SARASOTA, Fla. — Tony Mansolino bears no ill will toward the Orioles after departing the organization over the offseason and feels as though a recent comment he made to an Atlanta-area radio station was misinterpreted.
Mansolino, now the bench coach of the Atlanta Braves, spoke with 680 The Fan’s Chris Dimino in an on-camera interview published on Feb. 20 that centered mostly on infield defense. The former Orioles interim manager at one point referenced Braves skipper Walt Weiss and the opportunity he gave Mansolino by offering him a job on his staff.
“Being here, coming out of the situation that I just came from — and I don’t say this lightly — I feel like he kind of rescued me, in a lot of ways, and got me over into this place and working under him, and I just couldn’t be any happier,” Mansolino said in the video, which has since been taken down from Twitter/X but remains posted elsewhere.
Though Mansolino declined to be quoted for this story, he explained on the field at Ed Smith Stadium after the Braves’ Grapefruit League win over the Orioles on Saturday that he meant that he was rescued from an uncertain future, given that Baltimore had already decided to move in a different direction by hiring Craig Albernaz instead.
Mansolino said that Albernaz was gracious in their conversations and that his relationship with president of baseball operations Mike Elias remained strong.
“I would love to be here,” Mansolino said at his end-of-season news conference in September. “This is a great place, it’s a historic franchise, it is a place that gave me my first full-time big league job, so ideally I get to stay here in a lot of ways. I’m very comfortable with the people here, I have a lot of respect for the people here. Maybe most importantly, I love a lot of these young players, guys who have been here and grown with myself and also kind of helped raise me in a lot of ways here over the last five years.”
The Braves originally hired Mansolino to be their third base coach Nov. 7 — a week and a half after the Orioles named Albernaz their manager — before Weiss decided to make him their bench coach instead a few days later. It’s unclear what role the Orioles did or didn’t offer Mansolino under Albernaz, but Mansolino was under contract through 2026.
Mansolino went 60-59 as the Orioles’ interim manager last season and had worked under Brandon Hyde as third base coach since 2021. Players gave strong endorsements of the longtime coach, who spent 10 years in the minor league ranks before the Orioles brought him onto their staff, and Elias considered him for the full-time manager job this offseason.
“Understanding the timing, the manner, the context around how Tony got that assignment, and everything that he needed to do and was in front of him and worked through, we think he did a terrific job as the interim manager with that particular assignment in 2025 with where the players were, with where the organization was,” Elias said in September.
“I thought he added a lot of value and did a great job with that assignment and I got the chance to work with him much more closely during this and I’m very impressed with him as I’ve gotten to know him more, and I think he’s a very talented guy and has a lot of skills that would add up to a great major league manager now or in the future.”
The Orioles ultimately decided on Albernaz, who was the bench coach and associate manager of the Cleveland Guardians the past two seasons. The first-year skipper has been a change of pace from the style of manager Hyde was in past years and he arrives with the full endorsement of Guardians skipper Stephen Vogt, who credits Albernaz as his right-hand man who helped lead Cleveland to back-to-back American League Central titles.
Mansolino also landed in a strong position for his career trajectory as a bench coach for a contending club and his infield defense expertise will be an asset for Braves All-Stars Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies. He also reunited with former Orioles utility player Jorge Mateo, who’s expected to be in the mix at shortstop for Atlanta with Ha-Seong Kim sidelined to begin the season.
Both sides have moved on and appear happy with where they ended up.
Have a news tip? Contact Matt Weyrich at mweyrich@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200, x.com/ByMattWeyrich and instagram.com/bymattweyrich. Matt appears as a regular host on The Sun’s “Early Birds” podcast.
