Luke Jones and Nestor discuss Orioles managerial hiring of Craig Albernaz and leadership of Elias

Luke Jones and Nestor discuss Orioles managerial hiring of Craig Albernaz and leadership of Elias

Welcome home. We are WNST AM1570 of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive positively into a crabcake week, a World Series week. We’re going to have a new manager here in Baltimore this week. If you’re watching out on the uh the YouTubes and the video channel, I have my Curio Wellness Orange O. Uh uh makes me think of summertime and that peach cake that I can’t have right now. up at eggnogs around the corner as are crab cakes. The Maryland crab cake tour out on the road. We’ll be at State Fair on Tuesday morning in Caitensville. I have Raven Scratchoffs to give away. We’ll also have them next Wednesday afternoon at Coco’s Pub in Laraveville. And then on Friday of next week, we will be at Pizza John’s in Essex. Uh going to honor our uh our dude Heisty uh in several ways, Mr. Essex himself. Uh although he did come over and eat a lot of crabs and Dund dog for my guys at Kasus would tell me that. Um you know I don’t know what heisty would make of managerial maneuverings late night on a Sunday night after a Ravens victory but um I thought they were supposed to be quite quiet about all this till the World Series is over Luke. I mean I I didn’t know we were going to get managerial orange plumes of smoke over Camden Yards on a Sunday night. But uh lo and behold story broke right. Yeah it did. And they haven’t announced it. And part of what you said, uh, what you alluded to does tie in with the World Series and these leagues generally speaking, not wanting news like that announced, trying to overshadow the World Series, which I mean, I guess whatever. We’ve already had John Harbaugh breaking all sorts of rules. Sure. Right. Right. But yeah, Craig Alberz, who I I’m not going to sit here and say that I was wildly familiar with him, but he is someone that for me checks at least a few boxes from this. Look, is he an experienced major league manager? No. Right off the bat, he’s not. I never said that was an absolute must. Was that my preference? If it’s the right guy, right? Right. I mean, there are plenty of retreads you can hire that aren’t going to be remotely inspiring or and as I said to you, I’m not sure anyone I’m not sure there was a manager to be hired that was going to sell tickets, for example. Yeah. I mean, Joe Madden and Buck Shoal are not what this guy wants, period. Yeah, they they don’t. And I mean, you can certainly, you know, you can question whether that’s what’s best for them at this point in time. Maybe it is. I was rooting for Lou Panella myself cuz I need some more excitement in my life. So, I mean, but I also go back to look, you can you can also look at some of the best managers in the history of the game and they’re an unknown when they’re hired the the first time. I mean, Earl Weaver was, you know, replaced became Orioles manager halfway through ‘ 68 and the rest was history, right? I mean, have you read John Miller’s book on that? I have not. Yeah, you know that that is maybe that’s at the top of my list when football season ends and I get, you know, dude, I’m 34 of the way through Getty Lee. I’m f I mean, and Getty was two years. I mean, it just takes some time sometimes to read the books. I’m with you. Yeah, sure. So, but but I think, you know, to bring it back to Craig Alberz, here are the things that I do like. First and foremost, I was and look, this sounds flippant. This sounds very disrespectful to Tony Manscolino because I think he did a perfectly fine job for what he was asked to do which was be to be a good caretaker and steward for a lousy lost season because that’s what it was in miday already and they played better. Did they play so much better that I was at all interested in maintaining the status quo and hiring Manelino full-time, which presumably would have meant keeping most of the coaching staff in place. No, I I never wanted that, right? And any idea of that to me, I mean, you want to talk about it’s one thing to talk about a managerial hire, whether it’s going to galvanize your fan base. That’s one that would have done the exact opposite. I I think that would have been the wrong message that would have rire of we’re gonna maintain the status quo. This was all Brandon Hyde’s fault and it was all because of the injuries. Right? That to me is what the me the me the message you would have sent to your fan base had they just kept Tony Manscelino as the permanent manager. So that being said, Craig Alberz is coming from the Cleveland Guardians who have been in the playoffs the last couple years who have played a brand of baseball that differs from where the Orioles are. They have been good defensively. They are generally viewed as being sound fundamentally. Um, you know, as far as their pitching, obviously