Dear Craig (or may I call you “Alby” when I never see you?):
Welcome to Baltimore, my hometown, where all of the spring training optimism hits a little different this year with your wicked, hardcore New England accent, fresh enthusiasm and a roster that even the most seasoned “old baseball writers” like me believe can be a real surprise “pissah” in the American League for a playoff berth with a roster full of young (if not stunted, thus far) talent.
The wild card, if you are to be one, are those veteran clubhouse influence dudes and leaders of youth, who are expected to be a good crutch for a rookie skipper like you. Especially if Gunnar Henderson can hit lefthanders, which clearly put him in (or out) of the spotlight last week against my Venezuelan amigos who were pile diving in Miami.
I certainly trust that you will be a better manager than Mark DeRosa and sincerely hope that you won’t need to bring in the Navy Seals to motivate your troops.
The talent is there. You’ve said so yourself.
So, before Jennifer Grondahl (TWWOTW) or one of Greg Bader’s MASN policemen or the fine Warehouse geniuses of Griggs and Fine grab you and tell you all about me and my orange civic mind crimes of baseball passion, let me make it clear that if you ever hear a untruthful word about me, just know this:
I’m a true believer.
8
I think the 2026 Baltimore Orioles can win enough to make this summer more fun than it’s been in a few years.
So, Alby, you’re arriving with a clean jacket, a first-time big-league manager’s heartbeat, and a job description that sounds simple until you’ll live it this summer: take a mostly hopeful-but-defensively flawed and K-heavy roster of young talent that cratered in 2025 and drag it back into October.
You were hired as the franchise’s 21st manager – and I’ve covered the last 16 of them here since starting my media career 42 years ago when Joe Altobelli was in your chair and Earl Weaver was returning – coming from Cleveland’s staff, with that modern “teacher/communicator” résumé with Giants and those stout Rays roots. And, yes, it matters that you were a catcher. Catchers always see the whole field. They understand that the game is a chain: starter to setup to closer; nine-hole to table-setter to thumper; alignment to positioning to relay throw. In Baltimore, we need a manager who sees the big picture – and who can fix the links without lying to the city about what’s broken.
You seem like a straight shooter so far and that onto itself is a breath of fresh air, even if I’m not the one staring at you after the games and asking legitimate questions about your relief pitching or the bats that need to be better than last year.
A fresh start is a beautiful thing because the 2025 Orioles weren’t just disappointing. They were a full-body faceplant. A 75–87 finish, last place, and a mid-May firing of former “Manager of the Year” Brandon Hyde after a 15–28 start. That isn’t ancient history here, especially not for all of the Birdland Membership club folks who are rightfully pissed off at the still-to-be-proven (or even seen) Catie Griggs about getting jerked around and treated like an eternal orange and black ATM. With Opening Day beckoning on Thursday, it’s fresh scar tissue for all of us who watched the implosion last spring and spent the summer watching the franchise circle the drain.
Your “breath of fresh air” isn’t about slogans. It’s about standards. And it starts with something simple in this town: say what you see. You don’t seem like the kind to bullshit us but time will tell and I’ll be watching every night and my much-younger-and-better-looking and more astute baseball reporter Luke Jones will be there with questions from both of us on behalf of your fans.
Mike Elias says you’re “the right person at the right time” and the goal is to get back to the playoffs and chase a World Series.
8Great. I’m a buyer.
That’s the top line. Now let’s talk about what Baltimore fans and our paying-through-the-barrel MLB community actually want on a nightly basis beyond a club seat in an airport lounge behind home plate: hustle, effort, improvement and some clarity and leadership from you in the dugout and clubhouse that will inspire some of us fans who continue stay away to come back and pay big-league prices for a big league effort.
In the “Truist” sense of the word, your implied role is to recruit us to “the club,” even if we can’t afford it. (BTW: my sources tell me they’ve turned the Jim Henneman Press Box and club level into a glorified dentist office but I’ll only see it through the pictures.)
So, Alby, consider this your first roll call in Birdland – player by player, reality by reality – the way the fans will watch it, judge it, and live it.
Here’s the rundown on the lineup and the everyday spine of whom you are being asked to lead:
Gunnar Henderson: You don’t have an optimized playoff lineup if Gunnar isn’t a star. He’s projected to lead off and play short every day. Your expectation is not “pretty good.” It’s MVP-adjacent leadership: set the tempo, run the infield, and be the guy who refuses to let losing get comfortable.
Adley Rutschman: This better be a much-improved version of your on-field CEO. He’s slotted right in the heart of the order. Your job is to keep his body right and his mind trusted. Orioles fans want Adley calling a smart game, controlling the running game, and dragging pitchers through tough innings with calm. (Like he did when he first arrived. If you find THAT guy again, this team can soar.)
