The Baltimore Orioles are set to hire Craig Albernaz as the club’s new manager for the 2026 Major League Baseball campaign.
Albernaz replaces interim manager Tony Mansolino who took over from Brandon Hyde in mid-May following a slow start to the season for Baltimore. The 42 year old was most recently the associate manager with the Cleveland Guardians, and is a highly thought of coach in many baseball circles.
The former Triple-A catcher began his coaching career in 2015 with the Tampa Bay Rays, who he spent 8 seasons playing in the minor leagues with. From there he caught on with the San Francisco Giants as a bullpen/catching coach, before joining the Guardians in 2024.
Albernaz’s primary job will be to connect with Baltimore’s stable of young stars, and help get a team that many pegged as a preseason contender in the American League back on track. The Orioles started the year 15-28 this season, ultimately leading to Hyde’s dismissal.
Amongst the O’s bevy of talented positional plays, Albernaz will look to get Guannar Henderson and Adley Rutschman back to their All-Star levels if the team hopes to compete in a loaded AL East next year. Rutschman, who finished 9th in MVP voting in 2023, and was an All-Star in each of the last two seasons, was limited to just 90 games in 2025, hitting just. .220 with only 9 home runs.
Similarly, Henderson finished 4th in MVP voting in 2024, but saw his offensive numbers at the plate crater this season in virtually every statistical category. If the team’s new bench boss can get those two back into form, and the club sees continued progress from the likes of Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg, Samuel Basallo, Coby Mayo, and Colton Cowser, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that Baltimore could find themselves back in the mix as early as 2026.
That being said, despite the franchise’s abundance of young talent at the plate, Baltimore doesn’t exactly feature a murderer’s row of pitchers at their disposal. This is where Alberanz’s experience as a catcher and bullpen coach will need to factor in, as the team has a patchwork rotation when healthy, but are also dealing with major injuries to Kyle Bradish, and Grayson Rodriguez amongst others to boot.
Assembling a complimentary coaching staff will be paramount to the Orioles transition into their era, and could return the team to prominence if done correctly.
Amongst the other candidates who Baltimore interviewed for the position were Mansolino, Luis Rojas (Mets), Albert Pujols, and Ryan Flaherty. A press conference to officially introduce Albernaz is expected to be held later this week.
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.