were Stephen Vogt, the Guardians’ manager, and his wife.
President of baseball operations Mike Elias and control owner David Rubenstein joined Albernaz at the podium.
Why was Albernaz hired? The Orioles announced Albernaz’s hiring on October 27th, four weeks after Elias’ end-of-season press conference.
“Craig is somebody who’s built a very strong coaching career and a reputation as one of the up-and-coming managerial talents, but also overall coaching and player development talents in the sport now for several years,” Elias said.
“There are many things that attracted us to him in this position. I think a big one is the places that he’s worked. It starts with Cleveland and the fact that he’s spent the last two seasons very successfully as right-hand man to one of the best managers in the game right now, but also having worked with the Tampa Bay Rays, San Francisco Giants and Cleveland, demonstrating the ability to transition successfully across those organizations.”
Why did Albernaz take this job? Albernaz turned down managing opportunities with the Chicago White Sox and Miami Marlins a year ago.
“I think at that point in time, I felt like I was ready, but deep down, you’re just kind of like, ‘Do you want to take that next step?’ It’s a big job. I wanted to make sure that whichever organization I go to, I was really ready to jump in and dive in,” Albernaz said.
“Going through the process, meeting David and Mike and the rest of the front office, it really was, to me, an easy decision. Getting to know everyone. I think Mike would probably tell you, he’d probably wish I was a little more – had more pep in my step in the process – but I was more just being very thorough and looping in the people that I surround myself with to get their input. As you go through it, the clarity became clear that I wanted to be in Baltimore, be a Baltimore Oriole, and be in this organization, be in that dugout with this group of players.”
What does Albernaz think of the team? The Guardians and Orioles played seven times in 2025, but Albernaz didn’t see the Orioles in the last two months of the season.
“The talent just jumps right out at you,” Albernaz said. “This year was a down year. There were a lot of injuries, but the talent up and down the roster is impressive … I mean the athleticism just jumps out at you.
“It was a tough year for a lot of those guys. They went through some adversity. So, each guy is bouncing back. They’re going to have a chip on their shoulder and it’s already going into the offseason with the way these guys are working.
“It’s just making sure me and my coaching staff put these guys in the best chance to succeed and let their talents come to fruition. And we’re going to double down on their strengths and what makes them great, but also we’re going to talk to the players and listen to them.”
Will the Orioles be aggressive spenders this offseason? Rubenstein hadn’t been available to reporters who cover the Orioles since August 27th when he discussed Samuel Basallo’s extension.
“We don’t have particular constraints,” Rubenstein said. “We’re going to try to get the best players we can. Mike is leading that effort and has already talked about a number of possibilities with us.”
How many candidates did Elias interview? Elias didn’t go into detail on the number of people he interviewed for the Orioles job.
“It happens fairly quickly in my experience,” he said. “You go into a process for a high-level position like a major league manager. You are by nature going to get a candidate pool that’s extremely impressive across the board. It’s just people that come in different shapes and sizes and profiles, so to speak, but everyone is really highly qualified or they wouldn’t have made it into a process like that, so you meet a lot of impressive people. Sitting down with Craig and hearing the feedback from the many other people that interviewed him, it’s clear that this was a really good fit all around
What does it mean? Albernaz made it clear that player acquisition isn’t something he’ll be involved with.
“Whatever Mike wants to cook up,” he said. “That’s what Mike does best around the offseason is cook. No, I trust Mike. I trust in the group. For me as a manager of the team, is all who the players are in the clubhouse. I’m not going to talk about who you should get. That’s not my job. That’s Mike’s job. He’s pretty good at it, actually really good at it. But, no, my job is the players in the clubhouse, so whoever’s in there, we’re going to pour into them, get the most out of them.”
What’s the word? “If we get a healthy team, because of the players that we have, the great manager that we have, we’ll be in pretty good shape. Remember, Toronto was in last place the year they went to the World Series. They were in last place the year before they went to the World Series so you can come back from the bottom and we expect to do that.” –Rubenstein on the 2026 Orioles
What’s next? Elias will be at the General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas next week, and Elias and Albernaz will attend the Winter Meetings in Orlando in December.
Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.