Scout’s Craig Albernaz take reinforces Guardians’ strong reputation across MLB

Earlier this week, Guardians lost associate manager Craig Albernaz left Cleveland to become the new manager of the Baltimore Orioles. 

While the loss of Albernaz will hurt the Guardians in the long-term, it also brought some new attention to the team thanks to Albernaz becoming a household name. 

And, as a part of that, more people have begun to opine about his impact on the Guardians across the past two seasons. 

That thinking came front and center in a new story from Baltimorebaseball.com’s Rich Duboff, who spoke to an anonymous scout about what Albernaz meant for the Guardians. 

The first takeaway from Duboff’s piece is that people across baseball have a strong opinion of how the Guardians are run. Sure, the organization has some flaws, but they still are able to build a winner on razor thin margins. 

And part of the reason they’re able to do that is by putting smart people like Albernaz in positions of power. 

“They pitch to contact. They throw strikes,” Duboff quoted an anonymous scout as saying. “They’re very solid defensively. They’re very solid fundamentally.”

But, as Duboff pointed out, Albernaz won’t have Vogt, Carl Willis or José Ramírez to lean on. Instead, he’s going to have to build his own identity on an Orioles team that has a lot of young talent. 

The Guardians have an impressive reputation across MLB

The Orioles’ lineup is anchored by catcher Adley Rutschman, shortstop Gunnar Henderson and second baseman Jackson Holliday, among others. They still need to add to their rotation and bullpen, but that’s a better core than most new managers get when taking over a job. 

According to Duboff, the assistant hitting coaches Tommy Joseph and Sherman Johnson won’t return, while first base coach Anthony Sanders has been given permission to talk with other teams.

Additionally, eight other coaches have unclear futures with the organization, which shows that Albernaz is working to create the Orioles in his image. 

Funnily enough, Duboff mentioned one of the Orioles biggest needs being a backup catcher with a strong command of the clubhole, a la Guardians backup Austin Hedges. 

While Hedges doesn’t do much in the batter’s box, his talent behind the plate and behind the scenes are unrivaled across baseball, and Duboff mentioning it as a need in Baltimore goes to show why the Guardians were so quick to scoop him up again as a free agent. It wouldn’t be surprising if Albernaz’s Orioles sign a player with a similar skillset soon. 

In the end, however, how the Orioles do is going to come down to how much Albernaz is able to get out of the star players on the roster. The good news for Baltimore is that he’s previously worked for the Giants, Rays and Guardians — three of baseball's best at maximizing talent. 

“Organizations that are seeking a manager go to organizations that are having success. Those are three pretty good backgrounds,” the anonymous scout was quoted as saying.