Various worlds were rocked back in May with manager Brandon Hyde’s firing in his seventh season on the job. It began with Hyde, of course, who learned of his fate the night before the team’s announcement and returned to his home in Sarasota County. Major league field coordinator and catching instructor Tim Cossins, a close friend of Hyde’s since they were teenagers, also was dismissed.

Tony Mansolino thought he’d remain third base coach, his role since the 2021 season, but the Orioles named him interim manager. His move out of the box prompted Buck Britton’s switch from major league coach.

Britton managed Triple-A Norfolk for the past three seasons. He barely had time to get acclimated to the majors, a level he never reached as a player, and he already was inheriting a new title.

“I’ve been in the big leagues for, what five months? It feels like I’ve been here for two years,” Britton said this week, smiling at the accelerated pace of his professional life.

“I never expected to be thrown into the fire. Very thankful and blessed that I was the guy to go over to third base and do that. It’s been a wild ride.

“At the beginning, it was a lot because taking over some of the infield stuff, the shifts and doing all that stuff, but luckily Manso kind of had a template and a system laid out, and once I kind of found my groove, it’s been a little easier. And the game’s starting to slow down at third base, so that’s nice, too.”

The Orioles sped up the development of its younger players and the coaching staff by hiring John Mabry as special advisor on May 30. A veteran voice was deemed necessary with Mansolino a first-timer as major league manager, Britton in his roles and bench coach Robinson Chirinos as a novice in any role.

“Obviously, he’s got a ton of experience,” Britton said. “You last this long in the game, the ability to adapt to what the game brings. I’m sure he came up kind of old school and he’s learned all the analytics and the new stuff. And there’s a calmness about Mabry that he brings. Whether things are going bad or they’re going good, he’s pretty even keel. I think it helps the players and the coaches just because he understands what winning is and he understands when they’re going through a struggle what it takes to get out of that struggle.

“He’s just a guy that you can go and talk to about anything with the experiences that he’s had. We’ve kind of given him the reins on Coby Mayo and just kind of sit back and listen to how he talks about first base play. Just a guy who’s been around really good coaches himself. He’s been awesome.”

Mabry is like a super-utility player but in the coaches’ room. Much of his work is done before the games, most noticeably the tutoring of Mayo at first base. They hit the field early. Doesn’t matter whether Mayo is in the lineup that night.

The areas of expertise are expansive, with Mabry playing first, third and all three outfield positions over his 14 major league seasons. He also pitched twice in emergency relief.

The post-playing career began in 2012 as a Cardinals assistant hitting coach. He was promoted later to hitting coach, moved on to the Royals as major league coach from 2020-22, and served as Marlins assistant hitting coach in 2023 and hitting coach in 2024 prior to his dismissal.

Mabry was content in retirement, living in the St. Louis area with wife Ann and their four children. The phone wasn’t ringing and he didn’t care. But the Orioles contacted him unexpectedly and an agreement came together quickly for the rest of the 2025 season.

“He doesn’t have a responsibility during the game, even though he’s charting,” Britton said. “He’s got numbers all over his papers and stuff. But he sees the whole field. He’ll come up to you and say, ‘Hey, did you see Mayo?’ Or, ‘Hey, did you see the third baseman right there, where he was?’ And sometimes you’re locked in on something else and you don’t see it. So the way he sees the game is pretty impressive. And he’s full of knowledge, man, and I pick his brain as much as I can.”

Mansolino relates to Mabry because of the similarities to his father, Doug, who is an infield coordinator in the Braves’ system and has done pretty much everything, including the years he coached in the majors.

“You’re trying to think about when he came, how he’s going to help us, and in a lot of ways I’ve thought about what my dad’s doing in the game right now, and he kind of operates in different areas in Atlanta and helps out different people,” Mansolino said.

“Coaches that coach the coaches is a really good thing, right? So finding coaches that can coach the coaches. Experienced guys who can help the coaches, not just the players, but the coaches, as well, that’s a really important thing to have in an organization. We have it here in the big leagues right now. And Mabes is helping our players.

“Our players flock to him. I watch the hitters and they love the experience and they love the knowledge. He’s got four decades of being in the big leagues right now in different capacities. Also, our coaches are flocking to him. He goes and talks to Buck a lot and (Anthony) Sanders a lot in their areas. He’s talking to Ryan Klimek about game-calling, pitch-calling. He’s talking to Frenchy (Drew French) about our pitchers. Obviously, he spends a lot of time with (Cody) Asche and our hitters, and all the coaches have been incredibly receptive to him and they’ve kind of sought him out for information and advice. So he’s really impressed me in a lot of ways.

“But that was his reputation. There’s a lot of people that I come across in the game that, when they talk about him, they speak incredibly highly of him. It’s beared fruit having him here, and man, it’s just been a great experience with him.”