The first offseason mailbag filled up quickly and required a second dumping.

Here are some extras from earlier this week. Same rules against obsessive editing and crowing about it. Same weird mix of baseball and anything else.

Given Grayson Rodriguez’s health issues, and Kyle Bradish (and Tyler Wells) coming back from injury, might the Orioles reconsider starting the season with a six-man rotation? If/when someone gets hurt, they could drop down to five if they don't see it as a season-long thing.
The issue with a six-man rotation always has been the added stress it places on a bullpen. You’re a man short. I see your logic, but you’d need relievers to cover those innings. I think Rodriguez is the only one who could be babied at the beginning because he hasn’t pitched since July 31, 2024. We’ll know more about the team’s plans after camp opens, but my expectation is a standard five-man rotation with the possibility of expanding it later in the summer.  

How many former catchers will interview for the manager's job?
Rick Dempsey would love a shot at it. Not happening. But he needs to be on the guest coaching list at spring training. The man only caught in the majors for 24 years and won a couple World Series. But back to your question. The odds are much better for David Ross, Bob Melvin, Brad Ausmus and Mike Matheny.

Does being a former Oriole weight into the club's decision on a new manager?
The Orioles aren't saying much about the search but that doesn't make much sense. Brandon Hyde had no ties to the Orioles. Ryan Flaherty, as another example, played under Buck Showalter. Why would that matter to the current regime? His playing career ended with Cleveland in 2019. Maybe the Guardians will call if they need another manager. If the Orioles hire Flaherty, it will be because of his coaching background after retirement, his knowledge and implementation of analytics, his intelligence, what he learned as a player.  

Orioles pitcher Albert Suárez received a second opinion on his right elbow Tuesday during an examination by Dr. Keith Meister.

According to a team spokesperson, Suárez suffered a mild forearm flexor strain in his last appearance on Sept. 14 in Toronto.

Suárez is continuing his rehabilitation into the offseason and is expected to begin a throwing progression in the coming weeks, which is a positive development following concerns over the severity of his injury. Second opinions often lead to bad news. 

The club will provide a further update when it has more information to share.

Suárez made his lone start of the season at Rogers Centre and allowed one run and two hits in three innings before being shut down. He couldn’t undergo an MRI until the swelling subsided.

Samuel Basallo played in only 31 games with the Orioles and already began to blend with his teammates and understand how life works in a major league clubhouse.

What you see and hear in there stays in there.

Basallo might have taken it to the extreme, but he had an impressive response to a question at Yankee Stadium about a team meeting to discuss how the Orioles could avoid a repeat of their disappointing 2025 season.

“I don’t want to talk about specific things, but I think we’ve talked about a number of different topics and things that we need to do better, things that we need to get better at,” he said through interpreter Brandon Quinones.

“I don’t think it’s the smart thing to talk about it on camera, but we’ve spoken about a few different things and we know what we need to do.”

A team’s offseason business usually includes deciding which arbitration-eligible players should be tendered contracts and which ones are allowed to walk into free agency. Or given a shove.

The deadline to grab or let go is Nov. 21.

Players with three-to-six years of service time are eligible, and most fans know every step of the dance. The sides exchange figures if an agreement isn’t reached, and a three-person panel chooses a winner in hearings that run between late January and early February.

The Orioles prefer the file-and-go approach (and I prefer calling it file-and-trial), but they make exceptions for contracts that include options and aren’t just for the upcoming season.

Arbitration contributes to the hikes in payroll. Players don’t take cuts. And some raises are more extreme than others.

As we’ve learned through years and years of testing and experimentation, you can’t have an offseason mailbag without an offseason. It’s literally in the name.

Let’s break out the first one here, the latest sequel to the beloved and often celebrated 2008 original.

As you’d expect, many of the questions pertained to the pending managerial and GM hirings and specifics about the roster. And as you’d expect, I can’t provide many definitive answers because it’s too early or the club hasn’t shared the necessary information.

It’s hard to see clearly in the dark.

What’s much more obvious is that my mailbag sacks quarterbacks and your mailbag wants its quarter back after tipping a waiter.

Orioles' reliever Yennier Cano will bring an unheralded streak into the 2026 season, as long as he’s with the club.

We can’t make assumptions after Cano labored through most of 2025 and still has minor league options.

Cano has led the club in appearances for three consecutive seasons, topping the pitching staff with 72 in 2023 while also compiling a 2.11 ERA and making the American League’s All-Star team, 70 in 2024 and 65 in 2025 to edge out Keegan Akin (64).

The next five were traded or injured: Gregory Soto (45), Seranthony Domínguez (43), Bryan Baker (42), Félix Bautista (35) and Andrew Kittredge (31). Dean Kremer tied Kittredge.

Eddie Watt (1967-70) and Stu Miller (1963-66) are tied for the club record with four straight seasons with the most appearances, per STATS. Cano, Jim Johnson (2011-13), Jesse Orosco (1995-97), Tippy Martinez (1981-83) and George Zuverink (1956-58) are next with three.