8Pete Alonso: It speaks $150 million worth of volume that this franchise needed to import leadership, beyond yourself. I must say: he has been impressive as a human thus far and based on what my Mets people tell me, I don’t expect that to change. And if you’re batting him fourth, you’re not whispering. You’re demanding thunder and local fans will love him when the ball disappears – and they’ll resent him if the big spots turn into big strikeouts. Your job: keep him dangerous, keep him accountable, and don’t let the “RBI guy” become an automatic out with runners on. He’ll produce. How much remains to be seen and I’ll be writing him a letter this week, too, just to let him know that I don’t need or expect him to be Frank Robinson circa 1966.
Taylor Ward: We’re still adjusting to the exit of Grayson Rodriguez after years of Mike Elias praise and chances but he’s projected right into the two-hole and that’s not ceremonial. That’s a big bat statement and he needs to grind at-bats, get on base, run hard, and make the whole lineup longer. Baltimore doesn’t need “veteran presence.” It needs productive professional at-bats, especially here at the start.
Tyler O’Neill: If he’s fifth, you’re betting on his power and edge. The expectation is simple: punish mistakes, take the extra base, and set the tone that last year’s contract (and ultimate evaporation) portended. I know he’s been in the gym but will he be on the field for more than half of the season?
Colton Cowser: I dunno about this guy because the holes in the swing never seem to take a series off. He’ll be fine with the glove in centerfield but along with Rutschman, this is where the “fresh air” of your leadership shows up. His defense needs to matter, and his bat needs to lead to baserunning that pressures, and an approach at the plate that isn’t just hoping. If Cowser becomes a more complete player, your lineup stops feeling top-heavy and the whole operation feels far more complete.
Samuel Basallo: So, let’s not pretend this isn’t fascinating. Basallo is projected as your DH, so it hasn’t taken long for new ownership to commit to the youngest guy with real money and provide a 21-year-old with a big-league jersey and a bat being asked to matter immediately. He certainly looked the part in Sarasota and that needs to come north. And the expectation for you? Protect him without babying him. Let him fail a little without burying him. But if he’s in the lineup, he needs to provide impact especially with Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday limping along in April (and perhaps, beyond).
And that leads to the infield problem you’re inheriting on Opening Day.
Here’s where the tough part of the season starts before the games even begin. Along with the bullpen, this has to get better and sooner than later because I’m not sure you’re really a contender if these two guys don’t make it to post and perform and improve.
8Jackson Holliday: The fractured hamate bone feels temporary but disconcerting. You don’t replace the upside of a 1-1. You make due without it, and you don’t rush the kid back just to win a spring headline. If he’s right by June and continues his Hall of Potential pursuit into the mid-summer, I would consider that a major victory and you’ll win more whenever he returns.
Jordan Westburg: This one is tough because he became my personal favorite because I’ve always loved the gamers. Out through at least the first six weeks with this partial UCL tear in his right elbow, trying PRP with the hope of avoiding bigger surgery. That’s not “day-to-day.” It’s a gamble and a serious concern. That’s a real early-season crater in the infield that will need to be overcome with a depth we haven’t really seen around here recently.
And that brings us to Coby Mayo: With “Westy” down, Mayo is projected to start at third, a place your boss never wanted to give him a glove for again. This is a huge developmental year disguised as a “fill-in.” Your expectation: playable defense, patient power, and growth measured in months – not mood swings. If he goes 3-for-30 the first two weeks, and or kicks the ball around enough to open up innings for the bad guys, I don’t know how you stay the course until whenever Westburg gets healthy. And if he hits the ball as everyone always hoped, you’ll have some pleasant problems with your lineup card every night.
Blaze Alexander: He’s not a star (or a Starr, wink wink) but with Holliday out, the projection says he’ll play clean baseball, turn the double play and not give away outs at the dish. In a division that punishes mistakes, “steady” depth is a weapon. He needs to resemble that, especially in April.
Ryan Mountcastle: He’s been cast out and traded in the minds of fans for almost three seasons yet he’s still here, on the roster, and at one point felt like a cornerstone piece for Mike Elias back during the first steps of respectability that the Orioles had four years ago. How do you make this fit and work with Alonso here and Basillo hopefully emerging? DH days? Matchups? Trade whispers? Your job is to make the answer about winning, not about any of his previous stumbles or power outages.
And then there’s the pitching and the starting rotation. This is the part that decides whether you still matter in July.
The Opening Day rotation is a legitimate five-plus-one puzzle: Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, Chris Bassitt, and the Zach Eflin and Dean Kremer (he’ll be back, relax!) hopes are what makes me a true believer in your October potential.
8Kyle Bradish: Along with Luke Jones, I project him at the top even if he isn’t your pick on Thursday. My expectation: ace behavior. Not “nice story,” not “when he’s right” or “he had Tommy John two years ago.” You need a stopper. He’s our pick.
Trevor Rogers: He’s starting Opening Day. Enough said. He’s gotta be a 180 innings guy who looks like he did at his best in Florida and fulfill that potential we all saw after we were finished bitching about Kyle Stowers blossoming into an All Star last spring.
Shane Baz: His potential is real. His pedigree speaks to this being his time to shine and step up. And if he steps into the third guy role and Bradish and Rogers do what they did after the Ravens took most of the attention off them last August and September, you’ll have a real chance to win 90 games.
