Coaching staff turnover begins for Orioles | Banner Baseball Show

Coaching staff turnover begins for Orioles | Banner Baseball Show

from inside the banner offices along the inner harbor. It is the Banner Baseball Show. Paul Mano and John Mioli live on a Thursday in October. A very spooky edition of the Banner Baseball Show. We’re a day away from from Halloween. Uh we are live on Facebook X and YouTube. Like, rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff. Wherever you can find it. Rare afternoon show for us. John accommodating my schedule with the Ravens game being tonight. I’m going to have to podcast again in like 10 hours. So, this is uh appreciated appreciated. John, uh, we did get a review from, uh, from our last episode, since our last episode from Andrew Kosantino, who writes, “No one covers Baltimore sports better than the banner. They always provide deep insights that many others overlook. Whether it’s spring training, the dog days of summer, or the winter hot stove, there are always new episodes to keep fans up to date with the latest Orioles happenings. Moreover, Paul is an exceptional host. Thank you very much, Andrew. You are a great host, Paul. Thank you very much, John. And with a name like Coantentino, perhaps Andrew could get involved at the ground level of our Mano and Mioli deli that we are trying to begin and operate in Baltimore. Did you know that my dad works at a deli right now? No, it’s not like his obviously, but it basically could be. Um, you know, there’s like a Delhi in town that his friend used to run and now his friend in Baltimore. No, in in Connecticut for Connecticut, Delhi Unlimited. Delhiu as as it’s known. Delhi Unlimited. Collo colloquially. Colloquially. Um, nice job. Yeah. He used to just, you know, retired. He would just go there every single day and and just be there for long enough where you would think that he worked there and then all of a sudden he started working there. Wow. So, no wonder you have an appreciation for fine Italian meats. Yeah. Yeah, I do have Yeah. This is like Arby’s, you We’ve got the meats. Yeah. Uh well, you not a sponsor, but it could be. Could be. You just gave away the fact that uh as you have said on this podcast before, you are a New Englander, much like the Orioles new manager who sports a thick New England accent. Boston perhaps. Yeah. What do you think of Craig Alberz’s new uh not his new accent, new manager Craig Alberz’s accent? It’s distinctive. It’s distinctive. Certainly distinctive. Yeah. I think I saw that his wife like posted on Twitter or you know the platform formerly known as Twitter that you know she’s from Philly, he’s from Massachusetts, they’ve lived in like Australia and then she learned there’s a Baltimore accent and she wants to know what her kids are going to sound like. Yes. And to that I say, “So do I. So do I.” Yeah. She said, “Dad from Massachusetts, mom from Pennsylvania. Kids have lived in Australia, the West Coast, and the Midwest. Now I’m learning there’s a Baltimore accent.” There is, in fact, a Baltimore accent. Mrs. Albernez, uh, the diverse dialect has these all be kids. Uh, they will be elite. Um, yeah, I I’m fascinated to see. Also, in hearing Craig Alber talk, he has kind of the same style of talking as Brandon Height. There are a lot of similarities. Both former catchers, both bald guys with were formerly bench coaches, and they both have a distin, you know, this kind of thick way of speaking with this deep barrelchested voice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s interesting because, you know, we haven’t heard Craig Auburness speak to his players yet, but like he calls them his boys. I have noticed that from a few interviews. Love that. Love that. We’re going to get a lot of that. The boys are are out there. You know, they’re battling. Yeah, it makes my ears perk up. Love hearing about the boys. Um, but like Brandon H Highle when he would talk to the players, like we saw it a little bit in like celebration speeches, but when you see him like addressing the team on the on the back fields or whatever at spring training, it was like the same cadence but like a half an octave higher and like a lot louder and it was just very interesting to hear. I’m wondering if we’re going to get the same thing. Yeah, we’ll find out. On this episode, we are going to talk more about the addition of Craig Alberz as the Orioles new manager. talk about what he brings to the table, why the Orioles selected him as the guy to lead the franchise forward, and we’ll talk about some changes that are already coming to Craig Albernez’s coaching staff and what could be on the horizon there. But first, John, I did an episode with Andy Kusca on Monday to react to this hiring. Now, let’s dive more into this hiring. You wrote a piece on the banner.com where people can subscribe $1 for six months about the news, which is now official. Orioles are going to officially introduce him on Tuesday to the Baltimore media. Uh, most important thing that I’ve learned, John, in reading up about Craig Albernez is that he’s a sugar fiend. Okay. As am I. So, you like Italian meats. I prefer desserts. That’s just where we stand. That’s why I was most interested in gelato when you went to Italy. Um, in reading about Craig Albernez over the last few weeks, you’ve kind of gained, we’ve all kind of gained an idea of who he is as a manager or who he is as a coach and who he could be as a manager. First, let’s talk about who he isn’t though. He is not four-time World Series winner Bruce Bochi. He is not an experienced big league manager like Scott Service or Luis Rojos. He is not future baseball hall of famer Albert Puhol. But what he is is somebody that the Orioles believe can bring them over the hump, through the playoffs, and to a World Series. John, you wrote in that story, the Orioles had a choice between hiring a manager who could wrap a World Series ring on the table upon being introduced to the city and his new club, or they could go with one that they were more convinced could help them win a ring before long. Why do you think they chose the latter? I think they chose the latter because this is not about just winning this year to them. You know, I I think everything that’s happened, even as they’re making trades in 2024 to try to bolster a contender, even as they’re trying to navigate this new world of not being a team that has no money from ownership anymore. Like, it’s all been done to with an eye towards like, let’s be good for a long time. Will seasons like 2025 happen? Absolutely. is the hope to be good enough and deep enough and sustainable enough where that doesn’t happen where you don’t need to, you know, where you don’t need to do a bunch of quick fixes and and and change who you are. The hope is always that they can kind of build this organically and sustainably. So when you look at it through that lens, it makes a lot of sense that they would do what they think is right for the 2026 team and also try to pick somebody who could be the manager here for a decade. I think we said that about some of the more experienced candidates like Araco Baldelli who’s not a young