Orioles managerial hire has feel-good Tigers ties to fan favorite Don Kelly

Don Kelly took over as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in May, and the Baltimore Orioles hired Craig Albernaz as their next manager earlier this week. Both hires felt like victories for Detroit Tigers fans.

The Kelly-Albernaz connection is one of those quietly heartwarming baseball stories that resonates especially deeply with Tigers fans, because it’s about perseverance, shared roots, and how two unheralded former Tigers farmhands climbed to the top of the baseball world – together, and on their own terms.

Both Kelly and Albernaz once wore the uniform of the Erie Seawolves, Detroit’s Double-A affiliate in the mid-to-late 2000s. Back then, neither was considered a surefire big-league prospect. Kelly was a scrappy utility player trying to prove his versatility could earn him a role, while Albernaz was a light-hitting catcher who made his living managing pitchers and absorbing the nuances of the game from behind the plate.

Their time in Erie, grinding through long bus rides and cold April nights, became a shared crucible that shaped how Albernaz and Kelly viewed the sport: as teachers, communicators and leaders. Both men developed reputations for their baseball IQ and humility – traits that would later define their coaching careers.

Don Kelly and Craig Albernaz went from Tigers role players to MLB managers

When Kelly became manager of the Pirates in 2025, it marked a milestone for the Tigers’ developmental lineage – a former organizational lifer finally getting his due on the biggest stage. Kelly was beloved in Detroit for his professionalism, quiet toughness and knack for making the most of limited talent. His appointment as a manager felt like validation for every grinder who came through the Tigers’ system.

Then came Albernaz, hired as the Orioles’ manager just months later. Albernaz followed a similar path, with years of coaching, bullpen catching and player development work with the Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants before earning his shot. His promotion made him the second former Seawolves player to become an MLB skipper, completing a feel-good symmetry that started in Erie nearly two decades earlier.

For Tigers fans, there’s pride in watching two men who came up through Detroit’s minor league pipeline embody the spirit of the old-school Tigers system – one built on toughness, loyalty and paying dues. Kelly, a cult hero in Detroit, and Albernaz, a name many fans remember from old Seawolves box scores, represent the side of baseball that’s more about character than raw ability.

When Baltimore visits Pittsburgh from April 3–5, 2026, it won’t just be another early-season series. It’ll be a reunion – two former teammates from Erie now facing off as MLB managers, both products of the same system that once taught them how to compete and communicate.

That series will feel symbolic: a nod to perseverance, friendship and how baseball careers can take winding routes that lead back to one another. Expect plenty of nostalgic coverage, especially in Detroit, where fans who followed Kelly’s playing days will appreciate seeing “Donnie Baseball 2.0” opposite another one of the Tigers’ old grinders-turned-leaders.

The Kelly-Albernaz story is a feel-good victory for every former Tigers minor leaguer who toiled away in Erie dreaming of the big leagues. It’s proof that baseball’s greatest success stories aren’t always about stardom; sometimes, they’re about persistence, respect and the bonds built on the long road from the bus leagues to the manager’s chair.