On Aug. 3, 2010, Buck Showalter managed his first game as the manager for an Orioles team that began the season 32-73 and had already been through two managers. The Orioles won seven of their first eight games under Showalter and ended the season 34-23 under their new skipper.
Fifteen years later, the Orioles must decide whether to hire their next full-time manager during the season or wait until the offseason. Does it make sense to hire a new manager during the season so he has time to learn about his team?
“I think each situation is a little different,” Showalter said on Glenn Clark Radio May 23. “When Andy MacPhail came here to Dallas to talk to me [in 2010], he really wanted me to kind of get a feel for what was going on there and not have that unknown of the offseason. In that situation, it was a good move. There are some other ones that I think wouldn’t be, so to speak. [If the Orioles] get some hot starting pitching and get some people back that have been hurt a lot of the year, they could get on a roll.”
Brandon Hyde was the manager of the Orioles for six-plus seasons but was fired on May 17 with the club in the midst of a nightmare start. Third base coach and infield instructor Tony Mansolino took over on an interim basis. He last managed in 2019 when he was in the Cleveland organization.
Former Shorebirds, Baysox and Tides manager Buck Britton, who joined the major league staff ahead of the 2025 season, took over Mansolino’s old job. Assistant pitching coach Mitch Plassmeyer moved into the bullpen coach role to fill the void left by Tim Cossins, who was fired along with Hyde.
A midseason head coach or manager firing is a challenge in any sport, according to Showalter.
“Think about a college baseball or football program that fires their coach and puts an interim guy in,” Showalter said. “Well, what happens to the recruits? What happens to the NIL people? At Mississippi State, where I went to school, they fired their [baseball] coach about three weeks ago and every one of the players jumped in the portal. That’s a different world, but it really isn’t.”
The Orioles have plenty of decisions to make in the coming months. General manager Mike Elias has to run point for the 2025 MLB Draft and July 31 trade deadline. Owner David Rubenstein has to decide whether he wants to retain Elias, who was hired in November 2018 by the previous ownership group and led a successful rebuilding effort only for it to fall apart this year.
As such, it’s not clear how Rubenstein prefers to handle the search for a new full-time manager. Whenever that search occurs, some fans will surely clamor for Showalter, who managed in Baltimore from 2010-2018 and won 669 games. Even though his tenure ended with a thud, Showalter would be open to a reunion if the Orioles called.
“I stayed there what, eight, nine, ten years? To survive that long in a great town and a great ballpark, there’s nothing awkward,” Showalter said. “We’ve got a place up there that I go to when I’m visiting my son [Nathan in Severna Park]. I’m hoping that they win the next 10 games. As far as awkward, you’re around each other every day. That stuff gets put in the backburner very quickly if there is something like that because you’re trying to win.”
First and foremost, though, Showalter wants the Orioles to get rolling under Mansolino. The interim manager took over a club hit by a nasty combination of key injuries, underperformance and bad luck. It’s very possible that the team plays better baseball for the rest of the season provided that outcomes begin to normalize.
Whoever takes over as the full-time manager should come in with an open mind, according to Showalter.
“[People will] go, ‘Hey, let me tell you about this player you’re going to have.’ And I go, ‘Hold on a second, I appreciate it, but let me make up my own mind. Let me give this guy a fresh start, so to speak,'” Showalter said. “I remember Tommy Pham. I remember Carl Everett. I remember all these guys that everybody said were going to be tough to manage — Randy Johnson, Max Scherzer, Curt Schilling. They weren’t, at all. If you go into it with an open mind and you’re straight up with them, what they didn’t want was any phony stuff. They really liked to mix it up, and they liked somebody who was kind of in their face.”
For more from Showalter, listen to the full interview here:
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