It’s been a long few seasons in Baltimore — years that began with promise and ended with sighs, with the crack of the bat too often drowned out by the echoes of what might have been. Once again, the Orioles find themselves searching for a new beginning. And in Craig Albernaz, a former catcher with a coach’s mind and a teacher’s heart, they may have found the steady hand to guide their young flock back into contention. This isn’t a splashy hire or a headline grabber. It’s something subtler, something sturdier — the kind of decision that suggests the Orioles are ready to build again, from the ground up, with patience and purpose.

Albernaz, 42, has worn the tools of ignorance and the scars that come with them. A nine-year playing career that never quite reached the majors can be humbling, but it can also forge perspective — the kind that sharpens one’s understanding of what players need, and what they fear. His years as a coach in Tampa Bay, San Francisco, and most recently Cleveland have earned him a quiet reverence in baseball circles. Not because he’s loud, but because he listens. Not because he commands attention, but because he earns trust. In the modern game, that might be rarer than a 20-game winner.

Baltimore’s front office could have gone for experience, a name with rings and résumé lines. Instead, they went for connection. Albernaz has a reputation for communication — for meeting young players where they are and helping them see where they can go. That will matter in a clubhouse full of young, gifted hitters still learning how to win when expectations rise. Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, and Jackson Holliday form a nucleus most organizations would envy. What they need now is belief — not the blind, rah-rah variety, but the kind that grows quietly in the corners of a dugout, nurtured by a manager who has walked the long road himself.

Of course, belief alone won’t fix what ails the Orioles. Their pitching staff remains a riddle wrapped in a question mark. Trevor Rogers found his rhythm last season, and Kyle Bradish’s return from Tommy John surgery offers promise, but the health of Grayson Rodriguez and the thin depth beyond him will test Albernaz’s mettle. The Orioles’ arms once gave them swagger; now they give them pause. For Albernaz, this will be a test not just of strategy but of endurance — how to keep a young rotation confident in a division where every mistake seems to find the seats.

The American League East is no place for the timid. Toronto is in the Fall Classic, the Yankees have reloaded, Boston is rising again, and Tampa Bay remains the sport’s perennial puzzle — always doing more with less. The Orioles, then, must do something even harder: rediscover who they are. Under Brandon Hyde, they tasted success and stumbled on expectation. Under Albernaz, they’ll try to balance hope with hunger, to play not as the underdog but as a team that belongs.

​​For Baltimore fans — who have waited, who have believed, who have endured — this hiring is more than just a managerial change. It’s a vote of faith in the future. Craig Albernaz brings no guarantees, only the promise of a new tone, a new tempo, and perhaps a new chapter in a story that’s long overdue for joy. And if he can find a way to remind this team — and this city — that baseball’s best stories are born from resilience, then maybe, just maybe, the birds will sing again at Camden Yards.