Mike Elias may be prioritizing this trait during search for Orioles’ next manager

The Baltimore Orioles are one of eight franchises in Major League Baseball searching for a new manager this offseason. Despite Baltimore’s clubhouse endorsing the return of interim skipper Tony Mansolino in a permanent capacity, Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias has made it clear that the front office is considering other options.

The question is, what exactly is Elias looking for in the right candidate? Comments from Mansolino after the season pointed to an area of improvement for Baltimore that Elias might be keen to consider when surveying the manager market.

The right manager for Baltimore is probably someone who can teach the fundamentals and how to manufacture runs. The Orioles didn’t have any players hit more than 17 home runs in 2025. There’s latent power in their lineup (the team ranked second in MLB in homers in 2024), but the O’s need to figure out how to win games without slugging, like they did in 2023, when Baltimore won the American League East despite finishing No. 17 in MLB in homers.

So, why shouldn't Mansolino be the guy? After all, he knows that this Baltimore group needs to improve at small ball. He said so during his season-ending presser. “I think we need to get better at (manufacturing runs) in a lot of ways,” Mansolino said, per Masn’s Roch Kubatko.

“And to me, that’s a spring training thing,” Mansolino continued. “I think these guys have to be pushed in spring training to turn back the clock a little bit and have the ability to play more of an early ‘90s style of the game. It’s a really hard thing to do during the season to put that type of stuff in place when you’ve got some players who go through a minor league system or a college career, and they don’t bunt a lot. It’s hard to ask them to do that of a guy who’s throwing 100 in the ninth inning for the first time. That version of the game is an area where I think the staff here in place next year can make it better, and the time to do that is spring training.”

Mansolino’s remarks reflect a confidence and surety that he and his staff are the guys for the job. It’s obvious that Mansolino is aware of the task at hand when it comes to improving Baltimore’s fundamentals and capacity for run manufacturing, and it also appears that Mansolino has a locked-and-loaded blueprint with which to execute that task.

Even so, Elias’s remarks following the season, though echoing the theme of a need for fundamental baseball, didn’t indicate that Mansolino would end up being the man in charge.

The Orioles are looking beyond Tony Mansolino in a desire to play fundamental baseball

“It’s not up to me to get down there and dictate our fundamentals,” Elias mentioned. “That’s not my expertise. But we’ve got to put together stats and communication systems and people that have the right philosophies in all those areas and stay on top of it. So that’s something that the person in the manager's chair, people in the front office, people in our ownership group, just everyone available who is an expert in that area, we’re going to put a lot of time into getting organized and getting a little bit better next year.” 

If not Mansolino (who is already well-liked by Baltimore’s players), then who? Some of the potential MLB manager candidates that have been discussed recently include Skip Schumaker, Mark DeRosa, David Ross, and Ryan Flaherty. SNY's Andy Martino reported on Tuesday that Baltimore has interviewed Luis Rojas, the former New York Mets manager and current New York Yankees third base coach.