Any business conducted by the Orioles this month is mostly done behind closed doors with limited or no information available, especially interviews for the managerial position. The process was advancing, but very quietly.

It's almost finished. The secrecy has broken apart.

A source confirmed this afternoon that the Orioles interviewed Guardians associate manager Craig Albernaz for the job and expected him to be hired. Multiple reports tonight have the Orioles finalizing a deal with Albernaz, who will inherit a team that went 75-87 and sat in the cellar of the American League East.

Albernaz will become the 21st manager in Orioles history, not counting interims, since the franchise moved to Baltimore in 1954. He was Cleveland's bench coach in 2024 before earning a promotion. The Massachusetts native was a finalist for the managing job that went to Stephen Vogt.

The Washington Post reported that Albernaz interviewed for the Nationals job within the last week. So did Brandon Hyde, hired by the Orioles in December 2018 and fired in May after back-to-back playoff appearances. Hyde was a two-time Sporting News Manager of the Year in the American League before the Orioles tumbled into last place this season.

The start of Dylan Beavers’ major league career couldn’t have gone much better. 

In his first three games, the outfielder had already collected four hits. After making his debut on the road, the 24-year-old put on a show in his first homestand, hitting .368 with a 1.162 OPS in seven games against the Astros and Red Sox. And by game 24, he had already walked 20 times, improving his on-base percentage to a staggering .460. 

But after hitting the ground running, Beavers’ pace was slowed. 

In the final 10 games of the season, the Cal product hit just .143 with 12 strikeouts and a .268 OBP. 

All in all, Beavers’ first 35 games had their fair share of ups and downs, as is to be expected with any rookie, especially in a small sample size. A .375 OBP is impressive, a .227 batting average less so, and a .775 OPS is just fine.

The World Series moves from Toronto to Los Angeles, and neutral fans should be hoping for a Game 7 because it’s the best thing in sports. Doesn’t matter whether we’re talking MLB, NBA or NHL. The drama is intoxicating.

Speaking of which, let’s raise a glass to Trey Mancini and Sara Perlman on the birth of their daughter Sadie Mila. Good things happening to good people.

I’ll drink to that.

I’d celebrate having some real news to report. Updates on the manager search are scarce. The Orioles operate quietly. Leaks so far have been just a few drips.

I’m flooded with more questions, so time to drain the mailbag again for the latest sequel to the beloved 2008 original.

The conversation surrounding Grayson Rodriguez was supposed to have a much different tone.

The Orioles made Rodriguez the 11^th overall selection in the 2018 draft and finally introduced him to the majors in 2023 after a lat injury the previous summer put his debut on hold. Another injury, this one to Kyle Bradish after being struck on the right foot by a comebacker, opened the door.

It’s slammed shut too many times.

There was a demotion after a May 26, 2023 start against the Rangers, when Rodriguez allowed nine runs, eight of them earned, and surrendered three homers in 3 1/3 innings to raise his ERA to 7.35. He returned in July, made 13 starts and posted a 2.58 ERA. Seven of those starts were quality, including his eight scoreless innings against the Rays on Sept. 16.

He held the Padres to one run in seven innings in San Diego, and the White Sox to one hit in six scoreless at Camden Yards. He looked like the anticipated ace, the No. 1 starter and No. 1 reason why Mike Elias said the cupboard wasn’t bare when the Orioles hired him as executive vice president/general manager.

Stephen King wrote a novel in 1979 entitled “The Dead Zone” that became a movie four years later and a television series in the early 2000s. No one had October in mind for baseball’s non-playoff teams, but it applied.

Just sub out Christopher Walken for Christian Walker.

But this is about the Orioles.

A manager wasn’t going to be hired this quickly, but I’ve counted one confirmed interview, Yankees third base coach Luis Rojas, whose brother Felipe Alou Jr. has worked in a variety of roles in the Orioles’ organization. Rojas managed the Mets for two seasons.

Future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols reportedly has drawn interest from the Orioles, but that’s it. They like the idea of interviewing him.

I’m going to continue taking my turn asking questions, knowing that the correct answer is unattainable this early in the offseason.

It’s also another chance to veer away from the constant chatter about a new manager, which is lacking anything concrete beyond reports that Yankees third base coach Luis Rojas interviewed for the job.

Here are two more.

Who’s the center fielder on Opening Day?

This is a new question because Cedric Mullins spent parts of eight seasons with the Orioles and played center in 791 games.

Questions linger for the Orioles beyond their managerial search and whether they hire a general manager this winter.

Should they have matched the Dodgers’ 10-year, $700 million offer for Shohei Ohtani?

OK, maybe not that one.

Here are three randomly chosen inquiries, with many more to come.

How will the Orioles jam their starters into a five-man rotation?

The top end of the Orioles’ farm system is filled with talent. 

Four of the top 10 prospects in the system, according to MLB Pipeline, were selected in this year’s MLB Draft. Two, Esteban Mejia and Nate George, were unranked entering 2025, but burst onto the scene with incredibly impressive seasons. Boston Bateman, the team’s No. 9 prospect, was acquired from the Padres at the trade deadline. 

While those seven players have plenty of upside, none are expected to see a big league field until at least 2028. 