their bullpen’s been, you know, that has really driven the bus for them on the pitching side. uh their offense isn’t great necessarily, but they’ve had, you know, the Steven Quans of the world that are more contact hitters. I mean, you know, I I mean, it’s tough to like draw a complete, you know, one forone transfer when you’re talking about things like that as far as just because he’s coming from Cleveland means has this guy ever been interviewed in any way? Like I’ve Googled him. He absolutely has. Yeah. I I haven’t seen a whole lot of much on anything in any way. Or was he was was his name known to you a week ago as a candidate? I mean, specifically to the Orioles, no. I mean, there they were very tight- lipped obviously. I mean, what what really got out about the Orioles? We know that they interviewed Luis Rojos uh from the Yankees, you know, former Mets guy, you know, former guy for the Mets and Albert Phol. there had been linked interest in terms of being linked to him. Scott Service as well. Uh Ryan Flity had been thrown out there. But you know the the Orioles weren’t giving daily updates, right? They weren’t saying, “Oh, we have completed an interview with so and so for our managerial opening like they they operated in the in the complete dark as they are apt to do, as they’ve been apt to do. Right or wrong, that’s how they do things. So I can’t say that. However, I do want to note that this is someone who’s been pretty highly regarded. I will say this, the thing I might like most about uh Craig Alberz is he came up in the Rays system. Uh he was a minor league coach and minor league manager for the Rays. Say what you want about the Rays from an ownership standpoint, from a payroll standpoint, but in terms of player development, in terms of how they have developed and built teams from the ground up, he’s somewhat like I like having someone that was in that environment. Well, he also was involved in pitching, right? You know, and he was a c he was a minor league. It’s funny he kind of sounds like Brandon Hyde in some ways in terms of like the background, right? longtime minor league man or catcher who did not make it to the majors. Uh, you know, spent a lot of time in one system and Hyde has been with the Marlins but spent plenty of time with the Cubs then. Uh, but you know, certainly Albernaz doesn’t have this extensive, you know, he hasn’t been a major league coach for 15 years, but he was the bullpen coach for the Giants for four years. you know, there’s another organization that, you know, it doesn’t carry the cache that it did 15 years ago, per se, but is still highly thought of overall. Um, so he’s been with three different organizations. I like the fact that there isn’t, not that I’ve seen may, and maybe I’m really overlooking something. There isn’t an obvious link to, oh, well, we spent a lot of time with Mike Elias and Sigmidal in Houston, right? There’s none of that. So, for me, the thing I like is it seems like it’s someone with a fresh perspective and new eyes and not someone that’s just an Astros person, right? Uh, so that’s where I I like this. Look, overall, do I have a strong opinion about this in terms of saying, “Wow, I think I’m over the moon about this hire,” or, “Oh, I think this is a bad hire.” No, I don’t have a strong opinion about it because I’m not incredibly familiar with him. But I will say he’s been in the mix for other jobs. Uh just last year he was, you know, he was in the running for the Miami job. He was in the running for the White Socks job. He was actually, and I thought this was interesting, he was actually a finalist for Cleveland’s job before Steven Boat got it. And then he was hired to be the bench coach. So, and then he was what? Associate manager this past year. So, one year in they gave him a title. And part of that was he he he’s been ported. He’s he’s been a name of interest among teams uh that have been looking for managers. So look, do I know if this is going to work? I have no idea. Nester, I’m not going to sit here and say this is a great hire or that this was a bad hire. There are things about it I like. There are things about it that are unknown. Like the fact that he’s not someone who has major league managerial experience. Is that a a prerequisite for someone to be successful? Well, if that were the case, then there were there would be no managers, good managers, because some at some point in time, someone’s an inexperienced ma major league manager, right? They get their first job and then you see. So, uh, you know, I don’t expect fans to do cartwheels over this. I’m not doing cartwheels over this, but if you’re looking at his background, I like the fact that he comes from Cleveland because I I have respect for how Cleveland does things organizationally. again, even if they’re not a high payroll uh club. Uh same with the Rays, same with the Giants. So, we’re going to see