not an old guy um but had the experience and I think I think as we were kind of talking and we we listened to Michaelas he said experience will play a big factor in in in this and I think everyone rightfully took that as they were going to try to pounce on somebody who has managed a ton. Um, and I think as the process and the managerial cycle went on and I wrote this and and you know it’s in the it’s in the lost dead column graveyard. Um, didn’t get to see the light of day, but it felt like the game was going in a different direction than that. You know, the Angels are going to do whatever they’re going to do, but like the Giants hire hiring Tony Vatello from University of Tennessee. That’s that’s a long-term play. And just as conventional as hiring like a Bruce Bochi if he comes on the market because you want somebody who can win and can show your guys how to win, it’s also pretty conventional to hire the best bench coach or rising managerial candidate you can. And the Orioles did that. So they didn’t tra stray too far from I guess the norm and like kind of you know they kind of hit this higher down the middle of the fairway. They didn’t try to do anything crazy, but they did something that fits who they are and I think who they want to be. Yeah. You see some more long-term plays like the guy that the Nationals just hired as well. It’s one of the youngest managers in the last 50 years in baseball. That is is certainly a move that will raise some eyebrows and it’s intended to win them a lot of baseball games. Maybe not in 2026, but down the road. you know, a move that they make now that could take its lumps and and may look bad in the short term, but ultimately could bear fruit in the long term. If you hire somebody like Bruce Bochi or, you know, somebody like Joe Gerardi, you are hiring somebody who you think is going to get you over the hump. Now, the Orioles are in this kind of weird middle ground because they do want to win now, but at the same time, a lot of the guys that they have in place here are going to be here for the next few years. And it’s also not like they were right there last year. It’s not like they were in the, you know, ALCS and just a few pitches here or there and a few bad decisions bumped them out. Yeah. They won 75 games last year. So, they need to make significant improvements. And that has to come not only in the guys that they bring in, but in the way that they approach the game. And that’s why I think Greg Alber is kind of the middle ground between those two. He’s not somebody who’s on the verge of retirement, who’s won several World Series rings, and just needs to take this perennial playoff contender over the hump, but he’s also not somebody who is totally fresh, totally young and inexperienced. He has a good resume behind him. I mean, being a bench coach for a year, being an associate manager, coming from all these forwardinking organizations, he kind of strikes a nice chord between the two sides. And I think that’s kind of where the Orioles are right now because they want to build this sustainable winner as you said, John. They don’t want to necessar they want to win 2026, but then they want to be winning in 2027, 2028 and beyond. Yeah. And and that’s something that you It’s going to be interesting like most things are to kind of keep an eye on the reality. It’s that Michael got promoted last year. He there’s there’s more they’re even more entrenched than they were two years. like this is a group that is very convicted in what they believe and and how they want to do things and and has support of the ownership group and has support of the ownership group. And I think I think the challenge is not to change who they are. Um it’s it’s going to be to adjust to the new reality that they’re in. you there’s if the this was five years ago and the Orioles are, you know, had to get rid of Brandon Hyde for some reason and John Angelo still owns a team and you think they’re going to have to win at the margins, then you look at this higher and not to say that it’s bad now. It’s not bad at all, but it would be like, wow, what a great, you know, they’re they’re really leaning into who they are. This is a team that’s still going to make a bunch of waiver claims this off seasonason and sign a bunch of minor league free agents who they think have a little chance to pop and and they’re going to probably do big boy stuff too, but they’re also going to do that raise Cleveland, you know, Milwaukee type little stuff, too. And they’re not going to lose sight of that. And I think I think this is a move that also tells you that they still have a high level of conviction in the players that they have. And this is somebody who when you hear about how he is with the boys, when you hear about how he is as a, you know, an instructor, as a fundamentals focused baseball guy, like somebody who’s going to help get the most out of the players that are in the room, that is priority number one, two, and three. Yeah. Of the next Orioles manager. And this is a move that shows the Orioles value that. And his hiring kind of signals that they think he’s the guy to do that, right? And and you said, John, this is an OR’s front office that for all the heat that they have taken publicly for how this past year went. On an internal perspective, they’re clearly very secure in their job statuses. They are clearly not feeling defensive at all because if they were, they might have gone out and tried to hire the biggest name possible, the guy who was going to give them the highest ceiling in the short term just for 2026, just to say, “Let’s get to 95 wins. Let’s get to 90 wins. Let’s get back in the dance right away and if it blows up in our face and if this guy retires in two years, who cares cuz we’re going to be fired anyway. That’s not how this front office feels. Michaelas, as you said, just got a promotion. He is no longer just the GM. He is the president of baseball operations. He is an entrenched person at the top of the the hierarchy here. So, he feels like, hey, I can I can hire somebody and we’ll give it three or four years and we’ll see how it works. And if it doesn’t work out, I might be the guy that pulls the string on the next manager. I might be the guy that makes the decision on who’s here next. Whether that’s true or not, the Orioles feel clearly Michaelas does not feel the pressure that much in terms of winning in the short term. I think they he would like to I think he’s going to try to, but he’s not going to sell the future just to get some more wins in 2026. Yeah. And you know there are there are less there are less durable ways to do that. You can spend money, you can make trades like that can help this to 2026 team too. And then you can have a manager who’s going to be able to grow with the team that you have and and and leverage his experience doing the things that this team needs to do to make sure that a season like this doesn’t happen. And you know, I’ve been talking to some people around around the game and around the organization over the last couple weeks and especially this week after this happened. And you know, one person pointed out, look at that 