Today's guest: Double-A Chesapeake manager Roberto Mercado

BOWIE, Md. - Fresh off the presses, or at least off the digital recorder, check out a podcast taped just yesterday at Bowie’s Prince George’s Stadium.My guest is the manager of the O’s Double-A Chesapeake Baysox affiliate, Roberto Mercado.Mercado is in his fourth season with the Orioles. He managed High-A Aberdeen in 2022 and 2023 and Double-A Chesapeake (formerly Bowie) in 2023 and 2024.Through Wednesday’s game, he was 280-272 (.507) overall on the Baltimore farm.Mercado, age 45, from New Britain, Conn., managed Surprise in the 2024 Arizona Fall League. That club went 18-10 and played for the AFL Championship, but lost in the title game.In 2022, his first year as a minor league skipper, Mercado led Aberdeen to a 78-54 record and they advanced to the South Atlantic League Championship. But they lost to Bowling Green in the third and deciding game of that series. After that season, Mercado was named the winner of the Cal Ripken Sr. Player Development Award, a top honor in the O’s minors.That club included players such as Colton Cowser, Coby Mayo, Heston Kjerstad and Connor Norby.The O’s hired Mercado right out of the high school ranks, where he was varsity coach starting in 2011 at New Britain High School where he was also Dean of Students.During his time there, Mercado got valuable additional high-level experience as an assistant coach for Yarmouth in the prestigious Cape Cod League.This season, Chesapeake is 56-70 but playing better ball lately. Heading into last night, the Baysox had won three in a row and six of their past eight.The 17th manager in Baysox history, I find Mercado to be someone who truly cares about his players and is willing to do anything in his power to help each one get better and closer to the majors.In recent years he managed both Dylan Beavers and Samuel Basallo and earlier this year Jeremiah Jackson began his 2025 season with the Baysox.We touched on all three players and several others with Chesapeake this year on this podcast. Plus we got into other aspects of managing on the O’s farm.A Spanish speaker, Mercado got close with Basallo and he actually interpreted for me when I had a long one-on-one interview with Basallo late in the 2023 season when he was with Aberdeen. Enjoy the latest addition of the Steve on Baseball podcast with “Berto.” Get full access to Steve Melewski at steveonbaseball.substack.com/subscribe