how this plays out. I I I’ve watched, you know, you can find interviews uh and go on YouTube and see him spend time with the Giants, spend time with the India. I mean, you know, baseball. He’s a baseball guy. I mean, if you you know, he’s 42. He’s right, you know, a little bit older than me. That that’s kind of interesting. You know, I’m not saying that’s good or bad. That’s just kind of, you know, so he’s a young on the younger side. He’s 10 years younger than Brandon Hyde. Uh so we’re going to see if this finds out. Look, let me be very clear. The work that they need to do to get themselves back on track and back in the playoffs next year runs so much deeper and more important to me as far as player acquisitions, trades, signings. What’s the who the manager is is a big deal. It is. No question. But for me, it’s not number one. it it’s somewhere in, you know, top five, right? I mean, it’s it’s important. I agree. But at the same time, if this is their hire and then they have another underwhelming off season, I’m not going to be optimistic going into the spring. This is an underwhelming managerial hire. On the face of it, you’re right. I mean, it is what it is. Um, let’s see how this guy recruits the fan base in the community, which would which will probably get me digging through Purple Rain one. I had to dig through Purple Rain 2 when I saw Matt Ryan interviewing Joe Flacco before a game. Um, but the Purple Rain one about how to hire a leader because we might need that for the Harball manual here at some point too if he keeps lying everybody uh getting Mr. Bashotti fined and losing draft picks and whatnot. Um, but recruiting the fan base, I know that’s a lost art with baseball and they’re too arrogant to consider it and like all of that. I’m just saying I’ve been saying it for 30 years. I’ve been pissed on for 30 years about it. Like that doesn’t matter. It okay. All right. You know, the stadium’s empty. They need something to be a splash of some kind for them. Um, and that that’s going to happen if they win, right? They need to win. I had Dave Shinan out last week and we did an hour on baseball at Costas and I thought of you of course. Um I also thought of him. I I I drank beer with Rig last week at Coco’s and I remember that moment where the Orioles were in first place summer and a half ago and the Ravens were coming off the Chiefs championship game loss and I was puffing my chest out like which one are is going to get the the the parade first and Shinan said neither. So, I had to give him some credit for that last week when he visited us. But the notion that you’re selling that this guy’s the pile diver, this guy’s the guy over the next three years that is going to lead them to I don’t want to say 98 wins because you don’t need to win 98 wins in order to win the World Series, but 90 put them in a position to win a World Series. And as we sit here and watch the Blue Jays do it in the most unlikely way in so many unlikely ways, uh, including the unlikely rush tour that has spawned in all of this. But I mean, you and I on opening day were in Toronto. There wasn’t a thought that they could be a World Series team, but they were in last place the year before, right? I mean, put it this way. So these guys, by the way, well, no, of course, but when and I think I said this to you last week when we were kind of previewing the World Series, which, you know, first two games, I mean, certainly uh interesting. Uh but the there, you know, when you’re talking about the two managers on opening day, if you had said to me, which of these, you know, one of these guys is being fired in miday, I wouldn’t have picked Brandon Hyde. And that was even with me being underwhelmed by the Orioles off season. So, it certainly speaks to how quickly things can change. Now, Blue Jays spend money. Blue Jays made some good moves. Blue Jays had some young players step up, right? You know, it’s hilarious. I got to stop you because you’re like, Brandon Hyde, Brandon Hyde. Elias’s off season got him fired. I just want to point that out. So, we’re going to talk about how the manager is important or isn’t important to your point. We can talk about the manager all day, but who’s going to pitch? Right. I mean, right. And and that’s why, look, I’m not saying that to belittle Craig Alberaz or hiring a manager or its place in the pecking order, but it is a pecking order, right? It’s not 1975 where Earl Weber was telling whoever his general manager was in, you know, he was saying what he wanted on his roster, right? I mean that that was talked about, you know, when you’re talking about Hank Peters and like go back and and look at that era of the Orioles quote. It is amazing how in the Theo Epstein era all that and Gillic it got flipped right around the turn of the century. No question. I mean the field manager now is middle management. I mean it absolutely it that doesn’t mean