The needs of a 75-87, last-place team that should have contended for a third straight playoff appearance and challenged for the organization’s first World Series title in 42 years are so long and varied that it’s hard to agree on a starting point.

Finding a new manager is a top priority, but the front office can conduct its roster business without him. He’ll play the hand that he’s dealt.

His life will be easier if the Orioles give him a veteran bat for the lineup.

Make sure that it’s gripped by a leader.

The Orioles are counting on the young core, as it’s called, to step up in 2026. They also counted on it in 2025 and results were mixed at best. Mostly below expectations.

When the Orioles vow to hire a new manager “as soon as possible,” it’s a good bet to get done faster than in past years under previous ownership.

Peter Angelos often handled his baseball business as he would in court, with the lawyer coming out of him. You couldn’t rush him. Efforts to gain approval on anything, including possible trades, might stall as if having transmission trouble. Past general managers just learned to deal with it. Some candidates for various jobs lost patience with the indecisiveness of the organization. 

The Orioles will operate with a greater sense of urgency in their search for a full-time manager, though they’ve got more time on their side than in 2018. The Winter Meetings are two months away. News probably won’t break and appear on an MLB Network scroll while Mike Elias meets with the media in his suite in Orlando.

Every outlet is going to post lists of possible hires and every name at this point is a hunch or guess, unlike in 2018, when six finalists were confirmed – Brandon Hyde, Manny Acta, Mike Bell, Pedro Grifol, Chip Hale and Mike Redmond.

The White Sox hired Grifol in November 2022 and fired him in August. 2024.

The flurry of deadline trades massively altered the Orioles’ roster, made it much harder to stay competitive but also provided a nice bump to a farm system that slipped in the rankings due to the many promotions and the graduations from eligibility.

They also took away a chunk of the team’s pending free agents, including Ryan O’Hearn, Cedric Mullins, Charlie Morton, Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto. Some players under team control or with options also were dealt, including Bryan Baker, Andrew Kittredge, Ramón Laureano and Ramón Urías.

Three players on the current roster will become free agents five days after the World Series and the Orioles can negotiate to bring them back, though the chances of the entire trio returning are pretty much nil.

Let’s start with the reason why.

Catcher Gary Sánchez

The end-of-season press conference Monday with president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias and interim manager Tony Mansolino covered such a wide range of topics that it’s going to be referenced for weeks.

The copy during a down period for non-playoff teams is stretched like leftovers. And every sentence gets dissected in the search for clues. 

Here are a few more items: 

* Don’t mistake a desire for veteran leadership for a fractured clubhouse.

The Orioles didn’t quit on Brandon Hyde or Tony Mansolino. They weren’t bickering. They weren’t demanding trades.

The failures didn’t break Tyler O’Neill, but everything else seemed to try.

O’Neill joined the Orioles over the winter and couldn’t stay away from the injured list, making three trips due to neck inflammation, a left shoulder impingement and right wrist inflammation. He couldn’t get any momentum going in his first season of the three-year, $49.5 million contract signed on Dec. 10.

The opt-out clause isn’t worth mentioning anymore. O’Neill must rebuild his value, and the Orioles are counting on him being a presence in the heart of their lineup and in their clubhouse.

The 54 games played are four more than O'Neill's career low set in the pandemic 2020 season, and he finished with a .199 average, six doubles, nine home runs, 26 RBIs, a .684 OPS and a minus-0.6 bWAR.

Everything suffered, including the defense of a two-time Gold Glove winner. His minus-1.1 dWAR also was the worst of his career, and Statcast calculated his outs above average (OAA) at minus-4.

OK, today really is starting to feel like the offseason for non-playoff teams.

The Orioles don’t have more games on their schedule. They haven’t arranged another press conference. The ballpark is quiet except for employees who still have 9-to-5 jobs and the construction crews. Work on the former press box site already was underway yesterday.

Tony Mansolino can return home and go an entire 24 hours without someone asking him about the experience of serving as interim manager and what it meant to him. Being on the road with the team provided more opportunities for media to pull some reflections out of him, but his audience grew significantly yesterday at Warehouse Bar & Restaurant – which used to be Dempsey’s and then the gambling place where you couldn’t place bets.

I’d bet my house that Mansolino is exhausted from fielding the same questions, but he’s such a good guy that he never shows it. And with his coaching background, he knows all about fielding.

“Just professional development, massive in a lot of ways,” he said about what he gained from his tenure as Brandon Hyde’s replacement. “You just managed a major league team for 4 ½ months under some of the most trying circumstances you can probably have in this position. I was just joking, I think you probably go back 21 days I’ve probably had to answer whether I’m gonna have a job here or not consecutively. That’s not easy to do and I don’t think that’s normal in a lot of ways, but also part of the situation that we’re in here, and that’s fine, that’s part of it.”

With renovations starting in various areas of Camden Yards, today’s season-ending press conference with president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias and interim manager Tony Mansolino was held at Warehouse Bar & Restaurant on the ground floor of the brick building.