18 in game and how many good plays there, how many great baseball plays there were in that World Series game. You guys, you know, perfect cuts and relays, like guys throwing to the right you guys making all these plays. like it’s all well and good to hit a bunch of home runs and it’s also imperative to win at the highest level to do all those little things. It doesn’t seem like every from everything we’ve learned about Craig Albert has that he’s going to let a lot of things slide. And when you think back to what ultimately helped tank this team season, like yeah, the pitching was brutal. Like Charlie Morton, yada yada yada, everybody got hurt, but like they also played really bad baseball season. And that is the durable thing about this. Brandon Hyde lost his job after a game in which they just like didn’t do a bunch of stuff they should have done in and the owner sitting right behind home plate and then all of a sudden he doesn’t have a job anymore. That is the impression of like the bad that the 2025 Orioles left. So we’re going in the complete opposite direction for the 2020 2016. Yeah. And and it can’t all be on the manager. Obviously this this is super incumbent upon the players and fix this. But in an interview, I think at the end of last season, so we’re talking really only about a month or two ago with Craig Alberz that the Cleveland media did, he was talking about the importance of fundamentals and he said this is something that is never going to go away in the game of baseball. And for sure the Orioles did not play fundamental baseball in 2025. And I know that’s a buzz word, but like you said, John, there were a lot of times where they were thrown to the wrong guy, making the wrong decisions in the outfield, where they were making errors in the field, where they were not doing the smart basic things that you need to do to win games. And watching that 18- in game, I couldn’t imagine the Orioles playing that kind of game, this this iteration of the Orioles playing that kind of game in the World Series on that stage. They they weren’t doing it all season. They didn’t play tight games like that. The hope is that Greg Albernez is going to be that guy that can instill those kind of things. And think about the kind of wear and tear that that game also had on the catchers. Talking about Craig Alberz knows a lot about catchers. I know that that’s not going to be his only responsibility. He’s going to be much higher than that. But as he gets to oversee Samo Basio’s development and Adley Rutman, the Orioles hope is going to get back to himself, it makes sense that Alber would be the guy that the Orioles wouldn’t trust with that. Yeah. Um, you mentioned also in your story about the organizations that Greg Alberz has been a part of. Really all goes back to his playing days with the in the Tampa Bay Rays organization which is as we know steeped in analytics. That certainly checks a box for Michaelas being on the cutting edge of uh, you know, all the latest technology. Then in San Francisco, that was a young, dynamic staff that Gabe Kappler put there and a bunch of guys that were going to be future managers. They had maybe a few sensibilities for older experienced coaches, but it was pretty young. It was pretty wet behind the years. And it worked out great in the season where they won over a 100 games, and it didn’t work out great after that. Yeah. But that’s a team that was still trying to utilize a lot of the new technology, a lot of the new analytics in the game. They had a much higher payroll than Tampa Bay Rays or some of the other small market teams, but they were still trying to go back to, you know, that that kind of young dynamic future of the game look. Yeah. And then most recently, Cleveland, and this is the organization that I think mirrors the Orioles the most right now. lower payroll, but a team that needs to grind out, as you said, every in-game and strategic advantage to help homegrown players reach their potential. That is exactly what the Orioles are hoping to do. Now, you you’d hope as an Orioles fan that David Rubenstein would open up the checkbook a little bit more and get that payroll into the top 10 and not be cons, you know, consistently in the bottom third like Cleveland usually is. But it’s a team full of homegrown players and this is a team in the Orioles that is going to be homegrown for the foreseeable future and they need to grind out every little advantage. They did it in 2023. They did it to some extent in 2024. They didn’t do it at all in 2025. And that’s the hope is that Greg Alber has learned something from each one of these stops, Tampa Bay, San Francisco, and Cleveland that he can bring to the Orioles. Yeah. And and a lot of these things that we’re talking about, the Orioles like have known and have executed. You know, we talk about having somebody kind of steering the ship who is of a player development mind, has been on staffs where you bring players through your system and you continue their development in the majors and you make them contributors and you help them play winning baseball. Like that’s what he’s done at all these stops. and the Giants you they took it to an extreme with a very young staff of people who came from non-traditional roles to um the major league roles they ended up taking and that was kind of like an all-star staff. You know, the guys who the hitting coaches ended up being with Texas when they won the World Series. You know, Kai Kareah is going to be a manager soon. Craig Albernaz is a manager. Um you can go on and on with this with this group. It was like the Oklahoma City Thunder before James Harden gets traded and Kevin Durant leaves and Russell Westbrook leaves. Yeah. And there’s all these tentacles. But you know, the Orioles knew that Brandon Hyde was a player development, you know, manager. They have put people on their staffs, you know, in the fundamental side and the game planning side and the hitting side and the pitching side who came through the farm system with these guys and are there to help them continue their development once they reach the big leagues. like they know that you need to continue to get players better. That needs to happen regardless of whether they sign a top five free agent pitcher and a top five free agent hitter to join this team. You can do that whether you have good coaches or bad coaches. Like any team can sign spend money. The Angels spend money, you know, do a bunch of they do a bunch of dumb stuff. Like all these teams like anyone can spend money, but to have the infrastructure in place to help everyone there get better. I’m thinking about I don’t know why I’m thinking about it, but I’m thinking about like a new fresh voice getting in Tyler O’Neal’s ear and being like, “Hey dude, like you can do this. You’ve been like in the mix for Gold Gloves before. Like you are an athlete. Like why are you why is this what we’re seeing? Like like let’s go.” And not in a chastising way, but like talking to him like one of the boys. Like let’s go. like that type of stuff is going to be so valuable to making this team a success if it is one. And and I think that and I think