it’s in it’s not important but the general manager hires the manager and the manager answers to the front office in terms of what they want to do. Now, that being said, if if anyone who’s listening right now isn’t a big believer in Mike Elias in this regime, and and look that if you’re not, look, I I’ve had my concerns. I’ve had Well, he fired middle management on Saturday and stood as upper management and didn’t talk for anybody for 4 days, right? Yeah. So, so from that, I would have fired his ass instantly. He would not be running my team. So I’m going to say that at every step of the way right on to the point where you get champagne dumped on your head somewhere in the Midwest when they win the World Series, you know. So So from so from that standpoint, fans have every right to be skeptical about this higher then. I am just saying Craig Albernaz from what I have gathered and from what you can find and again it doesn’t take long and we all have Google, you know, he’s been in the mix for other managerial openings. He’s considered pretty pretty highly regarded around the league. Like it’s been talked about that he would be a manager at some point in the same way that people talk about Ryan Flity right now. Um well that’s where Hib was too. Hib was on that set. Yeah. So I mean it’s we’re going to find out, right? I mean it’s it’s interesting. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to to just hop on YouTube and look at a couple He’s a Massachusetts guy, so he’s he has that accent. So that’s interesting. You know, I’m I I I already saw in his bio in the Guardians media guide, he did grow up a Red Sox fan. You know, to me, can you do the job? Can you lead young players? Can you get the best out of this young core that was wildly disappointing in 2025? To your point, can you manage and be front-facing in a way that helps recruit? Now, that’s not the manager’s primary job, but hey, Buck Shoalter was really good at that, right? in addition to being a good manager and leading the helping lead the Orioles to success and playoff appearances, right? That is always going to be number one for me. But can you have a way with the media and when you speak interact with fans where you know it it inspires people? doesn’t mean that he’s going to be the greatest manager in the history of the game or anything like that, but can it be, you know, can can you look, I don’t think winning the earn the confidence of the fan base to some degree cuz he’s the manager. He’s going to talk a thousand times more than Mike Elias even though Elias is running the thing. No question. So that’s where, you know, you want to see some of that. And look, it to me it’s very apparent and and I know that Elias said that the Orioles wanted to hire a manager ASAP when he spoke at the season ending press conference a day after the season ended, which is only about a month ago at this point in time as you and I are talking. So that is a pretty quick timeline. There are other teams that are going to wait and talk to presumably talk to Blue Jays or or Dodgers assistants. I I think you know I mean not every managerial spot has been filled at this point in time. Now should the Orioles have done that? I’m not going to sit here and say they shouldn’t have. At the same time if they absolutely love Craig Alberaz and he wanted what was excited about being a Orioles manager and at the interview he had ideas that he brought to the table that they liked in terms of how to unlock so and so or how to make this better in the organization, how to improve their team defense. uh what whatever it might be, right? I mean, I’m hoping because he was in Cleveland, which is an organization that I think highly of, because he was in Tampa Bay for years, which is an organization that again, ownership and payroll aside, they’re really smart to have been as successful as they’ve been for a long time with how little they spend on major league payroll. So, I like someone that has some pedigree and ties to those organizations that hopefully you can take some of those elements, blend it into the things that the Orioles have done well or at least had done well up until the last 18 months and then very much augment that with payroll and money to to go out and get free agents and to make some trades and to boost this roster because this roster needs a lot of help right now. There’s no doubt about it. So, all of that in concert, you can sell me on on this hire. But that said, it’s still going to come down to who who did they acquire? What pitchers are they going to add? They need another bat. There’s no question about that. So, you know, it’s part of it. Uh you can sell me on it based on his pedigree. At the same time, he has never managed in the major leagues before. You know, he managed two years in the minors for the Rays. Both those teams seem to do well in terms of looking at win loss record. But I don’t