Craig Albernaz needs to make one adjustment to how he's handling the Orioles bullpen

One notable thing in the early days of Craig Albernaz's tenure as manager of the Baltimore Orioles is that he doesn't want to limit his players. He doesn't pull poor defensive players late in games just to do it. He doesn't build his daily lineups to maximize the platoon advantage, and he'll let lefties face a lefty reliever late in a game.

In many ways, this is refreshing. These players are not finished products, and if you rob them of the opportunity to prove themselves, then they'll never prove themselves. However, one aspect of Albernaz's belief in his guys needs to be recalibrated.

When Albernaz was the bench coach and associate manager for the Cleveland Guardians, they had an excellent bullpen. In 2024, the Guardians had four different relievers pitch to a sub-two ERA while all appearing in over 70 games. That is a dominant and dependable force to have at the end of games. In 2025, they were less productive but still one of the best bullpens in the league.

After helping manage some of the best bullpens in recent MLB history, it is understandable that it would take some adjusting for Albernaz to get used to managing the ragtag group of recently DFA'd arms that Mike Elias cobbled together to create this Orioles bullpen.

The Baltimore Orioles' bullpen is not the Cleveland Guardians' bullpen

In Cleveland, when Steven Vogt and Craig Albernaz would turn to Cade Smith or Hunter Gaddis or Emmanuel Clase (assuming he didn't have any action on the game), they didn't have to have a plan for what if this guy walks the first three batters he faces because those guys weren't going to do that.

That is not going to be the case for this Orioles team. Outside of Ryan Helsley, every single arm in this Orioles bullpen is a threat to completely explode the game. These guys are not good enough for Albernaz to give them the ball and not think about anything else for the rest of the inning. Every time Albernaz invites a non-Helsley reliever into the game, he needs to be thinking, "What am I going to do if this guy clearly doesn't have it?"

Already, we've seen the impact of Albernaz's trust in his bullpen go awry. In the Orioles' first series, Hiraldo came into a close game and immediately gave up a game-tying home run. That's ok, it happens. What followed was less ok. Per the rules, Hiraldo had to face two more batters; he got one more out and walked a batter. He did not look sharp, and at this point, he could have been taken out of the game; he was left and walked two more batters before Albernaz gave him the hook.

Against the Rangers, it was a similar story; Hiraldo came into a close game and immediately looked terrible. In his first three batters faced, he surrendered a walk and a single and was fortunate that a hard-hit liner ended up in Colton Cowser's glove. He could have been removed there, but he wasn't; he was left in, and two batters later gave up a back-breaking home run.

In Friday's game vs the Pirates, Enns came in and looked shaky from his first pitch. He walked two of the first three batters he faced. At that point, he could have been removed as it was evident he was not at his best. Instead, he was left in, and he spiked a ball in the dirt to advance a runner to third, and then that runner scored on a subsequent fly ball. He walked one more batter for good measure and then escaped the inning.

This may sound like classic armchair managing, but it's not about the runs surrendered. Bullpens give up runs; it happens. The issue is that this Orioles bullpen is not good enough to be allowed to pitch through bouts of poor command. If Albernaz is determined to let guys "pitch through it," they're going to blow a lot of games that could have been won had they been on a shorter leash.

Hopefully, it doesn't take Albernaz long to realize he doesn't have the Guardians bullpen and he needs to adjust his belief and expectations in his current bullpen.