Baltimore fans got their first look at their new manager on Tuesday.
The Orioles introduced skipper Craig Albernaz at a news conference inside the Warehouse, welcoming the 43-year-old and his thick Boston accent, wife and three kids. Albernaz, president of baseball operations Mike Elias and owner David Rubenstein spent about 45 minutes answering questions about the ballclub’s new leader and the future of the organization.
Here are five things we learned:
Albernaz chose the Orioles as much as they chose him
A throwaway comment from Albernaz was perhaps the most revealing of the news conference.
“I think Mike would probably tell you, he’d probably wish I was a little more — had more pep in my step in the process,” Albernaz said with a smile.
Rubenstein’s first comment about Albernaz implied a similar dynamic.
“Mike interviewed a number of people. So did I. At the beginning when we were talking to people, people said, ‘This person you’re interviewing is good, but if you can get Craig, you’ll really be fortunate,’” Rubenstein said. “They kept saying, ‘He’s the guy you should get. You may not get him, but if you can get him, that’s the guy you want.’ So, when we talked to him, we realized why everybody said that. He’s very impressive.”
Of course, this is an incredible opportunity for Albernaz, one he called a “dream come true.” But he was not desperate to become a major league manager. Last offseason, he was a finalist for two jobs and seemed poised for a managerial job before removing himself from consideration to accept a promotion from the Cleveland Guardians.
While Albernaz has no big league managerial experience, he was seen as one of the top candidates on the market because of his reputation around the game and his experience working in some of the best organizations in baseball. In that way, Albernaz chose the Orioles just as much as they chose him.
“I think at that point in time, I felt like I was ready,” Albernaz said when asked about last offseason. “But deep down, you’re just kind of like, ‘Do you want to take that next step?’ It’s a big job. I wanted to make sure that whichever organization I go to, I was really ready to jump in and dive in. Going through the process, meeting David and Mike and the rest of the front office, it really was, to me, an easy decision.”
During his end-of-season news conference, Elias was asked directly about whether experience was something he wanted in a new manager. He said, essentially, yes, but that it wasn’t a prerequisite. What’s more important than experience are confidence and cachet and clout. It appears Albernaz, despite his inexperience, possesses those qualities.
His family being a major part of his introduction informs who Albernaz is
Albernaz couldn’t stop smiling.
As Elias opened the news conference with a long statement about why he chose Albernaz to be the Orioles’ next skipper, Albernaz had a smile on his face — but not because of what Elias was saying. Albernaz’s 2-year-old daughter, Gigi, was a chatterbox throughout the event, especially at the beginning as she sat on the lap of her mom, Genevieve.
“The cutest 2-year-old daughter in Major League Baseball, and she’s here and the star of the show,” Rubenstein joked.
As a father of three (Gigi and boys CJ and Norman), Albernaz’s smile was a prideful one in sharing the biggest achievement of his career with his family. His decision to have them be a significant part of the day — and notably the way he handled answering questions while holding his toddler — provided more insight into who Albernaz is as a person than any answer he gave about analytics or clubhouse culture.
New Orioles manager Craig Albernaz stands with his family at Tuesday’s introductory news conference. Albernaz spoke highly of his family, saying his kids give him valuable perspective. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)
“My kids are the greatest gift I can ever, ever have,” Albernaz said looking at Gigi, who responded, “I love you.” “I love you too, Gigi. They keep me grounded. … When you have kids, it changes your whole perspective of life and the game of baseball.”
What does it say about how successful he’ll be as a manager? Perhaps nothing. But the job of a big league manager is to, first and foremost, lead a clubhouse that considers itself a family, and Albernaz presented himself as someone who cares deeply about that responsibility.
Elias and Rubenstein believe this is a home-run hire
The smart, small-market organizations in baseball are like the cool kids’ table in the lunchroom. The Rays, Brewers, Guardians and, Elias and company hope, the Orioles see themselves as like-minded organizations tasked with fielding competitive ballclubs for less than their competitors.
The result of this is the ability to link up on trades since the front offices view players similarly. The Orioles have traded with all three of those teams over the past three seasons. And it also means respect for the most successful people who work in those organizations, and Albernaz falls squarely into that category after spending about 15 years as a player and coach with the Rays and the past two seasons with the Guardians. In Cleveland, he worked alongside Stephen Vogt, regarded as one of MLB’s best managers. Vogt was in attendance Tuesday to support his friend who served as his bench coach in 2024 and associate manager in 2025.
That all makes it unsurprising that the first thing Elias noted about why he hired Albernaz was his background and where he previously worked.
“It starts with Cleveland and the fact that he’s spent the last two seasons very successfully as right-hand man to one of the best managers in the game right now, but also having worked with the Tampa Bay Rays, San Francisco Giants and Cleveland, demonstrating the ability to transition successfully across those organizations,” Elias said. “Going from those organizations and all the knowledge and skill that he’s built up through his catching and playing career, but also minor league manager career, major league coaching career. There’s a lot there. We feel that he’s ready to hit the ground running.
“It’s clear that this was a really good fit all around. Like I said, the places he’s worked, the kind of philosophies that he’s developed, his personality and his personal style will be a really good fit for what our group needs, but also in this town and in this market. Just an all-around fit and I was really struck by him once we got done spending the first day with him.”
The interview process included several people within the organization, including Rubenstein, who was struck by Albernaz’s leadership skills. Rubenstein is far from a baseball expert, but as a private equity billionaire and presidential aficionado, his opinion about what makes a good leader shouldn’t be ignored.