Chris Bassitt: Had you worked for Mr. Angelos (or Fredo), this is the No. 4 piece you’d have never had – a $18.5 million veteran stabilizer, signed to a one-year deal whose expectation is to take the ball every fifth day, save the bullpen and teach professionalism by example. A great signing and a pitching commitment that Orioles fans haven’t seen around here in the years of navigating the Sidney Ponsons and Ubaldo Jimenezes. And don’t get any of us started on an ancient (re: cheap) Charlie Morton or Kyle Gibson.
As for Zach Eflin and Dean Kremer holding down the back end of the rotation, the innings here will lessen the load for the bullpen and this is where the bats need to surge on nights when you’ll need 5 or 6 runs to win.
And I won’t ignore the “next wave” names on the Norfolk or bullpen-in-waiting docket: Cade Povich, Tyler Wells, Chayce McDermott – these arms and innings will undoubtedly be needed at some point because, as you know, things are always going awry with starting pitching.
Now, to the bullpen and this is where we’ll all learn whether you’re a real manager or whether the on-the-job-training of your neophyte managerial role is squishy.
8I’ve watched a lot of baseball against the Red Sox and Yankees over my years and we’ll make this easy: late innings in the AL East are the truth serum.
The Félix Bautista thing isn’t saving you anytime soon and getting to Ryan Helsley with a lead in the ninth inning is the goal every night.
But the rest of this group? It’s a wicked mess!
Who the hell knows?
But when you take the ball from a starter, the quality and high-leverage at bats with the game in the balance will be a nightly mystery until it’s not, especially with the twice-counted-on but never validated Andrew Kittredge being semi-AWOL for the time being.
Yennier Cano and the rest of the pack?
I’d say “yikes” but I’ll reserve my judgment until after I see what you have and how you handle it.
8So, what is Baltimore actually asking from you, Alby?
I’m going to give you the most Dundalk instruction an Aparicio can after a lifetime of doing this work: please, don’t treat this city like it’s dumb. Don’t talk down just because people like me and Jason LaCanfora aren’t there to challenge you and ask real questions after a game while you canoodle with the co-workers at MASN, WBAL and the team website. Don’t hide behind “we like where we’re at” and perform your press conferences for the clubhouse or the sycophants.
We’re simply not going to be patient when the roster – and the bean counters of Michael Arougheti – say this is a “win now” season.
We can handle injuries, slumps and will certainly endure more than a few of these young guys striking out 180 times, even beyond Cowser.
And the defense is what really needs to improve for your pitching to survive in the late innings. I’m not sure that I’m truly enamored with any glove you have on the field. The expectation is that this will be a suboptimal defensive unit, even when Westburg and Holliday return, but you need to make sure that kicking the ball around isn’t a trend at Camden Yards.
It was Hyding in plain sight from the outset last season. Not being accountable for that, lousy starting pitching and the ice-cold bats and poor plate discipline is what opened up your job last spring and into the fall when you were playing October baseball in Cleveland.
My prickliest of prickishness assessment of the whole operation is that nobody has ever been accountable around here when it goes sideways.
8(On behalf of Jason LaCanfora, who you’ll also never have to answer a legitimate question from after a bad beat, I’ll get to Mike Elias tomorrow and ownership and the heavy responsibility of your multi-millionaire baseball players with some #ColumnNes love and heat later in the week.)
So, here’s the deal and truth serum, Alby:
Keep the infield steady until Holliday and Westburg are truly ready.
Turn Henderson and Rutschman into the daily standard-setters – not just stars.
Make Alonso and O’Neill punish pitchers the way Camden Yards should.
Get real and deep (by modern standards) innings from that rotation 4 out of 5 nights – the whole season tilts on whether Bradish/Rogers/Baz/Bassitt/Eflin/Kremer can keep you out of early bullpen chaos.
And manage the late innings like they’re sacred, especially with Bautista on the shelf and Helsley being a mystery until he’s not. We all lived that Craig Kimbrel arson spree two springs ago.
8You were hired to elevate this operation and guide it back to October – that’s the Elias mission statement. Win, and Baltimore will (probably) buy the tickets, wear the gear, teach their kids the names – if not put down the lacrosse sticks – and line Eutaw Street with belief again beyond lining up for “free” bobbleheads and swag and tchotchkes.
But here’s the orange fine print on behalf of our community after the Angelos saga of the dark ages: we don’t just want a winning team, we want an honest one that makes Orioles fans proud again.
No matter what the beer, tickets or MASN subscriptions cost.
It’s been 43 years. You’re barely 43 years old so how the hell am I supposed to make you truly understand that?
But welcome to our show and my sincere hope is that you energize Birdland with something that recruits us on a daily basis and makes Orioles baseball feel like time well spent.
I’ll never meet you but I’ll be watching every night.
And opining and shooting straight every morning.
And in the manufactured world of modern baseball and with an ugly pending work stoppage pending that will suck up oxygen around the sport, it’s what’s on the field right here, right now that matters.
Manage us – and them – Alby…
