Things are starting to happen when it comes to this Washington Nationals managerial search.
After it was radio silent for almost a month, there was an initial report that former Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde had been interviewed for the job opening. That seemed to suggest Miguel Cairo might no longer be in the mix.
However, that reportedly is not the case. Not only is the interim skipper from this past season still in the running to take over on a full-time basis, but it was reported by Andrew Golden of The Washington Post that Cairo was one of the two other candidates who was interviewed by the Nationals.
Some Nationals manager news: hearing Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz and interim manager Miguel Cairo interviewed for the job this week.
Not necessarily the full list, but the Nats are pushing forward with their manager search.
— Andrew Golden (@andrewcgolden) October 25, 2025
Along with Cairo, Cleveland Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz was reportedly also interviewed. It’s not clear if other names are being looked at or if they have gotten involved in the process at the time of writing.
With those three now confirmed candidates in this process for Washington’s open manager job, it seems like president of baseball operations Paul Toboni is starting to get closer to figuring out who is going to lead his big league club going forward.
Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
Besides Cairo’s experience as the interim manager this year, he has held multiple coaching and development roles. After starting his post-playing career as a special assistant to the Cincinnati Reds general manager, he became the bench coach for the Reds at the end of the 2013 season before going back to his initial role.
He was then a minor league infield coordinator and worked in player development for the New York Yankees from 2018-2020. He became the bench coach for the Chicago White Sox ahead of the 2021 campaign. Cairo also was an interim manager there and interviewed for open jobs around the league, but he joined the New York Mets as their minor league field coordinator in 2023 before becoming the Nationals’ bench coach under Dave Martinez in 2024.
Albernaz worked his way up the minor league ranks as a coach, getting his first professional experience with the Tampa Bay Rays’ rookie affiliate. He bounced around their different minor league teams until he was named the manager of their Single-A team in the middle of the 2017 campaign. After that, he took over as skipper of the High-A affiliate in 2018 where he won Midwest League Manager of the Year Award.
The San Francisco Giants hired Albernaz away in 2019 to become their bullpen and catching coach. Then, ahead of the 2024 season, the Guardians hired him to be their bench coach before promoting him to associate manager prior to this year.
While there could be others who get involved in this process or have already interviewed, the three known candidates in Cairo, Hyde and Albernaz all have substantial coaching backgrounds and could be long-term fits for the Nationals.
