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Tony Mansolino

Mike Elias Discusses Deadline Plans, Tony Mansolino, Samuel Basallo

By Nick Deeds | June 28, 2025 at 4:48pm CDT

While they entered the season viewed as a surefire contender, the Orioles are buried in the standings headed into the second half of the season. Their 35-46 record entering play today leaves them 11 games under .500 and seven games back of a playoff spot. They’d need to leapfrog seven teams in order to fight their way back into one of the AL’s three Wild Card spots, but that doesn’t mean that GM Mike Elias and his front office are entirely committed to selling. Elias spoke to reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASN) about the team’s status headed into July, and revealed that he’s preparing as though either buying or selling this summer are on the table.

“People are making their preparations, they understand that we’re not committed to a path yet, but we’re doing preparation in both directions and have an understanding of where that might go,” Elias said, as relayed by Kubatko. “So we want to keep playing, keep giving this team that we think is very talented, but unfortunately has started off with a bad record, as much chance as we can. But we’re gonna have to ultimately make a decision at some point here in July.”

It sounds as though Baltimore is content to wait for at least a little while longer before committing to an approach for this trade season, though Elias did acknowledge that the Orioles will have to be “realistic” about the amount of time required to act upon their goals for the deadline before adding that it’s “not one or two days.” Whatever path they end up committing to, Elias made clear that ownership is willing to spend this deadline. That can take the form of adding salary in buy-side trades, or perhaps retaining salary on a sell-side trade to bring back a stronger return.

For a team in Baltimore’s situation, a willingness to retain salary can be a game changer in terms of the return they can expect for their players. The Orioles have a number of veterans with relatively hefty salaries who could be potential trade candidates this summer. Zach Eflin ($18MM), Charlie Morton ($15MM), and Tomoyuki Sugano ($13MM) all have salaries that could be difficult for some clubs with tight budgets to take on, while even players like Gary Sanchez ($8.5MM) and Ryan O’Hearn ($8MM) could be a problem for teams pressed up against the luxury tax threshold. Eating salary not only makes the player inherently more valuable to the buying club, but it can also allow teams without much money to spend to enter the bidding and expand the overall field of interest for the player.

None of that will matter if the Orioles decide not to sell, but it’s going to require a massive turn around for the Orioles to be realistic contenders for October. As of today, Fangraphs gives Baltimore just a 3.7% chance at making the postseason, and only the White Sox have a more daunting remaining schedule than the Orioles per the site’s strength of schedule metric. With series against the Rays, Rangers, Guardians, and Blue Jays teed up between now and the trade deadline, Baltimore will likely need to win the majority of those series if they’re going to create an argument to avoid selling.

Unlikely as that may seem, it’s hardly unusual for teams on the periphery of the race to hesitate when presented with the opportunity to blow things up. Despite entering the All-Star break with records around .500 last year, teams like the Pirates and Cubs opted to keep their teams largely intact and even do some buy-side trades that brought in controllable assets like Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Isaac Paredes. Perhaps there’s room for the Orioles to take a similar approach, and if that is an option on the table, ownership’s willingness to add salary would be a key factor in making those sorts of longer-term additions feasible. Sandy Alcantara is controlled for two seasons after 2025 and is widely considered one of the top players available this summer, but Edward Cabrera, Mitch Keller, Jarren Duran, and Bryan Reynolds are among a smattering of other players with multiple years of control remaining who could be moved this summer.

The trade deadline wasn’t the only thing Elias addressed in his comments to the media today, however. He offered praise for interim manager Tony Mansolino, who has led Batlimore to a 20-18 record since taking over for Brandon Hyde earlier this season. Elias applauded Mansolino’s performance, saying the 42-year-old is “handling it extremely well,” though he went on to suggest that he has not yet made plans regarding the club’s search for a permanent manager. It’s not clear whether that search will include Mansolino or not at this point, but Elias indicated that if he were to have discussions with his interim manager about staying in the role long-term, that conversation would come “a little later into the year.”