there’s a lot of experience there. You know, I’m not sure how many I don’t I I don’t know what I’m I’m not sure how many in a the last generation of baseball will say like how many people got their start being like minor league coaches and managers in their 20s. Probably not as many as do now. Yeah. um that seems fair to say. So when we talk about experience, somebody who’s in their early 40s and has like 10 years of coaching, player development, managing at different levels, like that that’s not nothing. Yeah. That’s not that’s significant. You know, if you superimpose that against somebody who became a minor league coach in the 1990s in their 40s, then they become a managerial candidate in their 50s after they paid their dues. They’re just people are just paying their dues earlier. Yeah. Um, three things also in the last couple weeks as we have learned more and more about Craig Alberz have stuck out to me and I think they are three positives. One is the fact that he was wanted by other teams. He has interviewed a bunch of places for their managerial openings. In fact, he interviewed with Cleveland according to to uh that great story on the Athletic to be their manager when they hired Steven Vote and it was Steven Vote who obviously his best friend who brought him along to be the bench coach at that point. Doesn’t tell you everything. A lot of the the highly soughtafter coaches or managers end up being busts. But it is something that a lot of teams around the game, a lot of organizations respected what Craig Alurn has brought to the table and wanted to gain insight from him. Yeah. The second thing is he has been lauded for the tight relationships that he has made with players and that’s something that the Orioles desperately need. Their manager has to be on the same page as their players. And that doesn’t necessarily mean they have to agree on everything and see eye to eye. The manager needs to be able to, as you said, John, push players when they need to be pushed. And not just the young guys who need to develop, but some of the veterans as well, who the Orioles will certainly bring in here during this off seasonason, some that are already in the building. Yeah. And then the third thing is that he is a former player. I think that that’s something that we talked about when we were talking about Albert Pooh maybe being hired is that having somebody who’s said, “Hey, I’ve been through the wars before. No, I never meet reached the big leagues, but I played a long time in the minor leagues. I know what it takes and I know what we’re asking of you.” When we ask you to make changes to your game or we ask you to do something that you’re not comfortable with, I know how difficult that is and I’ve done there. I’ve been there and I’ve done it before. So, those are three things that I think certainly were attractive to the Orioles about Craig Alberz, too. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I’m excited. I’m interested to hear what they have to say about it because we know some of the people they’ve interviewed and not probably not all of them. We know some of the things they were looking for, but probably not all of them. It seems like, you know, Alber is a box checker. He checked a lot of boxes of what they’re looking for. And that’s not to say the other candidates weren’t, but you end up with somebody who, you know, nobody’s going to like tweet, oh, heard the Orioles blew this higher. There’s a lot of questions about it. Like, you don’t know because this person is not, you know, we’ll know if he’s a good manager based on how many games the Orioles win and lose. Yeah. And that’s kind of it. If they lose more games than they win over the next couple years, he might be a good manager, but it’s not going to be, you know, that will be reflection on him. It’s more about it’s more about like satisfying what you’re looking for. And I think and I think there’s going to be it’s going to be interesting to see how the differences of the last era of Orioles baseball in this area are contrasted because that’s what happens. We went down to spring training in 2019 for Brandon Hyde’s first spring training and it was like, you know, there was music playing while they were stretching and working out and Buck Sha Walter never let that happen. Yeah. There was when these guys showed up, there were hedges blocking the media and anyone from seeing what was happening in like the six-ack of bullpen mounds and they just chopped them down because it was stupid. like they changed it and like they were doing short workouts because it was a waste of time to be there for like five hours and like they were doing shorter workouts and it came to us in the media that they didn’t want it to seem like it was summer camp down there. But compared to what it was, it kind of was summer camp and then things change and you know spring training changes and all that changes and and what we will find out is what the players thought about how it was because they’ll say things like it’s more relaxed or it’s more strict and we need that or it’s more it’s more tailored to me or it’s more team it’s going to be more of some things less of some things and that’s going to be how we find out the difference and what this team felt like they needed because that’s what they’re going to focus on. Yeah. What I’m excited about is he apparently is, according to that story in the Athletic, an Energizer Bunny. He’s energetic. He works all hours of the night. He brings a level of uh levity to to the game as well. I’m excited to get to talk to him and to to get to see what kind of approach he takes with his team because we saw that the job especially in the first few years of the rebuild wear on Brandon Height. I mean, by the end of if he had hair, it would have gone gray because of the amount of losing and bad baseball that he had to deal with. he aged like a president in uh in the first few few years of his Orioles tenure. Hopefully Craig Alberz will not have to deal with that, but to bring in fresh energy and a fresh voice. And I think that also plays into why the Orioles didn’t go with Tony Manelino. And it’s nothing against Tony Manelino and the job that he did in the second half, but they wanted to bring somebody in from outside the organization given how disastrous this season went. I think that that’s perfectly understandable, too. Yeah. And I would just say to that point, you know, this was a team that came up with and like the reason that the the bird bath exists is because these guys did like a silly Andy wrote about it, a silly like water ballet for the team talent show. They were absolute like goofs. Yeah. They’re there were just like and you could watch this team, you know, when they walked in in those jumpsuits like I I don’t remember where I was. I wasn’t in town, but I saw it and I showed my wife. I was like, “These guys are these guys are like such idiots.” Teletubbies. Yeah. But like they did stuff like that because it was fun and it was funny and they were having a good time. Yes, they were losing and like everyone’s trying to like figure out their own stuff, but like how much more how much better