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You don’t have to look far to find the local connections with new Orioles senior advisor John Mabry.
He grew up a fan of the team, which happens when you’re raised in Cecil County and attend Bohemia Manor High School in Chesapeake City, played for the renown Johnny’s amateur baseball team and participated in the Crown All-Star Game at Memorial Stadium.
“Favorite players Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, the whole nine yards,” Mabry said. “I’ve been watching the Orioles since Wild Bill Hagy type stuff. So it’s a cool opportunity, and at this time it was cool for our family, as well.”
Mabry was at Camden Yards this morning to fulfill his role as senior advisor, a move consummated a few weeks after the Orioles fired manager Brandon Hyde and made third base coach Tony Mansolino the interim, and it’s a broad set of responsibilities.
“Just gonna be a helping hand,” he said. “Just be an available resource for coaches and players. Get to know everything that’s going on and just be available.”
That can consist of working with the hitters, offering input from the dugout, instructing infielders and outfielders, assisting in baserunning. Anything he’s asked to do.
“I’m excited about that,” said Ryan O’Hearn, who played for the Royals when Mabry was on the staff. “I think Mabry can bring a lot to this clubhouse. Played in the big leagues for a long time, been on a lot of teams - good teams, bad teams. I feel like he’s seen it all.
“Just a really good coach for guys to look to, to learn from. He can relate to pretty much everybody in this room, it seems like. Very happy to have him here. He means a lot to me, meant a lot to me in Kansas City. Kept me sane on the bench there for a couple years. Looking forward to seeing him.”
Until a few days ago, it would have required a plane ticket.
Mabry was content in retirement, living in the St. Louis area with wife Ann and their four children. He played 14 seasons in the majors and spent 12 more in various coaching capacities, including hitting instructor. That part of his life was over.
The phone wasn’t ringing … until it did.
An agreement for the rest of the 2025 season came together “pretty quickly,” Mabry said.
“I soft-launched in my retirement,” he said with a laugh. “I was watching my kids. I have two graduating college, and so I was hanging out being dad and enjoying family, and got a call. And after circumstances, unfortunately.
“Just happy for the opportunity. I grew up here in Maryland, been a Baltimore Orioles fan, my family was a Baltimore Orioles fan.”
The Mabry’s had a house built in St. Louis in 1998 and stayed, he said, because of its location in the middle of the country. But his mother, brother, sister and other family remain in Maryland.
“North of here,” he said, “about 45 minutes.”
Mabry did some observing of the current team from afar and is in the process of getting to know guys, though he already had relationships with O’Hearn in Kansas City, Tyler O’Neill, Dylan Carlson and Matt Bowman in St. Louis, Emmanuel Rivera in Miami and Anthony Sanders in Seattle. He also was a teammate of and later coached Jackson Holliday’s father, Matt, who attended games this weekend.
“He played with my kid in the family room for years, so they’ve been together for a long time,” Mabry said.
“The longer you stick around, the more that happens. It’s a small community in baseball, so it’s really cool to have that familiarity with those guys and have something to build with, trust and relationships with. It helps.”
As for the others, Mabry said, “You always watch stuff, but you want to see it first hand to see what’s going on and see where you can help and just be a resource.”
The challenge is missing those valuable camp days in Sarasota and the first couple months of the season. He’s taking the plunge with the Orioles 58 games into their season and 14 below .500.
“These guys have built a relationship, they’ve done a great job with players all the way through spring training to the first of the year," he said. "You can’t control injuries and stuff like that, so it’s part of the game, you know? Just keep going.”
Playing for eight teams in 14 seasons exposed Mabry to iconic managers like Tony La Russa, Lou Piniella, Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy, and also Art Howe and Larry Bowa. He can call upon those experiences in his post-playing career.
“A lot of names in the history of the game who are going to be pretty synonymous with baseball,” he said. “Every year you learn something. In this game, if you stick around long enough, you’ll see something, you’ll learn something that you have never seen before or have known before.
“All those guys, the way they handled the clubhouse, the way they prepped, the way they handled individual relationships, if you were paying attention, you could learn a lot from people like that who have been in the game a long time.”
Mansolino and Mabry rode together to the ballpark yesterday. They got an early start on the bonding.
“We’re staying at the same place,” Mansolino said. “I called him last night to see where he was staying and said, ‘Hey man, meet me in the lobby and let’s head on in.’ He’s coming to a new place, he doesn’t know where to park, doesn’t know where the locker is. Got to chat with him this morning. Got to hang out with him on the field this morning.
“Again, I gravitate toward people like my dad (Doug). People like my dad, they’ve been in the game a long time, there’s a lot of wisdom. It’s really important to have that in every environment, and just we’re really excited for John and being here.”
Update: The Orioles announced they have reinstated Colton Cowser (left thumb fracture) from the 60-day injured list and designated Cooper Hummel for assignment.