that that doesn’t tell me a whole lot, right? I mean, what were the age of the players on those teams? All of that, right? There there are a lot of variables at work before we’re just going to blindly look, you know, uh casually look at a win- loss record for a minor league team, you know, a team in single A and say whether this guy has the chops to manage or not. Uh, I think the fact that he has moved at a pretty accelerated pace here over the last 5 years, uh, where, you know, he went from being minor league field coordinator in 2019 for the Rays to then going to the Giants and being their bullpen and catching coach for what, four years to then becoming the the Guardians bench coach after being a finalist for their manager job. And then they promoted him, gave him an associate manager title. Why? to probably give him a bump in pay and keep him happy because he stuck around for another year. I I saw I saw enough sentiment on social media that it seems like Guardians fans and gu people around the Guardians were really happy that they were able to keep him last off season. So, it speaks to this guy must have some aptitude to make this kind of an impression considering he doesn’t have this lengthy managerial track. Got to call him unheralded, right? unheralded. Unheralded in that his name was announced and we have I don’t know 7,000 people on our text service. How how many of them have heard of him? Well, that’s why I I even in the text alert I sent out, I mentioned who he was. If if if they had hired Joe Madden, I wouldn’t have said former Cubs manager Joe Madden. I would have just said the Orioles hired Joe Madden as manager, right? I told I I flat out said Cleveland coach, right? So, so you know, and again, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to work out. And it also just because of what I’ve laid out as far as these elements that I like, it doesn’t mean he’s going to be a good manager. I don’t I have no idea. Anyone who’s saying that they have any idea about this guy is full of it, right? You’re just saying something just for the sake of doing it. U I I will absolutely hear anyone who’s disappointed because they wanted to hire an experienced major league manager. At the same time, if they had hired Scott Service or Bob Melvin, I mean, okay, Bob Melvin has a long his managerial back background and track record. How many World Series has Bob Melvin won? One last century, right? Not his manager though. He wasn’t the manager of the Diamondbacks in that era. Bob Brenley was Brenley. My bad. All right. Brenley replaced Buck Sho Walter. Yeah. So, so I never knew Melvin. Melvin was in oral right when that Brady Anderson 8990 I got my media. I mean I had a press pass during that era but I didn’t know Bob Melvin. I I I can’t say that I’ve ever talked to Bob. And let me be clear I’m not this isn’t me saying that I didn’t want because I absolutely talked about having an experienced manager. But who’s available? Who will work for you? Look, shame on the Orioles if they didn’t at least place a call to Bruce Bochi or his agent, so to speak, and at least find out if he’d be interested, right? And they might not have even picked up the phone for all we know. Bruce Bochi’s at a point in his life when, you know, regardless of whether he manages again, he’s not going to be doing it much longer. I mean, he’s just he’s up there in age that much. But to me, like, if you didn’t at least make a call to someone like that, if you didn’t at least make a call and have a conversation with Joe Madden, then yeah, shame on you then. And look, I don’t know if they did or not at this point in time. I don’t know if we’ll find that out, but at the same time, you have to be realistic in not what you want the Orioles to do, but what you’re going to expect them to do. And this is kind of what I expected. But I do like the fact that it’s someone that’s coming from organizations other than the Astros and it’s not just like a lazy link to the Astros, right? It doesn’t seem like they necessarily are would have much familiarity with him beyond just doing their homework and researching and interviewing. Clearly, he knocked their socks off to with the interview because, you know, this seemed to come together very quickly. So, we’re going to find out. Greg Alber, you know, maybe he’s the next Earl Weaver or maybe he’s the next, I don’t know, Phil Rean, you know, like in terms of, you know, it doesn’t work out at all. I’m not picking on Phil Rean, just first one who came to mind, one and done as an Orioles manager. Uh, so, you know, like I said, there are things to like. There are things that are absolutely question marks, including the fact that no, he hasn’t managed in the majors and only managed in the minors a couple years. But I I do like the background of where he’s coming from, where he has spent time. I have respect for those organizations. I’m hoping some