What should the Orioles look for in a new manager?

The next big move for the Orioles, or one of them, will certainly be the hiring of a new manager. New general manager Mike Elias said the background work on managerial candidates had already begun the day he met the media for the first time on Monday. He would not put a timetable on the hiring and seemed to want to be thorough in his search for Buck Showalter's successor.

I'm not sure we just could put down on paper exactly what the Orioles need in a new skipper and then find someone that checks every box. Maybe that person is out there. It's not us doing the hiring, but we can have some thoughts on it.

The Orioles need to find someone who can remain positive amid the expected large number of losses in 2019, someone who can keep the clubhouse upbeat while they get beat. Someone who can take positives when they arrive and build on them and make sure players get better and reach their potential, even if it doesn't show much in a team won-loss record.

I think they need a skipper who can teach young players, knowing which ones need more supervision and which ones need a boost of confidence, and just when to provide it.

They need a skipper who, like Showalter, is good with the media and who, like Showalter, comes to appreciate the Baltimore fans and understand how they truly feel about their team.

During Elias' introduction on Monday, he said he was not working with a short list of managerial candidates, that the opposite was true.

"It's always a long list," he said. "I'm not down to a short list. There's a lot of really good names. There's people who are currently on major league staffs, former managers that perhaps aren't on a major league staff right now, and also people in front offices, recently retired players. So it's all walks of life. It's a large list right now, and I'm going to whittle that down deliberately.

"I don't think (past experience) is a prerequisite, but obviously experience, especially good experience, is always attractive in any hiring process. But we'll see. As I said, this is going to ultimately be a menu of people, so I'm not going to pigeonhole a job description at this point and then try to find somebody who fits that perfectly. We're going to look at the best people available, we're going to talk and find out who the best candidates are and we will choose from among them who's the right fit for this team, this situation, this front office crew."

Elias making the call pretty much guarantees that manager and general manager will be on the same page and have a similar vision for the team in 2019 and beyond. It won't hurt if the new skipper has a strong player development background and is someone who can work seamlessly with the minor league managers and staff.

The Orioles took their time and did the proper homework before they got Elias, and that seemed to work out pretty well. Now the new guy is about to pick a new guy of his own.