will the Orioles play baseball and the Orioles be as a team if this team if they’re like back to having I mean we we were talking at the beginning of spring training about is the Orioles are a close-knit group that a lot of the players on this especially the position players are very tight and they they have their spring training house together and they love playing Mario Kart and they love playing katan and they’re best buds and they they fish all the time and how much does that you know really matter? It certainly helps, but then they started losing games and it’s not as much fun. It’s hard to have fun with your buddies when you’re losing as many games and when guys are out of the lineup and guys are on rehab assignments and not playing for you. Let’s bring that funness back. And that doesn’t mean that it it shouldn’t be touched with some maturity and some understanding of we need to get to work when we need to get to work. You know, these guys are older now than they were when they were rookies. But it also shouldn’t be taken like everything is the end of the world and this is the most serious game that they can possibly play. They need to be able to have fun and enjoy what they’re doing. And I think that perhaps Craig Alber is that guy who can help them do that. Yeah. Um all right, let’s talk about the coaching staff that Craig Alber is going to assemble here because we’ve already seen some turnover on that coaching staff per Andy Kuska of the Baltimore Banner. Assistant hitting coach and upper level hitting coordinator Sherman Johnson has left to take a job with the Chicago White Socks as their minor league hitting coordinator. He joins old Orioles co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller in Chicago. And assistant hitting coach Tommy Joseph is also not returning. Cody Ash’s former teammate in Philadelphia that he brought in here. When you look at the uh the job that Sherman Johnson and Tommy Joseph did in Baltimore, John, they were both kind of brought in, you know, Sherman Johnson’s time with the Orioles had predated uh Cody Ashley’s promotion to hitting coach. So, he just kind of got promoted when Cody Ashley got promoted when Ryan Fuller and Matt Borg Schulty left town after the 2024 season. But the Orioles are already making some changes, whether that’s the Orioles making those decisions or the the people themselves, Sherman Johnson and um Tommy Joseph making those decisions. But do you think this is a reflection of the Orioles not wanting those specific messengers or the Orioles not wanting that specific message? That is the question to me. this time last year. Um, I don’t think we were regularly podcasting, but we were regularly, you know, I’m sure if we had this conversation this time last year, I would have, you know, I would have, you know, stuck my neck out and said, po I did it in writing. I don’t know if I did in podcast form. They are not changing anything. It might be different people. They’re not changing anything. This was a we’re talking about like situational hitting that failed them. like you’re not going to blow up the program based on a half season that went badly because that’s what it was and you know Ryan Fuller left on his own valition. Matt Borg Schulty left on his own valition. Would there have been changes? Would the Orioles have had to make a tough decision if those things didn’t happen? Maybe. Um but they had Cody Ashley already in the mix. They had Sherman Johnson who’s an awesome guy who they really wanted to have in the mix. He gets the job. Like that’s what you know that’s how this goes. They kept things very same. Cody Ashley said in spring training we’re basically doing all the same stuff like these guys aren’t seeing anything different than what they were used to before. That was because they believe in everything they believe in and they believe that it works. Um, this feels to me, and I’ve gotten mixed messages to kind of as to what all this means, but this feels like to me the potential to be a significant kind of moment. You know, you’re not going to do anything more impactful than hire a good manager who can manage this team for a decade and help, you know, win a playoff game, win a playoff series, win a World Series. Sure, that’s very impactful. But to the extent this organization has been defined by anything over the last since Michaelas was hired at the end of 2018, it’s been like we’re going to identify really good hitters and we’re going to fill our draft boards with them and we’re going to take the best ones we can and we’re going to get them to the big leagues because we know what to do with them. we, you know, have a philosophy. If you, you know, you will ops the best and score by thereby score the most runs if you swing a good pitches. If you hit the ball in the air, you hit the ball hard. Um, they’ve this, that’s been what’s defined them. They have done this since the beginning of 2020 with COVID through now. And it’s been some changing faces and, you know, different chefs, but the same menu. They’re cooking the same menu. That’s what they’re doing. They’re doing the same drills in Delm Marva as they are in Baltimore. The process and the program is exactly the same. To turn this over, whether it’s to turn this over for the second time in two years in a way that it didn’t feel this way last year feels like there’s a chance that things could be somehow different. How different? What could be different? I don’t know. You’re not You’re probably not going to bring in like like a traditional like let’s stick the bat out there and put the ball in play and and scrap it out type like old school hitting philosophy guys. Everyone is working off the same set of data. The reason the Orioles do the things that they have done is because over time that is the most productive way to consistently score runs. And this was like the best offense in baseball in the first half of 2024 and it hasn’t been since. So you can’t say it never worked. these three of those players that they drafted and developed were all stars. Um, but you’re talking about the same sets of data and the same handful of ways to interpret that and deliver the message that you want to deliver. And it feels like this just the fact that there’s a chance that it could be different feels significant to me because because that’s not really how they do things. They haven’t really done a lot of wholesale changes. I guess you could say they have on the pitching side or like they’ve kind of pivoted, but that felt more like that felt more like accelerating what they were already doing. They didn’t they don’t need to really do that. They’ve done the hitting thing pretty well. Now, are they going to change? I don’t know. Yeah, they at the end of 2024, there were certainly a lot of FL fans that were frustrated with the hitting side of things because that was the part of the project that failed the most down the stretch when they went 500 in after the All-Star break and then they get swept out of the playoffs and they don’t hit at the right time. There were a lot of fans that were frustrated, but you look at this that season as a whole and you say