“He’s been a leader everywhere he’s ever been,” Rubenstein said. “People always say he’s a take-charge person that’s made every organization he’s been at better because he was there, so we were thrilled when he agreed to accept the offer and we’re looking forward to many, many years with him and us.”
Albernaz might share the Orioles’ philosophies, but he has his own personality
The Orioles’ new manager spoke positively about analytics. He said injuries were a main reason for the Orioles’ struggles in 2025. He said he was a “diverse offense” that utilizes the young core’s athleticism.
That all sounds quite familiar to Brandon Hyde.
The Orioles were always going to hire a manager who understood the same language as the front office. Whether that is the right decision or not won’t be known for years. But Elias believes in synergy between his operation upstairs and the one in the dugout. That’s how it worked under Hyde, and it’s presumably how it will work with Albernaz.
One key question about this hire was how closely aligned it would be with the front office. In on-field decision-making, the assumption should be quite close given Albernaz’s background. But the personality he displayed Tuesday was a contrast from the public-facing image of Elias and those who work in his front office.
New Orioles manager Craig Albernaz, middle, poses with owner David Rubenstein, left, and president of baseball operations Mike Elias, right, at Tuesday’s introductory news conference. Albernaz joins the organization after a pair of seasons as a high-ranking assistant with the Guardians. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)
Albernaz cracked several jokes, even catching Elias off guard with one of them that led to a potentially awkward exchange that wasn’t because of Albernaz’s laugh. He joked several times about his 5-foot-8 height and he even made a dad-esque “6-7” joke that he said his sons “put me up to it.”
When asked about how he manages a clubhouse and keeps a team loose through a 162-game season, Albernaz said that he knows the only way to do this job is to be himself.
“When I first started coaching in the minor leagues, I remember talking to my wife, Genevieve, like, ‘Now that I’m a coach, do I have to change who I am? Do I have to change the music I listen to?’ And it was just a joke and laughing, but I’m just going to be me. That’s all I know. Players want to know who’s in their corner that’s authentic and real, and they need a sounding board and someone that they can talk to. Tough conversations always happen. It’s a part of the game. I’m not scared to have a tough conversation, I do it all the time. But when it comes from a place of truth and a place of care and love, you have to have those tough conversations.
“Players see through when you’re being fake. So you have to be a truth-teller, you have to be authentic to yourself. And that’s something that I pride myself on since I first started coaching. And that’s never going to change.”
All of which is to say, I wondered if Elias and Co. would be looking for someone who mirrors their vibe instead of complements it with his own. Early returns: they clearly chose the latter. Promising for a talented group that always seemed like it just needed an emotional lift.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) November 4, 2025
But Albernaz alone can’t fix what ailed the Orioles in 2025. Their problems were too large for one man to solve. And when it comes to a young clubhouse that is still figuring out the big leagues, it’s Albernaz’s job to foster an environment where they can grow. But it’s ultimately up to the players.
“The culture is set by the players,” he said. “Us as a coaching staff, front office, we support the players. At the end of the day, coaches don’t play. Front office members don’t play. The players play. It’s all about the boys, and that is something that will drive that culture, is the players in the clubhouse. … It’s up to me to figure out how each player ticks, get to know them and then allow them to go out and play carefree baseball.”
Rubenstein believes Orioles can win without top payroll
If there is one man whose hands the Orioles’ future sits, it might be Rubenstein, who has the financial ability to fund a hefty payroll after he approved incremental, but substantial, spending increases last offseason.
As he always is, Rubenstein was asked about his appetite for spending and raising the Orioles’ payroll. The Orioles ranked 15th in MLB in payroll last season, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, but about $70 million of that $162 million payroll has come off the books, providing Rubenstein and Elias the opportunity to make legitimate splashes in free agency if they so choose.
“We don’t have particular constraints,” Rubenstein said. “We’re going to try to get the best players we can. Mike is leading that effort and he’s already talked about a number of possibilities with us.”
However, Rubenstein has referenced the depth of his pockets in the past, but his first offseason as owner went without a major move. The Orioles last winter handed out more than $70 million to eight major league free agents, and those moves were mostly one-year contracts that hampered the 2025 club.
Meanwhile, the World Series featured two teams with top-five payrolls, including the big-bad Los Angeles Dodgers, whose ownership group has tried harder to win than others and has been rewarded with back-to-back championships. Rubenstein, who has said several times that MLB needs a salary cap, said that the Orioles can reach their goals without spending to the level of the Dodgers or Yankees or even Blue Jays.
World Series teams have big payrolls. Will Orioles join them? | ANALYSIS
“We have the resources to acquire the players that we need to make the team work,” he said. “Mike has a lot of authority to go out and find the best players that we can get. And of course, it’s not always the case that the highest payroll wins. Clearly, the last couple years that’s probably been the case, but it’s not always the case. So we don’t feel we need to break records by setting payroll records.”
Rubenstein referenced the Orioles’ significant injury woes as a main reason for the disappointing 75-87 season and last-place finish in the American League East. But he referenced the Blue Jays, the World Series runner-ups, as his goal for the 2026 Orioles after Toronto went from the AL East’s cellar in 2024 to a pennant the next year.
“So you can come back from the bottom,” Rubenstein said, “and we expect to do that.”
Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.
New Orioles manager Craig Albernaz, left, shakes hands with president of baseball operations Mike Elias, who said Tuesday Albernaz was his top choice to become the ballclub’s new manager. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)