NEW YORK – The exit meetings that are held with players at this time in the year are a custom fit for each individual. The talks don’t come off the rack.
There is, however, one central message that applies to everyone, the veterans and the core that’s much shorter on experience.
Interim manager Tony Mansolino wants something specific to resonate with this group.
“That this needs to never happen again,” he said. “That we need to solve the issues that we have and we need to fix it. And it’s up to the staff and the front office to set the path forward to fix it individually and holistically for the team.”
The Orioles are two games behind the Rays for fourth place in the division, but it’s an unappetizing consolation prize. They’d like to escape the basement but won’t celebrate it, not after back-to-back playoff appearances.
“This isn’t what we should be by any means,” Mansolino said. “We should be something completely different, but I also think that everybody has to take a step back and look around the league and understand that teams like the Boston Red Sox haven’t been to the playoffs since (’21). They’re about to make it. The Cubs haven’t been to the playoffs since ’20. They’re about to make it. Unfortunately, baseball’s really difficult, it’s really hard, and there are seasons that just don’t go your way, whether it be underperformance or medical issues or a combination of both, which are probably our issues this year. So we are not abnormal.
“This is an unfortunate circumstance to the game. There are teams like the Dodgers who roll off 13 straight division titles or whatever they just did last night, and that’s obviously what we aspire to, but I don’t think we can panic, I don’t think that the world should be lit on fire because we’ve had a bad year, but I do think that those meetings individually and collectively with the team, it’s an opportunity to assess how we’ve gotten here and what we do need to do going forward.”
In an odd twist, the Orioles could look back on 2025 years from now as a turning point. The distance could change the perception.
Hard lessons can sharpen the edges.
Mansolino believes it.
“I do. I think this might be the best thing that ever happened to these guys,” he said.
“This is painful and miserable right now for a lot of us, but being a coach and being a parent and watching kids struggle, your own kids, and these are partly my kids, too, now, at least for a few more days, I do know that most people learn from mistakes. So in a lot of ways, yes, I think this is going to be a really good thing for them if they choose so to make it.”
Tyler O’Neill is expected back next season rather than opting out of his three-year, $49.5 million deal. He’s in the lineup tonight, batting .195/.291/.385 with a minus-0.5 bWAR, lowest of his career, in only 51 games. The minus-0.9 dWAR also ranks as his worst and contradicts his reputation with the glove.
“I think that a lot of it comes from just not being on the field,” Mansolino said. “Tyler O’Neill is a two-time Gold Glove winner. He knows how to play the outfield. I think the intermittent time out there and just kind of where he’s been physically has dramatically affected his ability to do what Tyler has done his whole career, both on defense and at the plate.
“Tyler is a guy that this team desperately needs in 2026 to go forward and be the guy that he can be. So with T, I’m very fond of him, I think very highly of him in a lot of ways. I don’t think there is anybody who should judge Tyler on the 2025 season. I think we’ve got to give him another shot, we’ve got to give him ’26, and I think we’ve got to kind of look back on what his career has been up to this point and use that more as an evaluative tool than the unfortunate circumstances of the injury list and things that cropped up here in ‘25.”
Jackson Holliday returned to the lineup tonight after receiving treatment and rest for a sore right knee.
“MRI clean, good, nothing major, nothing structural,” Mansolino said. “Got his butt back in there today for us. He’s doing everything he can to finish this thing off the way he wants to finish it off. Very mature kid for getting himself out there.
“Is he gonna be out there trying to steal 10 bases in the next three days? Maybe, maybe not. Just gonna kind of depend on how he feels. But like a lot of guys at this point in the year, guys are playing through stuff, so young kid that’s learning how to do it in a lot of ways and proud of him for getting him out there, and hopefully he finishes strong here the last few days.”