the statistics were really good. You still had some good performances here and there. could blame some of it on injuries and you know Adley Rushman dealing with injuries and Jordan Westber being breaking his hand for the second half and and all that stuff and you could say this this process just needs to be tweaked doesn’t need to be overhauled. Well, they made some tweaks and they lose both of their co-hitting coaches and they promote Cody Ashley and they send that same message and whether it was the message the messenger or the receiver of the message they didn’t have those kind of results or whether it was just bad luck. The Orioles finished 24th in baseball with a 235 batting average, 21st in baseball with a 699 OPS. Their 18.5% line drive percentage was the second lowest in the majors. Had a low walk rate, 22nd in big in the big leagues at 8% and struck out 24.2% of the time, which was the third highest. All these stats per Andy Kuska. Those numbers will not be acceptable if they do that again in 2026. Yeah. Do is your diagnostic levels, John? Do you think it was the message the messengers the message the receiver the message or just bad luck? We had this conversation like halfway through the season and we didn’t we couldn’t really come to a consensus at that point. But yeah, if you’re dulling out blame pie, who gets the biggest slice? Um, I don’t think the hitting coaches or the hitting program are the big slices. I’m not saying this is all the players fault. I’m not saying this is all luck fault, but like all the faults of luck, but how do you even how do you even evaluate like sure whatever happened in the first couple months like they didn’t hit. They also faced like every all-star lefty there was twice in in the span of two months. like the Orioles played all these teams and like saw all these guys multiple times and they got destroyed by them and yeah, that shouldn’t have happened because they signed all these right-handed hitters. We don’t have to do this whole thing again. But as a team offensively by the end of the season, you know, there’s something, you know, in spring training, you have to bring what’s called like a representative lineup on the road. You can’t just send the Buoie or the Chesapeake Bay Socks to to Bradenton to play the Pirates because people pay money for those tickets and you have to have like a certain amount of major leaguers in your lineup. And if you don’t have that many major leaguers in your lineup, you get fined by the league. And like there were probably times when the Orioles ran out lineups during the regular season after the trade deadline where they would have gotten fined for not having representative like could like established major leaguers in their lineup because they traded a lot of guys and a lot of guys were hurt and not playing well and like in and out. Like how do you evaluate? Are we saying like because because um Dylan Carlson got like 200 played appearances and got and went like two different months without getting a hit. Like Yeah. Like the hitting program is bad. Like because Luis Vasquez played 32 games. Yeah. Like because Jacob Stallings and Chad Trump had to be behind home plate. Yeah. All we could go on forever. And like Yes. Did Gunnar Henderson not have the season he was supposed to? Yes. Did Ally Rutman was Adley Rutman underperforming until he got hurt? Yes. Jordan Westber was pretty good while he was healthy. Colton Cowser was not that good and turned out he wasn’t healthy. Jackson Holiday grinded through. I don’t even know what to make of Jackson Holiday. So, you can’t I don’t I wouldn’t say that’s because I wouldn’t say that’s because of the coaching or the players. It’s just it was just a brutal set of circumstances that kind of led to this. And the question is always to me like what could happen differently, you know, like what do you think the Yankees hitting coaches are telling their guys? Don’t hit the ball in like hard in the air. Don’t swing at pitches you think you can drive. Like this is what you do. This is how you this is how things go. Um can you do things a little differently? Sure. I mean, there’s a lot of like contact oriented little slug guys in Toronto who were like fringe contributors who got their bat speed up and started hitting the ball harder and then they had a much better offense this year than last year. You can do that type of stuff, but but that’s not to say that the Orioles don’t do that. They do train bad speed. They do train this stuff. and they were dealing, I feel like, with the worst of the the worst of circumstances offensively for a variety of reasons. And and I’m not answering your question, but it’s just it’s just not easy to say. It’s not easy to say like, “Oh, if the hitting coaches were different, the season goes differently.” That’s obviously not true. Yeah. Um so many other things would have had to be different. And I guess that’s the point like would this season have gone differently if there were different hitting coaches? Probably not. And like that’s all you need to know. So are these guys leaving on their own valition? Are they being scapegoed? Are the Orioles going to double down a third time and be like, “Well, no, what we’re doing still works. Let’s change it. Let’s change the chefs again.” Like that feels like it would be tricky, too. They almost have to make a big pivot, but I don’t know what direction that would be. It’s really, but it feels like the fact that we’re having this conversation is meaningful. Yeah. I mean, I think that the fans look at the fact that Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutman, Colton Cowser, Ryan Mount Castle, Jordan Westber have all been very, very good players in the past with supreme offensive seasons. And in 2025, a lot of those guys didn’t. And you look at the down tick in production, you say, well, what’s the one common denominator? And that’s this the coaching staff, that’s the hitting coaches. And I think that their natural inclination is to then blame the hitting coaches in that instance. But it’s it’s not all one sizefits-all. It’s not e, you know, all on one guy, all on two guys. It’s not all Ryan Fuller, Matt Borg Schultzy’s fault, as we all saw, those guys that walked out the door. And by the same token, it’s not all Tommy Joseph and Cody Ashy and Truman Johnson’s fault. I just am interested to see who, assuming Cody Ashley stays on as the hitting coach, what kind of assistance he is going to get and how much Craig Alberz has to say in that. Is he going to give if Kodi Ashi stays is he gonna give Cody ashy carp launch to go out in there and and pick whoever he wants as his assistants or is he going to say hey let’s have some conversations about what kind of messengers we want to bring in here and and who your assistant should be and should is Michaelas going to be involved in those convers I’m I mean he’ll be involved at some level but is he going to have put his thumb on the scale and say I want this kind of guy in this role it’s all going to be a fascinating process and we won’t know the answers probably won’t know the answers for a while. It’s going to take a while for the coaching