Something else Elias suggested Orioles fans could keep an eye out for later this year is the debut of top catching prospect Samuel Basallo. Elias acknowledged that he “hopes” to see Basallo in the majors this year, and while he added that his defense behind the plate needs work, he left the door open to some development at the big league level in that regard.

“Catching is the area that there’s still a lot of development left for him, and not all of that’s gonna be in the minors. But his bat is more ready than the catching and that tends to happen, and it’ll be developing in the majors, too,” Elias said, as relayed by Kubatko. “But I think the experience that he’s getting, catching in Triple-A right now, is still really, really valuable. The game-calling, the handling veteran pitchers.”

That’s a notable shift in tone from comments Mansolino made about the possibility of a Basallo call-up. The manager told reporters just last week that he hopes to see Basallo “knock the door down” to the majors after he “absolutely destroys Triple-A in all facets of the game.” Those comments seemed to suggest the Orioles wanted Basallo to do relatively minimal development at the big league level, but it’s possible that recent injuries to Adley Rutschman and Maverick Handley that left the Orioles with a tandem of Sanchez and Chadwick Tromp behind the plate could have changed Baltimore’s thought process regarding their top prospect.

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Orioles Fire Manager Brandon Hyde

By Mark Polishuk | May 17, 2025 at 11:27am CDT

The Orioles announced that manager Brandon Hyde has been fired.  Third base coach Tony Mansolino will become the interim manager, while the coaching staff was further shaken up since Major League field coordinator and catching instructor Tim Cossins was also let go.

“Brandon Hyde is someone I have come to know and deeply admire, not only for his extensive knowledge of baseball, but also for his exceptional leadership as a manager,” Orioles owner David Rubenstein said in the club’s official media statement.  “I am sincerely grateful for his significant accomplishments over the past six years, which have greatly benefited both the Orioles and the city of Baltimore.  However, as is sometimes the case in baseball, change becomes necessary, and we believe this is one of those moments. The Orioles organization is truly appreciative of everything Brandon has contributed during his tenure, and we wish him nothing but success in whatever path he chooses next in the world of baseball.  Brandon is a man of great character, and we thank him for his dedication and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Today’s news would’ve seemed hard to fathom two months ago, when the O’s entered the 2025 season again looking like a strong contender to reach the playoffs for the third year in a row.  Unfortunately, Baltimore has been perhaps the biggest disappointment in baseball this year, as the team stumbled out of the blocks to a 15-28 record.  Of the four teams with 15 or fewer victories this season, three have already changed managers within the last two weeks, as Hyde’s dismissal comes on the heels of the Pirates firing Derek Shelton and the Rockies firing Bud Black.

Orioles GM Mike Elias acknowledged his own role in the team’s struggles, noting in the press release that “as the head of baseball operations, the poor start to our season is ultimately my responsibility.  Part of that responsibility is pursuing difficult changes in order to set a different course for the future.  I want to thank Brandon for his hard work, dedication, and passion all these years, and for returning the team to the playoffs and winning an AL East Championship.  His many positive contributions to this organization and to Baltimore will remain, and we wish he and his family the best.”

Hyde was initially hired as the Orioles’ skipper during the 2018-19 offseason, soon after Mike Elias was hired as the club’s new general manager.  The duo became the faces of the multi-year rebuild project that took the O’s through three dismal losing seasons in 2019-21 before Baltimore made a somewhat surprisingly early return to competitive baseball by posting an 83-79 record in 2022.  That winning season was the harbinger for the Orioles’ AL East title and a 101-win campaign in 2023, as Hyde captured AL Manager of the Year honors.  That huge season was followed up with 91 wins and a wild card berth in 2024.

Neither of those trips to the postseason, however, resulted in even a single victory, let alone a series win.  Even before the O’s were swept away by the Royals in the 2024 Wild Card Series, some cracks were showing in Baltimore’s foundation — the club had only a 33-33 record after the All-Star break, as compared to a 58-38 record in the first half.  Still, with so much position player talent in place as the Orioles’ core, the expectation going into the offseason was that Rubenstein (in his first offseason as the club’s owner) would be open to boosting payroll in order to augment the pitching help that the O’s needed as the final pieces of the puzzle.

