I don’t think these two things are mutually exclusive, but the more I read and learn about new Orioles manager Craig Albernaz, the more clear it gets.

The Orioles had a choice between hiring a manager who could rap a World Series ring on the table upon being introduced to the city and his new club, or one they were more convinced could help them all earn one before long.

In choosing Albernaz, the 42-year-old New Englander with all the right baseball stops on his résumé, president of baseball operations Mike Elias went with the latter — and most importantly, went with a partner.

He did the same with Brandon Hyde back in 2018, when the Orioles were setting out on a long rebuild with a player development bent.

They arrived as a playoff team in 2023 because they never lost sight of who they were, and never lied to themselves about who they wanted to be.

After a disappointing sweep in the division series, the Orioles stormed back at the start of 2024, only for a second-half swoon to drop them behind the Yankees in the AL East. Another playoff sweep followed.

While the wealthy group led by David Rubenstein and Michael Arougheti assumed control of the team ahead of opening day in 2024 with the resources and the expectations to take things to the next level, little about what happened in their first offseason or the following season accomplished that.

The 2025 season, through injuries, poor decision-making or poor leadership, caused a reevaluation of both their identity and their circumstances.

This hire — the selection of Hyde’s replacement after interim manager Tony Mansolino did a good enough job leading the team from mid-May on but didn’t earn the full-time job — was the Orioles’ first true decision in the aftermath of the mess that was 2025.

If this front office was feeling defensive or unsure of its status, you could understand a traditional approach of a been-there, done-and-won-it-all manager to fit the win-now perception around this team.

Ownership, the fan base and probably the media would have gladly accepted one of the managerial candidates who boasted the playoff success this team lacks. They would have slept soundly (until free agency started, at least) knowing that Elias made the obvious and sensible decision to over-index experience in the portfolio of traits he sought in a manager.

Only he made a different kind of obvious and sensible choice this time around and hired one of the most popular and broadly respected candidates from the pool of potential first-time managers — one who can help Baltimore win now but also continue to grow and develop the team into a long-term winner as well.

The Orioles can still make win-now moves this winter with this first-time manager in place. But there’s no indication that Elias and company with ownership now financially supportive of a winner, are just going to change tack and go a traditional route to get there.

That’s clear by the type of manager they hired in Albernaz, whose stops over the years tell us what the Orioles think about themselves and where this project can take them.

Of course, there are the Tampa Bay Rays, where Albernaz was a minor league player, then coach, and then manager as that club was in its heyday in the mid-2010s. No organization got more out of their limited resources than the Rays, who were on the cutting edge of various talent identification and development trends and won in the American League East because of it. The Orioles still want to do that.

From there, Albernaz was hired onto the San Francisco Giants staff by Gabe Kapler, who was a hot young manager under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.

Zaidi, who came from the Los Angeles Dodgers under Andrew Friedman, and Kapler put together a staff of up-and-coming coaches who were at once young, dynamic and innovative. There were some small-market roots and sensibilities among the group, but they tried, like the Dodgers, to superimpose those onto a big-market budget. Results were mixed, but the focus on scaling those priorities to match the spending power of a team is something the Orioles are doing as well.

And now, more recently, there’s Albernaz’s time in the dugout with his old minor league teammate Stephen Vogt in Cleveland. There might not be more than one or two organizations that get more out of their players, that grind out every in-game and strategic advantage or help homegrown players reach their potential, more than the Guardians. That’s invaluable experience to an Orioles organization that needs to do the same with its homegrown cadre of hitters. This whole thing rests on them.

Put it all together and you have a manager who has largely been a popular and energetic figure on the clubs he’s coached and comes from organizations where collaboration is a culture, not just a buzzword. Elias and the Orioles’ front office, including many members who lived through a messy breakup with manager Bo Porter in Houston, know the value of that.

And ultimately, that still matters to them. The more experience a manager has, the more opinions he’ll have as well. What Elias sought out was a hands-on, progressive coach, an energetic leader and a keen strategist.

All that can come in the form of proven major league managerial experience, too, but as the finished product. The Orioles showed their mandate to contend now wouldn’t get in the way of the growth potential they sought in a manager.

The Orioles job provides candidates like Albernaz a couple of things. One is a smart front office who will arm him and his staff with all the best information on how to make informed decisions. Another is raw materials to work with: Despite many of their struggles this year, there is a boatload of talent on this roster — and a promising group of minor league arms set to join it in the coming years — that can make the right leadership look great if it hits the right notes.

How he and the Orioles fill out his staff will matter. How he connects with the rest of the organization will matter, too, and, everything will flow from there.

Albernaz, by a cursory evaluation, seems to have all the skills and traits the Orioles would want for this job. The Orioles want to win, but they’re going to keep the sensibilities and development mentality that got them here. Albernaz seems to be perfect for that.