staff to be filled out. In terms of who is still in house right now, you still have Tony Manelino on the coaching staff technically, but he is not expected to be back. Per Andy Kuska, bench coach Robin Centinos. I am also curious if the Orioles bring in an associate manager over Robinson Torino because maybe there’s somebody out there that you know Craig Alberz was the best buddy of co of Steven Vote and Steven Vote just brought him in to be his bench coach. Is there a best buddy a third best buddy in this group that Craig Alberz wants to bring in to be his associate manager? Seems like Blake But from the Nats is like another of the, you know, the coaching tree is already there. So, he might have lost his associate manager already. He might have. Um, also I did look up the difference because I was curious about the difference between associate and assistant. This is perdeed.com. An associate position is typically an entry-level hourly rate common among retail personnel. I don’t think that Craig Albernaz was getting an Alber an hourly rate. I hope not. An alberly rate. uh a assistant position is typically requires extensive job experience and may require a degree because of their level of responsibility and authority. Kind of makes sense I guess for Craig Alberz. He he so he was the bench coach in 2024. Then Steven Vote promotes him to associate manager in part to keep him from taking a job with the Chicago White Socks or Miami Marlins we assume because he was interviewing for those jobs. But he doesn’t have like a ridiculous amount of experience as a bench coach. So, it kind of makes sense that he was an associate more uh as opposed to an assistant, right? Yeah. Yeah. I you know, honestly, like those sound like they were job descriptions like written by AI and you know, not a lot makes me feel comfortable about my you know, the status of being a writer. All titles are fake. Yeah. Everything’s made up, you know, but I I could see, you know, another guy being added either as an assistant or an associate. You still have hitting coach Cody Ashy. You still have pitching coach Drew French. You have interim bullpen/assisting pitching assistant pitching coach Mitch Plasmire. Interim third base/Infield coach Buck Britain, first base coach Anthony Sanders, pitching co strategy coach Ryan Clem, major league development coach Grant Anders, senior adviser John Mabry. When you look at this staff, John, we might see more turnover in the staff, but do you think that when he is assembling his staff that Craig Alberz needs to go out there because he is not an experienced big league manager and hire an an experienced big league manager on the staff because there’s nobody on this this group that fits that bill? I’m going to say no because that feels like the right answer to me. um doesn’t feel like a job or a role or a set of responsibilities unless you bring something other than having managed to the table. That is useful. If we’re talking about like a super high energy, hands-on teacher type coach, that’s what he’s going to want with his staff. you know, he’s going to want those kind of like he’s going to want everything to be like buzzing around. And if you have some guy who’s not that type who’s older and has is, you know, hardened and is looking at you a scance because you’re doing all this wild stuff. It’s just not like what’s what’s the value of that other than he’s done it before. Like that’s Craig Auburn’s job to be the manager. It’s not somebody else’s job to be the manager with him. Like that’s his job. he’s going to do the managing and that I’m sure he will, you know, I’m sure he will hire a staff that is or or assemble or cobble together a staff that is full of people who can execute the tasks and the roles that he wants. And I don’t know if the first thing I would do when I was if I was hired to do a job would be to hire my own babysitter. Well, I wonder if how much power Craig Albernez is going to have in terms of hiring his own staff. You know, how much how much of this is going to be the front office’s decision. Yeah. Because when when Brandon High got hired, he said, “Well, I’m bringing over Tim Cousins. He’s my best buddy.” And then Michaelas was like, “That’s that’s nice, but we’re going to fill out the rest of your staff.” And like, let’s remember, too, that was in December. Like, yeah, true. baseball contracts. If you are a coach getting renewed, like if a team wants you back, yeah, you can get you can hire people for promotions, I suppose. But like if they wanted to hire some teams like some hot shot assistant pitching coach to be the Orioles pitching coach, I suppose they could have. But what they did was they just hired bunch of people who were out of a job because those were the guys that were available by and large. Yeah. Um I might be misspeaking on like one or two specific people, but that’s basically what they did. Yeah. Um, and the staff looked very different the next the second they had the opportunity to turn some of those roles over. They did. Um, and it’s not Nobody was bad. It was just it the team was bad. It’s just Yeah, except for Yeah, there were some bad players. Um, but things changed quickly. I mean, the pitching side feels like it’s nothing’s going to happen to those guys. I feel like those guys are back and I don’t think there’s a ton of reason to not have any of them back unless they decide to take other jobs where we there’s going to be there is confirmed turnover not maybe not full maybe maybe full there is turnover though on the hitting side that will be that feels like it will be more collaborative than just Craig Alber being like I know these guys I think he might he’s going to be I mean he’s obviously in that room he’s obviously having those conversations but I think where the and I think I think Andy he reported slashconfirmed and and there’s been other reports that they the Orioles are letting Anthony Sanders you know interview for other jobs if he wants to um you know those quote unquote like fundamental coaches like first base outfield coach you know infield it seems like that would that is where someone who’s coming in like a manager can kind of put their stamp on the staff that’s complicated by Buck Britain and Robinson Centrinos being you know recently added in like generalist roles presumably being under contract for next year. Like that’s that’s you’re you can have lot as many coaches as you want. There’s no rules. I think there is a rule, but I don’t think the Orioles are close to running up against that rule and and you know that would be where I would think, but I think it’s I don’t know that it’s going to be like I want somebody who does X and Y. I think he’s going to be more like I want you to match, you know, the energy, the vibes, what we’re looking for. Well, and and go back a year’s time and Buck Britain and Robin Centrinos, people were talking about have been talking about Buck Britain as the next Orioles manager for years now. It feels like because of the success he’s had in the minor leagues. And Robin Centrinos was a big get for this Orioles coaching staff that they were able to kind of win the Robin