The location had nothing to do with the Orioles finishing on the ground floor of their division.

Confidence runs high through the organization that they’ll rise again in 2026. They might have a new manager, though Tony Mansolino is a candidate to lose the interim tag. A general manager eventually will join the front office with Elias’ promotion, but the hire could be made this winter or much later.

“The manager search has its own timetable,” Elias said.

Elias spoke for the first time about the change in his title and its impact on his duties. The news broke earlier this month, long after the switch.

The Orioles are ready to begin an extensive managerial search at an accelerated pace, with the goal of making a decision as soon as possible, said president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias.

Perhaps the hire comes before a GM is chosen for the front office. The possibility exists, according to Elias. And interim manager Tony Mansolino is going to be counted among the many candidates.

“First of all, 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 during today’s press conference.

“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.”

Mansolino took over for Brandon Hyde on May 17 and the Orioles went 60-59, which demonstrated improvement but didn’t get them out of last place. Some jobs are just too big.

NEW YORK – The real work begins today.

Games are done until spring training and they won’t become official until March 26, when the Orioles play the Twins at Camden Yards. But the team must be rebuilt and rebooted. A repeat of 2025 won’t suffice. Anything close to it could spark an overhaul.

The Orioles will reach important dates in the offseason, including the GM and winter meetings, the start of free agency, exercising or declining options, and the non-tender and Rule 5 deadlines. Busy hands will reshape the roster.

This could be the most active offseason in a while. What just transpired was too traumatic to tweak.

Players will trust the process, as usual.

NEW YORK – Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino is celebrating his 43^rd birthday, joking with media earlier today about being old but mostly somber over the finality of the season.

“It’s always a weird feeling,” he said. “There’s certainly a strange feeling of unfinished business in a lot of ways because our fate is to go home and we’re not gonna have a workout day tomorrow and then kind of prep ourselves for a hopeful playoff run that we’ve had the last couple years. That feeling we’ve had. It’s very different, it’s a little sad is probably the right word that we’re at this point.

“Just sad in some ways.”

Joy was missing again in the Bronx today. The Orioles were swept. 

Game 162 concluded with the Orioles losing 3-2 to the Yankees before an announced crowd of 45,004. They went 60-59 under Mansolino after he replaced Brandon Hyde, who was 15-28 prior to his dismissal.

NEW YORK – The Orioles finish their disappointing season this afternoon with Ryan Mountcastle as the designated hitter, possibly in his last game with the team, depending whether they tender him a contract in his last year of arbitration eligibility.

Coby Mayo is at first base. Dylan Beavers is in left field and Tyler O’Neill is in right.

Mayo is slashing .410/.521/.769 (16-for-39) with two doubles, four home runs, six RBIs, seven walks and nine runs scored in 14 games since Sept. 13.

Kyle Bradish makes his sixth start, with seven runs and 18 hits allowed in 28 innings. He’s walked 10, struck out 39 and surrendered two home runs.

The Yankees see Bradish again after he held them to one run and two hits with nine strikeouts in six innings. He owns a 2.90 ERA and 1.419 WHIP in six career starts against New York.

NEW YORK – This is it.

The 162^nd game will be played later this afternoon, with more first-pitch swinging if one team didn’t need the win. The Yankees are fighting for the division title, still tied with the Blue Jays. The Orioles made their travel plans and are set to scatter.

Fire the starting pistol and watch them go.

The Orioles probably need a general manager with Mike Elias’ promotion to president of baseball operations. They need to decide on a manager, which could impact the entire coaching staff. They need pitching and bats. And they need to search for silver linings in a season with 86 losses heading into today.

There must be knowledge gained from it.

NEW YORK – Tomoyuki Sugano’s future is up in the air with free agency approaching for the first time in the U.S.

Fewer fly balls might prolong his career, wherever he’s pitching next year.

Sugano surrendered three more home runs today and they came in the first two innings. Aaron Judge hit his 53^rd, Giancarlo Stanton his 24^th and third in two games, and Ryan McMahon his 20^th. No one has allowed more in the American League.

The solo shots led the Yankees to a 6-1 victory over the Orioles before an announced sellout crowd of 46,085 in the penultimate game of the regular season.

The Orioles are 75-86 and assured of a last-place finish in the division. They can’t nudge the Rays out of fourth place.

NEW YORK – Dean Kremer made his final start of the season on Tuesday.

He might not be done pitching.

Interim manager Tony Mansolino said there’s a chance that Kremer is used out of the bullpen for Sunday’s finale. He’s pitched twice in relief out of 125 major league games, including seven bulk innings on June 12 against the Tigers.

“He’s been advocating to come out of the bullpen between starts from Day One, so yes, he’s advocating and we’ll see,” Mansolino said.

“There’s a day tomorrow, right? Isn’t tomorrow on turn for him? We’ll see how it goes. Depends if he’s pleasant to be around today or not.”