The opposite is the case for the top two prospects down on the farm, Samuel Basallo and Dylan Beavers, who should break camp with Baltimore and graduate from their prospect status within just a few weeks of the season’s start. 

So, rounding things out, two prospects are in the big leagues already, and seven are a long way away from it. That accounts for nine of the top 10. 

Joe Flacco, age 40, outdueled 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers Thursday night in Cincinnati. The Blue Jays’ Max Scherzer, at age 41 and making the 500^th start of his career, earned the win in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series in Seattle.

My mailbag is 17, old enough to drive but not to drink. The fluctuating weight is normal. You fill it and I try to empty it.

Here’s my latest attempt. No editing, no disclaimers about editing. You ask, I answer, and we have the latest sequel to the beloved 2008 original.

Also, and this is important, my mailbag stretches singles into doubles and your mailbag stretches the truth.

Your thoughts on Albert Pujols as the manager? I am starting to warm to the idea. Keep Robinson Chirinos as bench coach.
I’m lukewarm to the idea of Pujols as manager, but maybe that’s just my personality. I also think it isn’t happening. Pujols has managed in the Dominican Republic, so he isn’t entirely new to the job. However, if major league experience isn’t important, the Orioles could just bring back Tony Mansolino, who has the advantage of his previous interim status and familiarity with the organization. Or they could hire Ryan Flaherty, who’s worked in a variety of roles, including Cubs bench coach. He’s also a big analytics guy. The Orioles are making it tough to project what they’ll do because their requirements are so broad. Experience is “overwhelmingly usually a big positive,’ as Mike Elias described it, and will carry a lot of weight. But it’s not a requisite for success. I don’t know if anyone constitutes a sure thing in his business, but other candidates would qualify more than a first-timer, which makes someone like Pujols a gamble to a team that must win.

A last-place season isn’t going to bring many rewards. Heartaches, yes, but not rewards.

The Rawlings Gold Glove finalists were announced yesterday and the Orioles suffered another shutout.

Third baseman Ramón Urías was the last Orioles winner in 2022, which ended a six-year drought. Eighteen different players have earned a total of 72 awards since its creation in 1957.

First baseman Ryan Mountcastle and left fielder Colton Cowser were American League finalists last year. Mountcastle was a repeat finalist but went 0-for-2.

Catcher Adley Rutschman and left fielder Austin Hays also were finalists in 2023. Center fielder Cedric Mullins was a finalist in 2022 and right fielder Anthony Santander in 2020.

The Orioles will need to show improvement in many areas next season, the only way to pull themselves out of the division cellar. It isn’t just pitching and it isn’t just hitting. It isn’t just the constant injuries that forced almost daily roster moves.

The 70 different players used were one short of the major league record set this year by the Braves, who started former Oriole Charlie Morton in their final regular season game. The 41 pitchers came within one of the American League record shared by the 2021 Orioles and 2019 Mariners. The 34 position players tied the franchise record set in 1955.

Even the seven catchers were unprecedented.

Everywhere you looked, the Orioles were doing something unusual. And it isn’t bragging rights when it happens for the wrong reasons.

Here’s another one:

Ramón Urías appeared in 506 games with the Orioles over parts of six seasons. He played every position in the infield. Both of his managers praised his versatility and those stretches when he seemed like the only hot hitter in the lineup.

The trade deadline got him, too. Though under team control through 2026, Urías was dealt to the Astros for Class A pitcher Twine Palmer.

The roster priorities begin with pitching, both the rotation and bullpen, but the Orioles probably will check on infielders who can replicate Urías’ glove work. Jorge Mateo has a $5.5 million option in his contract that they could decline. Luis Vázquez has a great defensive reputation at shortstop but is 9-for-62 in the majors. His biggest contribution came on the mound with four scoreless relief appearances over 4 1/3 innings.

Jeremiah Jackson was head and shoulders above the other two, which got his foot in the door for 2026. He batted .276/.328/.447 with 10 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 21 RBIs in 48 games, but he doesn’t really fit the utility profile because his starts came at third base and in right field. He’s also made starts at shortstop and second base and in left and center field in the minors, but the Orioles don’t envision that kind of movement from him.

If the Orioles can’t make room on the roster for Jackson and a super-utility player, they could bank of the versatility of other infielders for coverage. Interim manager Tony Mansolino didn’t think that Jackson had to play shortstop in order to break camp with the team. They have backups, including Jackson Holliday, who handled the position while Gunnar Henderson was on the injured list.

The Orioles have a full 40-man roster that’s going to experience a significant shuffling of players.

A typical offseason.  

Pitchers Félix Bautista, Grayson Rodriguez and Brandon Young will come off the 60-day injured list. Pitcher Zach Eflin and catcher Gary Sánchez also are on the 60-day but will become free agents after the World Series.

Pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano also is a pending free agent. Infielder Jorge Mateo ($5.5 million) and reliever Dietrich Enns ($3 million) have team options in their contracts that could be declined. Fourteen players are eligible for arbitration and a few are candidates to be non-tendered, including first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, outfielder Dylan Carlson and reliever José Castillo.

Here’s the current 40-man:

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.

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.

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 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.”