Centurino sweep stakes. He was wanted by other teams to be a bench coach. They gave him a a pretty big role for his first major league coaching job. Yeah. But presumably he’s not on a one-year contract like Kurt Suzuki. So, yeah. Um, you know, those guys are probably under contract and are clearly well thought of by the organization. So, going to be interesting. But all of all of this to say, as we stand on the precipice of the end of the World Series and the beginning of free agency, which technically can begin as early as Saturday if the World Series ends on Friday, world free agency begins the day after the World Series ends. So the the offseason is right around the corner. All of this to say, the manager hire is a big one. The coaching staff positions are big and they’re important as to how this team is going to look. What’s most important is how the players play and who the the players are that’s on the roster. Yeah. And you know, if you are adding whatever you’re adding to this roster in free agency trades, like if you’re saying, “Oh, we’re going to add 10 10 wins in talent or in, you know, whatever future value of for 2026.” The reality is it’s what are you adding that 10 to? If it’s the 2025 Orioles with a bunch of underperforming homegrown players, you’re still not in a good place. But if you have somebody who can get the most out of those guys, and you’re talking about a much higher talent base and floor for this team to kind of build off of, then those additions you make will make a difference. I mean, it’s a big it’s a big offseason to say the least. And and honestly, like my head is spinning with what you just said that like this could all start and like free agency starts and nothing happens, but like still the idea of it makes me um it might just be all the caffeine I’ve had today with the three o’clock record, but making me a little dizzy right now. Um, the the Angels are taking a lot of strays on this podcast, but I feel like free agency opens and the Angels make like four moves that end up looking terrible. Yeah. Yeah. The Angels signing Charlie Morton on like the first day of free agency. That would be I know you wanted to retire Charlie. Yeah, I know you basically retired. Yeah, that would be uh that would be very angels. Well, we will have more many more podcasts as we get further into the off seasonason, which will officially begin after the postseason ends. And we will have coverage of the Craig Alberz introductory press conference as well on Tuesday. Probably have a podcast at some point next week to break that down, react to what uh he said in his strong New England accent. John Oolius’s handle. I’m Paul Manano and Oldbanner Sports. Of course, subscribe to the banner. $1 for six months. Get inside the dugout, John’s incredible newsletter. We have plenty more coverage there for you. Enjoy Halloween, everybody. John, do you have a costume? Yeah. Yeah, we’re uh Zoe is Roomie from K-pop Demon Hunters. Ah, still haven’t seen it. Did we talk about this already? Not on air. Not on air. Yeah. Um yeah, she’s she is a a demon hunting K-pop star. Um Milo is there’s like a little in the movie there’s like a little like demon tiger type thing. Okay. It’s like a little blue tiger. Sounds cute. Um, yeah. And I’m I’m like I just spent like $50 at Michaels getting like I’m gonna like paint some demon patterns onto a sweatshirt. We’ll see how this goes. Uh, you know, just what I need just like to to lock down like my evening and probably deep into the night if we’re being completely realistic on um on a on a on a crafts project. I don’t know how I’m going to do. But and then you make it and then you’re like, well, I’m going to wear it for one day and then it’s done forever. bought like a medium to high quality like black hoodless sweatshirt to you know crew neck guy and nice. I did I also bought a a hoodie at Michael’s. Yeah. Yeah. But I was like um you know I told Marilyn I was like you play your cards right this could be your sweatshirt come November 1st and she she was like I don’t want I’m going to want a demon pattern sweatshirt and it’s like also fair but you know it’s going to it can’t go anywhere. It’s something that I if it works out the way that I think it will I will have spent so much time on it that I cannot get rid of it. What’s your costume? Um, I was, well, one, my girlfriend and I are going as Wallace and Grommet tomorrow. Cool. Um, great claimation. And over the weekend for a Halloween party, I bought a tan hoodie from Michaels and we’re all under all green underneath because I was half of the pistachio tide. Okay. Oh, I get it. I smell. Very Baltimore reference. Very Baltimore. Yeah. Didn’t shower that day. Do you um Sorry for all involved. Um, do you do you are you going somewhere? Are you going to be like out and you’re going to be doing candy at your at the at the Casa Day um the Young Sports Boys? Yes. The the Young Sports the Casaday Young Sports Boys. Different from the Casa Day Young Sports Boys in Sarasota every spring. Uh this is the Casaday Young Sports Media Boys. We’re going to hand out candy. I have never gotten the privilege of handing out candy before because I’ve always lived in an apartment building. Now I have a house and I get to hand out candy and I’m deciding what kind of what kind of house we want to be. Are we a Kit Kat house? Are we a king-size candy bars kind of house? We’re not a granola bar kind of house. Yeah. No, just get do the candy. You know, be uh What kind of candy? A lot of little candy. A lot of candy. We have like four like Costcoized bags. So like little Snickers and three musketeers and that kind of stuff. And I like to sit outside longer than you know. Usually like Zoe doesn’t last too super long. She’s just turned five. You know, she’ll last longer this year than she has in years past. Like usually the bedtime process starts and I kind of just stay out and like hang out and keep drinking and giving out candy and like once the candy runs out, you got to go inside. But I kind of like sitting out there and doing it. So apparently according to uh Tony who’s watching live on YouTube and commenting along, he said they’ve already gone out trick-or-treating last weekend or I I don’t know when they would have gone trick-or-treating, but maybe some costume party. So many demon hunters. So that is the costume. Yeah. Of this Halloween apparently. Yeah. I mean it’s Yeah, it’s really uh it’s really uh it’s really swept the swept the youth. It has. Um all right, I don’t know how many people tuned out 5 minutes ago, but thanks for staying to the end. We’ll have another podcast for you soon for John Mioli. I’m Paul Mano. Enjoy Halloween everybody and we’ll catch

Craig Albernaz is the new head man in Baltimore, and the turnover on the Orioles’ coaching staff has already begun with the departures of assistant hitting coaches Sherman Johnson and Tommy Joseph. Who will Albernaz bring in to replace them? And what other changes are on the horizon?
Banner Baseball Show co-hosts Paul Mancano and Jon Meoli discuss what they expect from the O’s new coaching hires.
Tune in live at 3 p.m.

#Orioles #MLB #baseball #Baltimore