Tony Mansolino walked back his shot at the Orioles, but everyone knows the truth

Given how things went down, there was always going to be some amount of bad blood between the Baltimore Orioles and former manager Tony Mansolino. It was very clear from the end of the regular season that Mansolino not only wanted to stick around, but that he thought he was the best person for the Orioles' manager spot. So, it was understandable that he would express some disappointment after the job went to Craig Albernaz, although few thought Mansolino would go as far as he did with his recent comments.

Now on the Braves' coaching staff, Mansolino seemingly took a shot at Baltimore in comments to the media when he said that Atlanta "kind of rescued me" when they brought him on, while seemingly implying that working for the Orioles was challenging for him.

Those comments, predictably, did not go over well with a lot of Orioles fans who didn't fail to notice that he would be singing a different tune about Baltimore had they picked him for the job. The buzz and backlash over his comments clearly got back to Mansolino, and he is trying to walk them back now, although everyone probably knows the truth behind his motivations.

Tony Mansolino walking back his comments about the Orioles is nothing more than a PR move

If you are an aspiring managerial candidate, one thing that can turn teams off is having a reputation as a malcontent. Managers often have to be good "company guys" and take heat off of the organization itself when things go wrong. Mansolino clearly knows that he might have screwed up in this regard, so he is really stretching to try to do some damage control.

In comments relayed by the Baltimore Sun's Matt Weyrich that Mansolino gave to the media down at spring training, he tried to explain that his comments were in regard to being rescued from an uncertain future. While there is some truth to that, given that Mansolino did find himself unemployed after the Orioles' decision, he also said that he doesn't use the language that he did lightly. He was clearly trying to send a message that he was unhappy with the Orioles, even if he doesn't want to permanently burn any bridges.

In all honesty, Mansolino should have the space to do just that. Baltimore did play better under him than they did under Brandon Hyde, and being some amount of bitter or disappointed about how the managerial search process went is a very human reaction. He didn't go scorched earth or call out anyone specifically from the team to blast. While Mansolino's attempts to explain away what he said are probably pure rubbish, that doesn't mean he needs to get killed over them.