of the best things they do, he’s adapted along the way for his own philosophy and I’m hoping that he’s bringing fresh eyes and a fresh approach and some fresh ideas because this team needs it. There’s no doubt. I mean, you go back to where they were at the end of June in 2024. I I I always think back to you and I sitting at Kostas watching them just bludgeoning the Yankees in that what was it a Thursday afternoon game? Wednesday or Thursday afternoon, whatever it was, the finale of that series. And yeah, the Orioles looked like they might be the best team in baseball. That that that was a week where they had taken two out of three from the Phillies and then taken two out of three from the Yankees. I I mean, they were on from a perception standpoint, it it couldn’t have looked much better than it did right then. And since then, boy, it’s been I don’t know if disaster, but it’s been a massive disappointment. It’s been as bad as Adley Rutman’s been. Sure. Yeah. I mean, Adley’s kind of been What’s happened to him has happened to them. Sure. I mean, it’s it’s certainly coincided. It’s, you know, it’s not all his fault, obviously, but he’s kind of been the face of it, right? He was the face of the rebuild and the the the ascension, and he’s been the face of the decline. Dude, Shinan told me last week he thinks he’s done with him. You know what I mean? I don’t know. Like, I don’t know if they’re done with him. I don’t know what their plan could be. They gave all this money to Bisayio. Nobody really believes Bayio is a catcher. Yeah. I mean it’s look first of all and this is where it’s tough. I mean what are you getting for him right now? Not and to be clear when I say that that doesn’t doesn’t mean he’s devoid of value. That far from that but it’s certainly not his peak value. And you know for me it’s like those groceries back by the bathroom in Wise Markets are a little dented in the back discount them a little bit. And look they they can still be good but it might not be what you thought right. I mean I never get the second day donuts. They’re never any good. Yeah. You don’t want to do that. But if it’s a dented can, it doesn’t mean that it’s not perfectly fine product. But well, as we talk about dented cans, we can mix a football conversation this and talk about Sam Darnold, talk about what Gino Smith did, what, you know, Baker Mayfield’s doing. You know, sort of the next place is a better place in the way that Ryan O’Harn, you know, it took a little longer. You know, I I don’t know what to say, but from this off season for all of these guys, nothing about the body of their work is going to change as we sit here. Whether it’s Craig Albernaz or whether it’s Joe Madden or whether it’s Buck Shoalter, none of that’s going to change. The only thing that’s going to change the perception of the team is going to be real bodies, real humans, real arms, some bats. That’s where the confidence is going to come from because it’s not going to come from well Westber’s going to have 600 at bats next year and Gunnar is going to hit 38 home runs next year. It’s going to make that next move up and Jackson Holiday is going to become a two solid 275 25 home run guy next year as we think he can blossom out. And Rutman is going to go back and hit 268 next year and hit 24 bombs and drive in 91 runs and you know catch 118 games. Like I I don’t know that you can sell me on any of the baby birds beyond Henderson being amazing. And I’ll give you that. He might hit 50 next year. I don’t know, right? I mean, that’s I saw the dumper. So, I know he’s capable, but I know all these guys are capable. And I’m sure with this new manager, that’s what he’s looking at and saying, “I would have loved to have had this team this time last year, but the job was unavailable because they won games.” Yeah. Well, and and what you just laid out there. Look, I don’t care how great their off seasonason is. They’re going to need some of that to happen, right? They’re It doesn’t mean every single guy in the young core is going to click, but they certainly need a nice p a nice chunk of it to click, right? They need Gunnar Henderson to get back to where he was the year before, which I bet Kobe Mayo with the big bat. And like like if any of those kind of guys blossomed, if Mayo became a 32 home run, 255 hitter next year, Mount Castle on his best day that they would really have something. I cannot sit here and bet season tickets, Birdland membership, my thoughts, my money if because you can gamble on it now. Like I I can’t sit here with any confidence. I mean, look, dude, I I hate to be with Lock and Fora on this one, even though I’ve known Jason 30 years. To me, they got the wrong guy running the team. They got the wrong owner. They got a lot of wrong. But to your point, to sell confidence, if they brought some right players in, they brought some right pitchers in and sell me up on any of these