The postmortem for the Orioles within the B&O Warehouse featured as many indecisive answers as it did clear-cut solutions for how to get the organization back on track in 2026.

Part of that is because interim manager Tony Mansolino, one of the two individuals who met with members of the media Monday, doesn’t know if he’ll be in Baltimore next season. President of baseball operations Mike Elias said Mansolino will be in consideration for the open manager role.

As Elias and Mansolino laid out their vision for what it will take for a rebound, Elias twice set the stated goal as competing for the American League East title. When asked explicitly if that meant he would be aiming for a World Series in 2026, he affirmed the Orioles will be in the hunt for an October crown as well.

“We have the chance to do that in 2026,” Elias said. “First thing’s first is the regular season, and you’ve got a 162-game regular season. And winning the division is a huge accomplishment, and the playoffs come after that. You try to build a team that is going to win the AL East, that’s a pretty good team for World Series aspirations too.”

Before then, before the Orioles can even dream about a return to the postseason after a last-place finish in the AL East this year, the club has ample questions to answer, beginning with a new manager.

Beyond that, here are some of the main takeaways from Baltimore’s end-of-season press conference with Elias and Mansolino.

The Orioles will look to acquire pitching this winter

Last season, the Orioles went with quantity over quality when it came to starting pitching. And while the number of pitchers on the roster helped them get through the season, the lack of top-of-the-rotation arms hurt them all year. Grayson Rodriguez, whom they expected to take a big step forward, didn’t throw a single pitch. Zach Eflin pitched only half the season and had a 5.93 ERA in the 14 starts he did make. Neither Charlie Morton nor Tomoyuki Sugano pitched at a high level.

Until Aug. 1, the Orioles rotation was the worst in the American League. It improved only due to the emergence of Trevor Rogers, who pitched to a 1.81 ERA in 18 starts, and the returns of Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells from elbow surgeries.

So did Elias learn anything from how he constructed the rotation last winter?

“We had mixed results with acquisitions this year and probably more mixed than we would want or to our standards, and that was definitely a factor in how the season went. Our goal for this offseason is to have a team on Feb. 8 — or whatever the pitchers and catchers day is — that we like the way it looks, Baltimore likes the way it looks, the American League East and the baseball world is excited about that team, and it’s a group of players that we say we’re going to be right in the hunt for the division title."

Entering next season, the Orioles have Dean Kremer, Rogers, Bradish, Wells and Rodriguez penciled into their rotation, but the last three will all have their innings monitored. Elias said Rodriguez, who had elbow debridement surgery in August, has nothing to “medically suggest” that he won’t be ready for next season.

“We’re cognizant that he threw zero innings and finished 2024 hurt, so we’re going to have to plan with those realities in mind,” Elias said. “But I am bullish on the situation.”

Cade Povich and Brandon Young are other internal options. Elias said that he will be on the hunt for pitching improvements and that he would like to add another front-half-of-the-rotation guy.

They believe in the clubhouse leadership

It’s been a topic of conversation all season: Do the Orioles have a clubhouse leader?

After Ryan O’Hearn, Cedric Mullins, Charlie Morton and Ramón Laureano were traded, the answer seemed to be no. The Orioles hoped that their core — including Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Bradish and Kremer — would start to step up, and according to Mansolino and Elias, they did. Now, it’s up to the front office to decide if that core showed enough progress to be trusted with the clubhouse next season or if they need to add an outside voice.

“It’s hard to predict what’s going to be here and what isn’t,” Mansolino said. “What we can predict is that Gunnar and Westburg and Bradish and likely Dean, all these guys, Adley, they’re going to be here next year, and those guys all have the makings to be great leaders, and those guys have all won here in the big leagues. So, do we invite more veteran players and more veteran leadership? Without a doubt. Do we think we also have some growing leaders and guys that can kind of take that part or that necessity and move it forward for us? Absolutely.”

Mansolino said that Tyler O’Neill, who played in only 54 games this season and is expected to pick up his player option, can be a leader as well. Mansolino said he saw O’Neill do just that during the last series of the season in New York. A young player was frustrated, and when Mansolino went to talk to him he found O’Neill already there picking him up.

“Those types of moments, when you see Tyler do that, gives you a good feeling,” Mansolino said, “and makes you feel like, yes, he’s going to be able to do that for us here, as soon as he can keep himself on the field.”

Adley Rutschman will continue to have a big role

The Orioles made their first major splash by extending catcher Samuel Basallo with an eight-year, $67 million deal last month. Some wondered what that meant for resident backstop Adley Rutschman and his long-term future.

Not much, Elias said.

Rutschman remains as the front-line catcher for Baltimore despite a disappointing season at the plate. Mansolino emphasized the defensive work from Rutschman as the kind “you need to have behind the plate to win a World Series.” Pitchers laud Rutschman’s game-calling ability, too, and that facet of the game can’t be overlooked.

But Rutschman’s bat regressed for the past season and a half. That is a concern, even though injury concerns played a role. He dealt with two oblique strains this year, and last year, nagging hand and back injuries prevented him from playing at a fully healthy level, according to a source with direct knowledge of his injury history.

Rutschman finished this season with a .220 average and a .673 OPS. His OPS+, a measure that standardizes batter performances and considers 100 league average, was 90 — or 10 points below average.

“We’re all working on it,” Elias said. “There was some injuries sprinkled in this year that I think were a factor in him kind of getting out of sync again. We saw flashes of him offensively the way that he can and should be. I thought he had a great defensive season, and he does a great job leading our pitching staff, so he’s a key guy for this whole thing. There’s no way around that. We’re going to work with him to restore his presence in baseball as an All-Star, but he’s going to be front and center as our starting catcher.”

Basallo, of course, will feature as a catcher next season, too. But Rutschman remains the leader of that position and one of Baltimore’s most important players.

“If you wrote out a list of players that I trust in that clubhouse and guys that I trust to look themselves in the mirror and be accountable and solve the issues that they have, Adley is at the very top for me,” Mansolino said. “So, I got a lot of faith in the kid. I think he’s going to solve his offensive woes.”

Heston Kjerstad is expected to bounce back from a worrisome year

Outfielder Heston Kjerstad, who last played in a game July 25 in the minors, is undergoing treatment for an unspecified medical condition, Elias said.

Elias said Kjerstad is responding positively to treatments, and he expects Kjerstad to be with the team during spring training. A source close to Kjerstad agreed with that timetable, noting that with “cautious optimism,” Kjerstad will look and feel like himself in 2026.

Elias declined to specify whether the medical condition is the same or similar to the myocarditis (inflammation of a heart muscle) that Kjerstad dealt with after he was selected in the first round of the 2020 draft.

“I’m really looking forward to [spring training], because we missed the real Heston Kjerstad this year,” Elias said.

The real Kjerstad has been seen in flashes, but injuries have been a large part of his story. Beyond the myocarditis, Kjerstad has dealt with concussions. The 26-year-old looked promising in 39 games in 2024, hitting .253 with a .745 OPS, but his 2025 numbers didn’t match his expected potential.

Kjerstad hit .192 with a .566 OPS in 54 games this season.