The Orioles’ abysmal start to the season sparked change within the organization. On Saturday, the ballclub announced manager Brandon Hyde’s firing.

With Hyde no longer running the show, the team turns to interim manager Tony Mansolino for a spark. Mansolino, who has been the Orioles’ third base coach since 2021, will manage the team until it finds a full-time replacement for Hyde.

Here are five things to know about Mansolino, who moves into the spotlight for the final 75% of Baltimore’s season:

He has managerial experience: Before joining the Orioles in 2021, Mansolino spent four seasons as a minor league manager. He led the Lake County Captains, a High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, in 2016. The next season, Mansolino won Carolina League Manager of the Year honors for his work with the Lynchburg Hillcats, a Single-A club. He managed the Akron Rubberducks (Double-A) and Columbus Clippers (Triple-A) in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

His best season was in 2017, when the Hillcats went 87-52. All four of the teams managed by Mansolino finished with winning records.

In 2020, Mansolino was Cleveland’s third-base coach during the COVID pandemic-shortened season. The ballclub went 35-25, finishing second in the AL Central.Following his father’s footsteps: Doug Mansolino, Tony’s father, has spent his life around baseball. Doug was a minor league manager in 1991 for the Vancouver Canadiens, a Triple-A team, and during the 1997 season with the Class-A Capital City Bombers.

Doug also worked as a major league assistant coach. He worked with the White Sox (1992-96), Brewers (1998-99), Tigers (2000-01) and Houston Astros (2005-07).

“He’s one of those guys that you sit there and you watch the game and you think you see everything, and then you soon find out you didn’t see very much,” Tony told The News-Herald in 2017 about learning from his dad. “He sees so much more than you’d ever hope to see of what’s happening during the game … You can’t take any detail for granted. You have to work hard at every detail. You can’t really expect every detail to be perfect throughout the year. That’s where patience and communication comes in, just working through it.”

Mansolino played in college at Vanderbilt: Baltimore’s interim manager played for the Commodores before they became a college baseball power. Mansolino was the starting third baseman on Tim Corbin’s first NCAA Tournament team in 2004.

Vanderbilt has become an NCAA Tournament regular under Corbin, including winning the 2019 national championship. Mansolino’s college career led to a few seasons in the minor leagues after he was picked by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2005 MLB draft.

He has a relationship with younger stars: In his role working with infielders, Mansolino knows many of the Orioles’ bright young stars well. He’s worked closely with players like Jordan Westburg, Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday, among others.

The Orioles need that trio to kick their games into high gear to make a midseason push. Henderson started slowly, but he’s coming on strong, and Holliday seems to have improved as the season progresses. Still, the duo has combined for more strikeouts (75) than hits (72). Baltimore could use more production from anyone in the lineup, but the former highly touted prospects are among those expected to improve.

Westburg has missed much of the season with a hamstring injury, which he recently aggravated. Baltimore’s sputtering lineup could desperately use his return.

Perhaps Mansolino’s close relationship with the infielders can help some of the team’s stars reach elite form.

He knows how to handle player emotions: Mansolino takes over an Orioles team scuffling. Baltimore is 15-28 and in last place in the AL East because of subpar play coupled with a series of key injuries to top players.

Hyde hasn’t helped the team meet expectations, but it’s fair to question how much of the awful start falls on him and how much falls on the players and front office. Regardless of who should shoulder the blame, Mansolino has experience helping players move past previous failures.

Part of managing minor league teams is dealing with the inevitable disappointment of when players get demoted or fail to get promoted. Mansolino spoke to the Columbus Dispatch about that upon taking his first managerial job at the Triple-A level.

“There are going to be some different emotions here (in triple-A), some frustration, things like that, which is fine,” he said in 2019. “Managing that, I think you’ve got to be proactive. I think you’ve got to communicate as much as you can and explain why things are happening the way that they are, and from there you’ve got to be good at turning the page and being focused on what the ultimate goal is.”

Can Mansolino help the Orioles turn the page on an ugly start to the season? This is the biggest stage and challenge he’s faced as a coach.

Have a news tip? Contact sports editor Bennett Conlin at bconlin@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/BennettConlin.