young guys. But then next year, they’re going to have to go out and do it. But I will have zero confidence in any of that until May 15th of next year when I see five or six of these young guys hold their water far better than anything I’ve seen so far. And that’s and that’s fair. Like I but what I’m saying is there aren’t enough roster moves they can practically make. There isn’t enough money in the world that they could realistically right. This is where I had this with shining and I’m going to have this with Alan Macllum at state fair. It’s going to be brought to you by the Maryland lottery. I’ll have Raven scratch and and look, you and I can go deeper into this and because we’re this was supposed to be a manager piece, not a deep dive. We got a football game Thursday. There’s only so much to say about a guy that we don’t know a whole lot about, right? And that’s what I thought. This and we can close on this and I’ll give you parting shot on all of this, right? Who’s their catcher? They have two. They gave one guy $80 million. The other guy’s a one-1 that they can’t get rid of and they’re not getting rid of. Who’s their first baseman? Well, you know, Mayo, what second base? Holiday short stop. Well, we got we got a pretty good one. Third base West outfield. Well, we’re going to Cows are center field. Well, right field. Well, we the the Canadian kid we got, you know, 50 million back into him. Beavers is going to get some at bats. So, I’m not talking about anymore Mullins, Mount Castle, O’Harn, uh uh u the the the right-handed guy that the the that was here five years. Yeah. I mean, all of those guys now gone. We know the lineup. We know Albert knows who his players are other than I think there’s the mystery bat, the mystery player, the the getting rid of Cowser and getting a real center fielder that doesn’t strike out, you know, 194 times a year. Like I I like I think they’re going to look to upgrade things and I think this is a time you break eggs when Rutman isn’t any good and you’ve given all the money to Bisayio. You’ve already talked about where you’re going to be with a lot of this. A lot of these guys are now at that point where Adafay was, which is what? We’re dealing him in week three. What? What? Well, we’re not going to sign him anyway. You know, like we’re not giving we’re not into his money no matter what given the body of work. So, cut losses, decide you’re going to get your offense in other places. And then there’s the whole pitching thing, right? The whole pitching thing is there. But when I keep looking at it and I said the Shining last week, I’m like, well, they could get by with Rogers and and and Bradish because they’re there and they could say that Grey Rod is coming back and like all this other stuff. But from position players, I mean, I I it feels like they’re going to go with what they got because that’s what they got and that’s where where they are until they spend a bunch of money. And I know they’re not spending it at catcher, second base, shortstop, probably third base. You know, where’s the money coming from that you want them to spend in the splash and they’re not going to make splash with bullpen signings, right? You know what I mean? Well, we have five relief even though they’re going to need that. I mean, there’s no doubt. And they have 18 players that they assembled in getting rid of all of those guys back in July. And somewhere in there, listening to Elias do that crazy press conference a month ago, he feels like three or four or five of those guys are going to be real bodies in Sarasota to earn jobs somehow on the roster, right? Or or three or four or five of those guys are going to be flipped in in some trades to to go get relievers or I mean on the position player side, very clearly outfield. I I mean there needs to be a very legitimate, very serious outfielder added to this team. First base, I mean, Mount Castle has one more year of of arbitration if you want to go that route. I’m kind of and I it’s nothing personal against I like Ryan. I I’ve seen a long enough body of work now where I just don’t think the juice is going to be worth the squeeze there. you know, Mayo, like don’t get me wrong, I’m not sitting here saying that I’m absolutely looking to trade him and I think he stinks or anything like that. No, far from it. Maybe he does blossom. I I would put it this way. I still am a believer that Kobe Mayo is going to hit in the major leagues and become, you know, a guy that can hit 30 home runs. I don’t know if that timeline is going to be as rapid as it needs to be for a team where the Orioles are right now. Right. That still might be another year or two away. I mean, look at Chris Davis. He didn’t really blossom into becoming him at his best until he was like 25 or 26, right? It those type of powerhitting guys that have swing and miss in their profile. Sometimes it takes a couple years and