NEW YORK (AP) — An hour before his final game as Orioles interim manager, Tony Mansolino sounded as if he didn’t know whether he will remain with Baltimore next year.
“Hopeful I’ll wear an Orioles uniform in the future one way or another but also understand that it’s very likely that I got to find a job here in the next couple days and go look around, so it is part of the business,” he said.
Mansolino turned 43 Sunday when the Orioles finished their season against the New York Yankees. Hired as third base coach for manager Brandon Hyde’s staff ahead of the 2021 season, Mansolino took over as interim manager when after a 15-28 start.
Baltimore entered its finale with a 75-86 record, going 60-58 under Mansolino and assured of its first last-place finish in the AL East since 2021.
“There’s certainly a strange feeling of unfinished business in a lot of ways because our fate is to go home,” he said. “It’s a little sad, is kind of the right word, that we’re at this point.”
Mansolino played in the minor leagues from 2005-10 before turning to coaching. He managed in the minors before moving up to Cleveland as third base coach in 2020.
His father, Doug, was a coach with the Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee, Detroit and Houston from 1992 to 2007.
“I’m confident in the opportunity to stay here in one form or another,” he said. “I think it’s gone really great, but I understand how this business is. You don’t ever put the cart ahead of the horse. There’s no chance you can do that as a coach. I’m probably a little more scarred than most coaches because I grew up and watched my dad’s career.”
Baltimore’s roster had a massive changeover at the trade deadline, when the Orioles dealt right-handers Bryan Baker, Seranthony Domínguez, Andrew Kittredge and Charlie Morton; left-hander Gregory Soto; first baseman Ryan O’Hearn; outfielders Ramón Laureano and Cedric Mullins; and utilityman Ramón Urías.
“We still have a lot of injuries. We traded away half the team two months ago, played such a difficult schedule. I’m happy — I don’t think satisfied is the right word in a lot ways,” Mansolino said. “It’s hard to be satisfied. It still feels like a failure, deep down inside, knowing that the Yankees are going on to play here in the postseason, and we’re not. Knowing that Boston’s going on to play and we’re not. Toronto, a team we beat up last year, they’re going to play and we’re not. So you do feel like a failure in a lot of ways.”
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