The emotions running through Tony Mansolino are best described as mixed.
He’s a first-time major league manager but on an interim basis. He’s living the baseball dream but at the expense of friend Brandon Hyde. And he can’t say with any certainty why he’s sitting in that chair inside that office.
“That’s probably a better question for him. I’m not sure,” Mansolino said yesterday, referring to executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias.
“I’ve been here for five years. I feel like I probably built some equity in the building through my time here, so I’m sure that had a little something to do with it.”
It didn’t hurt, but we’re working under assumptions.
Mansolino joined the staff in 2021 to coach third base, with the Orioles plucking him from Cleveland’s organization to replace José Flores. He spent 11 years with the now-named Guardians as a minor league coach, instructor and manager, leading Triple-A Columbus to the International League championship in 2019.
This is where the emotions become jumbled, twisted, tied in knots.
“Brandon gave me a shot,” Mansolino said.
“I was a minor league coach and I probably should have spent more time in the minor leagues. The old era guys who spend 20, 30 years before they get one of these opportunities, I spent 10. It didn’t seem like enough probably. … But he pulled me out of there, gave me a shot here, taught me what the big leagues are. And it’s unlike any other level of baseball. It’s completely different. So he taught me the big leagues, he taught me how to be a major league coach, he taught me how to be a professional major league coach and how to handle the ups and the downs and have the patience and the confidence you need to work here.”
It feels like we’re learning a little more about Mansolino each day, and some of it is subtle. He shook hands with each member of the media after Saturday’s post-game interview and has always been friendly to us. There’s very little visible ego. Mansolino is confident and appreciative of the opportunity, but he doesn’t pretend that the move from third base coach to manager is seamless. He never even implies that he’s deserving of it. The modesty is genuine.
He never seems comfortable with the way that he got the job, saying in his first post-game interview that he wasn’t excited and “this isn’t a good thing for us.”
Mansolino is in an interesting position in that he doesn’t have a veteran coach, a former major league manager, to lean on and learn from. The Orioles promoted him over their bench coach, first-timer Robinson Chirinos. Buck Britton was hired as major league coach this year after managing in the minors and leading Triple-A Norfolk to the 2023 International League title. First base coach Anthony Sanders was hired in 2019 after spending 14 seasons in the Rockies system as a manager and coach.
Fredi González, a major league manager for parts of 10 seasons, was replaced as bench coach over the winter and might have stepped in for Hyde if he remained with the team. Who knows?
When the inexperienced coaching staff was mentioned to Mansolino yesterday, he said, “Sure, that’s a story. You can go that route without a doubt."
“We have really good coaches, whether they have experience or not," he said. "Do we lack some experience in the major leagues? I guess possibly. I would imagine that if you go around some other staffs in the big leagues, you’d find similar types of experience on those staffs. So our guys are good, they’re prepared, they’re united. We all need to get the organization through this and try to get this thing turned around, and we’ll do just that.”
Mansolino said he doesn’t know whether the Orioles will add a coach after moving him into the dugout, Britton to third base and assistant pitching coach Mitch Plassmeyer to the bullpen to replace Tim Cossins.
“We haven’t had those conversations yet,” he said.
The road trip that begins tonight in Milwaukee and later stops in Boston will allow Mansolino to open the lines of communication with his players. He didn’t rush into it.
“We’ll start to kind of sit these guys down and talk to them and see where they’re at, see how they’re feeling, and see ways that we can kind of help the process move along,” he said. “This is gonna linger a little bit and we’ve got to do the best we can to move forward and try to win some games.”
* Kyle Gibson lasted four starts before the Orioles designated him for assignment with his ERA at 16.78 and WHIP at 2.919.
Gibson has the highest single-season Orioles ERA in a minimum of four starts, following by Hayden Penn at 15.10 in 2006, Ty Blach at 11.32 in 2019, Brian Matusz at 10.69 in 2011 and Chris Tillman at 10.46 in 2018. Penn didn’t pitch in the majors again until 2009 with the Marlins and was done in the U.S. after three relief appearances with the Pirates the following year. Blach spent parts of the 2022-24 seasons with the Rockies. Matusz moved to the bullpen as an effective lefty matchup reliever. Tillman’s career was winding down and he didn’t pitch after that season.
The Orioles have left the door open for Gibson to return. He’d have to pass through waivers and probably go back down to the minors to resume the ramp-up.
If you want to spread rumors, bring up the possibility of Gibson filling a coaching spot. But the Orioles need a veteran starter and might want to give him another chance.
* Tyler Wells will have his fifth bullpen session today in his recovery from elbow-reconstructive surgery.
“It’s going as good as I could hope,” he said yesterday.
Wells joined the organization as a Rule 5 pick in December 2020 and only had one manager in the majors until Hyde’s dismissal over the weekend.
“I don’t that he ever really failed us as a manager. I think we failed him as the players,” Wells said.
“He showed up to the field every day, he was a consistent guy. And especially this year, he’s been really supportive of everyone through the tough stretch that we had. … Unfortunately, it’s part of the game. I never really thought I’d be in this situation after the first four years that I had with him. I think he’s definitely been the biggest inspiration to me on how to conduct myself as a player and definitely been a huge influence on that.”
Wells didn’t have much use for an infield instructor, but he formed a solid relationship with Mansolino.
“I think Manso’s awesome,” he said. “I really like how he goes about his business. He’s very calculated. I think that he has a plan every day on how he attacks the day. I don’t really know the ins and outs of the fielding sides of things, the position player sides of things, but whenever I see him in the weight room getting after it or just talking to him, I think he’s very calculated, a very organized individual.”
* Tyler O’Neill made his 16th career trip to the injured list yesterday and his second this season. His neck healed and he came down with a left shoulder impingement.
The IL is back up to 10 players, but perhaps the Orioles’ luck is improving a little bit.
Heston Kjerstad was drilled on the right elbow Thursday by a 98.9 mph fastball but played right field in the ninth inning the following night and was in the lineup Saturday. Ryan Mountcastle fouled a ball off his right foot Friday and hobbled up the first base line on a ground ball, but he was the designated hitter yesterday.
Mountcastle said the ball got him where the ankle meets the foot.
“Good now, feel good,” he said.
Mountcastle also felt bad for Hyde and Cossins, calling them “great guys” who were “really great to people.”
“It’s part of the game,” he said. “I wish them nothing but the best. They were great to me.”
As a first baseman, Mountcastle has done extensive amounts of work with Mansolino to prep for games. Mountcastle is a two-time Gold Glove finalist.
“Manso’s great,” he said. “Obviously, I’ve known him just as long as those guys, if not longer. I played against him in the minor leagues a bunch and he’s gonna do good.”