that’s but that’s why that’s all the more reason why they have failed these last couple off seasons and not having more of a established veteran couple pillars to help these other young guys and look at what Springer’s done for the Blue Jays. No question. No question. But if they had had that, that’s not to say all these young guys would have been fine and they wouldn’t have struggled and because look, these are flawed players, right? I mean, these aren’t all perfect. Even one-on- ons have flaws, right? We’ve seen that. I mean, Tim Beckham played for the Orioles at one point in time. He was a former 1-1 who never really lived and came close to living up to that, right? And that was that was with the Rays, a team that’s considered a genius when it comes to drafting and developing, right? So, you’re never going to bat a thousand, but that was all the more reason to augment. And they need to augment. So no matter what happens with Craig Alberaz, no matter what happens with what the how active, how much they spend in their off season, yeah, their fate in 2026 is still very much going to come back to how many of these young members of the core can take a step forward. It doesn’t mean all 100% of them, but it needs to be more than just one or two. If that doesn’t happen, then even if they spend a bunch of money, I’m not gonna love their chances for 2026. So that’s why Craig Alberz and whoever else they hire for the coaching staff and all all of those things that hopefully they’ve been evaluating since the the this disaster of a season, even before it was over, you know, do everything you can to try to get these guys ascending, get these guys trending upward. And if they do that, then I I think they have a chance to turn things around. Boy, lot of heavy lifting still left even after the hiring of Alber. He’s Lou Jones. I am Nester. We got baseball. We got football. We got World Series. We got managerial hires. We got football on Thursday. We got no football on Sunday, but there’ll be a lot of football on Sunday around here this week. Uh and we are uh you know be getting into November here and into who’s going to pitch, who are they going to get. So, we’ll get some baseball around here and there’ll be plenty of that all week long as we’re up late with all that. Luke’s going to be at Owings Mills In and Out. I’m going to be at State Fair on Tuesday with our friends at the Maryland Lottery giving Raven scratchoffs away. I also want to give a shout out to our friends at GBMC for keeping me healthy and squared up. Uh here I have a uh I have a colonoscopy that I’m bragging about because everybody who’s a dude out there should be getting one. I haven’t um when they ask me uh how did yours go? I’m like I’m 57. Haven’t had one yet. They’re like oh boy dude don’t you talk about this on the radio a lot? I’m like yeah but I don’t listen to what I say on the radio. So anyway, GBMC, thank you very much. uh big piece this week on hip and knee replacement as well with Dr. Duval who’s actually a Baltimore guy. He’s actually a Carol County guy, local guy, young guy. And uh he was great great uh chatting uh with me about everybody knows somebody with a hip and a knee replacement and getting back up and uh moving. Not me yet. One at a time here like Humpty Dumpty put me back together again. By the way, uh Planet Fitness, brand new location in Timmonium. I was there for the grand opening on it’s not actually open yet. They have a grand opening sale at 1999 for the black card. Uh I was out there all day Saturdays are getting it together. It’s right behind the Expectation right across from the racetrack right across from Costas in uh where we were last week doing the Maryland Crabcake Tour. And next week we will be at Coco’s in Larville. We’re also going to be doing that on Wednesday. And then uh Friday we’re at Pizza John’s in Essics. I got some good guests coming out and I’m looking forward to cheese steak. I’m holding off on cheese steaks and cricket cut French fries and gravy until the 7th of November. My crazy tastiness tour from Curio Wellness got me out doing stuff. I just finished off another Woodley cookie. So, uh, I did I took like the whole month of September off from all my favorite things to eat because I ate so damn much in August. So, I’m back on the trail here. He is Luke. I am Nester. We’re swallowing a lot of aggression at two and five as well as all the lies of John Harbaugh, which we’ll get to next. that we’re Baltimore and we’re positive.

As the heavy lifting of the offseason begins for the last-place Baltimore Orioles, the first step is complete. New manager Craig Albernaz brings plenty of fresh blood and great recommendations but as Luke Jones and Nestor point out, the players the team acquires this offseason and the maturation of a bevy of young, high-ceiling prospects will decide his fate in the dugout. It’s still baseball season in Baltimore!