Instead, the Orioles spent more modestly, and their main pitching additions were one-year investments in Tomoyuki Sugano (who was coming to MLB for the first time after a long career in Japan) and longtime veteran Charlie Morton.  While Sugano has performed well, Morton’s disastrous performance cost him his rotation job, adding to a litany of struggles within Baltimore’s rotation.  Injuries and under-performance have left the Orioles with a pitching staff that ranks at or near the bottom of the league in most major statistical categories, both in the rotation and in the bullpen.

More troubling results have some on the offensive side, as much about every member of the lineup has taken a step backwards from their 2024 numbers.  Losing Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser to injury hasn’t helped, and Gunnar Henderson also spent time on the IL at the start of the year.  But, health woes don’t explain why Adley Rutschman’s production has fallen off a cliff since the middle of 2024, or why Ryan Mountcastle or offseason addition Tyler O’Neill have also posted subpar numbers.

How much of this is directly Hyde’s fault is an open question, of course, as obviously Hyde wasn’t the one who added or didn’t add necessary pieces to the roster.  It is also fair to assume that decisions over playing time (i.e. how much or how often the young budding stars were incorporated into the lineup) were made by both Hyde and the front office, rather than just the skipper himself.

Still, several changes were made to Baltimore’s coaching staff after last season, indicating that upper management felt some alterations were necessary, even if Hyde’s job was seemingly safe.  And, given both the high expectations and the depths of the Orioles’ brutal start, Rubenstein, Elias and company may have felt that a managerial change needed to be made sooner rather than later, in order to see what the O’s might be able to salvage from the season.

The situation puts some extra pressure on Mansolino as the 42-year-old takes on his first assignment as a manager at the Major League level.  Mansolino has several years of managerial experience at multiple levels of Cleveland’s farm system, which led to a temporary job as the big league third base coach in 2020, as the club’s staff was shuffled around due to manager Terry Francona’s medical leave.  The 2020 campaign proved to be Mansolino’s last in Cleveland, as he was hired by the Orioles to become the team’s new third base coach.

If Mansolino can get the O’s turned around, he’ll have a great case for himself as the team’s next full-time manager heading into 2026.  Perhaps moreso than the questions surrounding the managerial situation is what today’s news means for Elias, who could potentially be on the hot seat himself in the wake of what now may be a sudden end to the Orioles’ competitive window.  In some ways, firing the architect of what is still a strong core of talent on paper would be even more surprising than firing Hyde, though it is worth noting that Elias wasn’t hired by Rubenstein himself.

Hyde completes his tenure with a 421-492 record over parts of seven seasons.  He’ll leave Baltimore along with Cossins, who USA Today’s Bob Nightengale described as a close friend of the ex-skipper.  Cossins has been a member of the Orioles staff for the entirety of Hyde’s tenure, and the two also worked together in the Cubs organization before joining the Orioles in the 2018-19 offseason.

Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer/Imagn Images

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Orioles Hire Tony Mansolino As Third Base Coach

By Connor Byrne | December 24, 2020 at 6:10pm CDT

The Orioles have hired Tony Mansolino as their third base coach, Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com tweets. Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com reported the news earlier this month, but it flew under MLBTR’s radar.

Mansolino will take over for Jose Flores, who had been on the Orioles’ staff since they hired manager Brandon Hyde before the 2019 season. Flores worked as their third base coach and served as an infield instructor.

The 38-year-old Mansolino is a former minor league infielder who has garnered quite a bit of coaching experience since his playing career ended in 2010. Mansolino managed and coached in Cleveland’s system for 11 years, Hoynes notes. He spent last season as Cleveland’s infield coordinator, and he subbed in as its third base coach, replacing Mike Sarbaugh, when manager Terry Francona went on leave for health reasons.

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