One thing you can credibly say about Tony Mansolino is that the interim Orioles manager has always tried to be honest.

Mansolino is not necessarily blunt, but he also hasn’t shied away from Baltimore’s problems in the way his predecessor often did. He acknowledges slumps, rough starts, iffy fundamental baseball — because you cannot correct something without first acknowledging the problem.

“If you’re a true big leaguer in what you do, the truth is kind of what sets you forward,” he said Wednesday. “You don’t need to be beat people over the head with it. Maybe a little empathy goes a long way with it.”

So in that spirit, I’ll be honest as well: Mansolino should not be the next permanent manager of the Baltimore Orioles. He may not be the biggest problem, but that doesn’t change the evidence that he is not the guy.

It has less to do with Mansolino’s performance, candor or approach than the Orioles as an organization — because this franchise is allergic to looking outside the Warehouse to solve its very clear issues.

Let’s be frank about what this team is instead of fantasizing about what it could be. It is a lousy offensive team that has gotten worse since the trade deadline. A field of prospects that was heralded as the best farm system in baseball for multiple years is underachieving. While Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish help build optimism for a contending starting rotation, there are so many bullpen holes that it will take a massive offseason push to fill them all.

The tattered state of the Orioles begs not for continuity, but for dynamic change — something the whole organization really, really struggles to embrace.

The tone-setter for the organizational path is Mike Elias, who the ownership group has so much confidence in that they quietly promoted him to president of baseball operations before the season without so much as changing his title on the official team website (in fact, they still have not). Elias has established rock-solid identity and fundamental strategies up and down the system, but his biggest blind spot is his rigidity and unwillingness to adapt.

Last year when the Orioles’ lineup struggled down the back half of the season, they moved on from their hitting coaches — but promoted Cody Asche from within the organization, essentially keeping the philosophies intact. When Elias fired Brandon Hyde, he touted “sweeping changes” to how the franchise does business, but how the team went about the trade deadline looked remarkably familiar to the front office’s deadline sales of the past.

Throughout baseball, the Orioles are known as a remarkably insular franchise, to the point that one of the front office’s biggest outside hires so far this season — new scouting director Danny Haas — already spent seven years working for Baltimore.

Under these conditions, the reported idea that the Orioles are searching for a general manager to work under Elias feels silly on its face. Even as the Orioles are floundering this season, Elias has only seemed to consolidate more power within the organization with his promotion. Is a new GM really going to sweep in with fresh ideas that his boss will embrace?

Perhaps a new manager will.

It feels somewhat cruel to use Mansolino’s experience and loyalty within Baltimore’s system against him, but truths that are necessary to tell aren’t always easy to hear. He is as much a product of the Orioles’ way of thinking as anyone. While the team has been more aggressive on the basepaths under Mansolino, the lineups, pitching choices and pinch situations are still made with plenty of input from the front office. I don’t know how this organization can be helped by continuing to do the same things it has done all throughout this forsaken season.

Mansolino played the good soldier by taking on a role that was thrust upon him unexpectedly in May, and he’s had to shoulder the burden of knowing this is probably a one-and-done campaign for his Orioles managing career. It has been an honorable, often thankless task, and to his credit, he has continued giving his earnest advice even though his future with the club has been cloudy at best.

“I think when you get into this situation, you try to leave the seat better for the next guy,” he said. “And I know I’ve done that, and I’ll continue to do that, regardless of what my situation is or what the coach’s situation is. I think it’s the right thing to do.”

This integrity has been noticed. Multiple Orioles have spoken in support of Mansolino, whose clear communication style (while still being supportive) has won him fans in the clubhouse.

But this, too, can be read as a symptom of only one way of doing business. These Orioles, who are largely young, homegrown prospects, have never known much different than the coaches who are in their clubhouse now (Buck Britton, who inherited third base coaching duties after Mansolino was elevated, was the Triple-A manager for a lot of them). Just because Mansolino is a better communicator than Brandon Hyde and has wrangled slightly better results doesn’t qualify him to be the permanent replacement.

The Orioles still have losing records against the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays this season — all teams they’ll have to leapfrog in the division next year. They’re still one of the weakest offensive teams, and since the trade deadline, they’ve been one of the worst. The production out of Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser, Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo still leaves quite a bit to be desired, even though these were some of the organization’s most touted hitting prospects.

Mansolino said it best himself, when asked if the Orioles can take pride in winning any of these games in the last week of the season.

“I mean, you’re either in the playoffs or you’re not — I think for the team that’s really all that matters,” he said. “I don’t think we’re here trying to win consolation prizes by any means.”

The standard wasn’t met. It’s time to try something new.

I’d assume the Orioles have already been scouring the nation for a new manager, and they shouldn’t narrow their scope simply because Mansolino has gone 59-55 since stepping in for Hyde. There are feel-good aspects to the job he has done this year, but he hasn’t overachieved to the point that Orioles fans can believe that this organization has shifted its trajectory back to contending status for 2026.

Now that they have the chance to look toward outside influence to shake up the system, they shouldn’t pass it up — even if it means saying farewell to a well-liked, well-known coach like Mansolino.

It’s not just that the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence — the Orioles’ biggest problem is they never look up from their own lawn. In the wake of a disappointing 2025 campaign, it is high time to take a lesson or two from somebody from outside the house.