PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The turn into Charlotte Sports Park still feels automatic for Craig Albernaz.

The windy asphalt road curves past palm trees and practice fields before leading to the players’ entrance — a route Albernaz traveled many times during his 13 seasons inside the Tampa Bay Rays organization. On Thursday afternoon, he nearly drove past the parking attendant without thinking.

Only this time, he was wearing orange and black.

For the first time as Orioles manager, Albernaz returned to the place where his professional baseball life began — once as an overlooked catcher trying to carve out a minor league career and later as one of the Rays’ most respected young coaches.

“Pulling in here, there’s a lot of great memories flooding through,” Albernaz said before Thursday’s Grapefruit League game. “It’s awesome being back here. This was my upbringing in professional baseball, both as a player and as a coach, so it has a special place in my heart.”

Few people inside the Rays organization understand Albernaz’s journey better than Mitch Lukevics.

The former Yankees farm director was born into the Rays organization as a prominent piece when the club was founded in 1998. Since then, Lukevics has helped shape and evolve Tampa Bay’s player development pipeline.

Over two-plus decades, Lukevics, the Rays’ longtime farm director, now a senior adviser of player development and baseball operations, has scouted thousands of prospects.

Some careers fade into memory over time.

Albernaz, 43, is one Lukevics, 73, will never forget.

Back in 2006, Lukevics signed an undersized catcher out of Eckerd College in nearby St. Petersburg for $1,000. Albernaz wasn’t a heralded prospect, nor did he carry the kind of physical profile that typically jumps out to evaluators. Lukevics actually signed him out of necessity after the Rays lost catchers to injuries that offseason.

But Lukevics remembers what happened when Albernaz popped up from his knees and threw a baseball.

“Alby’s not like a big guy,” Lukevics said in a sit-down interview with The Baltimore Sun. “But he threw a baseball like he was 6-foot-4. His arm was exceptional. When he played for us, he’d catch everybody off guard because they see the stature and they underestimate the arm.

“He would pick off a lot of guys. He was sneaky quick with a big arm.”

Albernaz never reached the major leagues as a player, spending eight seasons grinding through Tampa Bay’s minor league system. Along the way, though, some throughout the Rays noticed his off-field intangibles, highlighted by his leadership, communication and competitiveness.

“He’s fiery,” Lukevics said with a smile. “He’s from that great state of Massachusetts. He came from the school of hard knocks and learned the right from wrong by growing up. He’s a fighter, he’s very, very competitive, and that’s what you want in player and coaching development.”

When his playing career ended in 2015, the Rays brought him back as a rookie-level coach, beginning what would become a steady climb through the organization’s development ladder.

By 2018, just his second season managing in the minors, Albernaz guided High-A Bowling Green to the best record in franchise history. The club easily captured the Midwest League championship and was named Baseball America’s Minor League Team of the Year.

The following season, the Rays promoted him to field coordinator, one of the most demanding development roles in the forward-thinking organization. The position required him to oversee instruction and communication across the entire farm system, coordinating between coaches, players and front office staff. As Rays-turned-Orioles starting pitcher Shane Baz described, Albernaz handled “20 different jobs” simultaneously.

The demanding role placed Albernaz in constant motion, bouncing between affiliates and the team’s spring training and rookie-class facility, sitting in on meetings with executives, and relaying expectations from the front office to young prospects trying to reach the majors.

Throughout his tenure, Albernaz showcased the prominent trait many around the Rays believed would one day make him a big league manager: his ability to build meaningful relationships.

That reputation soon reached other organizations by word of mouth.

Before the 2020 season, then-San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler contacted the Rays with a question as he attempted to fill out his staff.

Kapler, who finished his playing career in Tampa Bay in 2010, had heard Albernaz’s name circulating in coaching circles through former Rays executive and current Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. Although the Dodgers and Giants are NL West rivals, Friedman instilled the importance of relationship-building from his front-office staff down to coaches and players throughout his time with the Rays, a period that overlapped with Kapler and Albernaz.

Kapler wanted to know whether Albernaz was ready for the major leagues.

“Gabe called us and said, ‘What about this kid, Albernaz?’ ” Lukevics recalled.

“I said, ‘Well, we hate to lose him. But you’re going to really love him.’ ”

Kapler and the Giants then hired Albernaz as their bullpen and catching coach. He fulfilled that role until 2023, when he transitioned to the Guardians’ bench coach.

“He’s awesome,” Baz said of Albernaz. “Everybody [with Tampa Bay] knew it was only a matter of time there [before he became an MLB manager]. The guys that played for him there have a lot of respect for him and love him. He’s been as advertised this spring. I think he’s really, really good at just being the same guy every day and being really clear about what he wants out of us and what he wants to see every day.

“As a player, you always appreciate that, and you want to know — it always helps to get a reminder of what to do or a little kick in the butt of being more intentional here and there. I personally love it. He’s been awesome. I just love his demeanor.”

Albernaz stood Thursday afternoon outside the visitors’ clubhouse beyond the right field wall at Charlotte Sports Park, no longer a minor league coach trying to prove himself, but a first-time major league manager guiding the Orioles through spring training. His anticipated return quickly turned into a reunion.

Before the first pitch, Albernaz made his way toward the Rays’ dugout, exchanging hugs and handshakes with longtime friends and former colleagues. Rays manager Kevin Cash greeted him warmly, while third base coach Brady Williams, head athletic trainer Joseph Benge, and director of academy development Alejandro Freire all embraced the Orioles manager. Dozens of Tampa Bay players sought out Albernaz throughout the day, as well.

Even clubhouse staff members remembered him fondly.

Rays director of clubhouse operations Tyler Wall and clubhouse manager Thomas Culkin reflected on how Albernaz treated everyone inside the organization with the same energy and respect during his years in Tampa Bay.

That approach carried into his first spring managing the Orioles.

In addition to Albernaz, Thursday was a reunion for a couple of other Orioles. Assistant hitting coach Brady North previously worked in Tampa Bay’s system as a hitting coach from 2019 to 2025, while mental performance coach Josh Kozuch and starting pitcher Zach Eflin also spent time with the Rays organization.

Earlier Thursday morning, Albernaz met with Orioles prospects to open minor league camp at Twin Lakes Park in Sarasota. After the meeting ended, he climbed into his vehicle and made the drive south to Port Charlotte, retracing a familiar route he frequently traveled earlier in his career.

Standing underneath the shade near one of those same backfields that Albernaz paced for more than a decade, Lukevics paused while reflecting on the journey.

His voice cracked briefly. Then he swelled with pride.

“It’s special,” Lukevics said. “It’s gratifying for all of us to see Craig Albernaz managing for Baltimore in the big leagues and coming back to where, basically, he learned his trade.

“He learned the skills, trials and tribulations of being a young coach, a young manager and a young field coordinator.”

Lukevics paused and mulled for a few seconds before letting out a loud laugh.

For all the growth Albernaz has experienced, some parts of his fiery personality haven’t changed.

“I can’t wait to watch him get thrown out of a few games this year,” Lukevics joked.

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