With the last-place Orioles firing seventh-year manager Brandon Hyde and falling to a miserable 15-30 over the weekend, I’ve offered a dozen thoughts, each in 50 words or less:
1. You sensed the end was near after Friday’s 4-3 loss that included multiple mental lapses and 15 men left on base. The performance left Hyde “in disbelief,” and his post-game facial expression and tone seemed like someone seeing his inevitable fate — whether it’d come the next morning or shortly thereafter.
2. This is an organizational failure top to bottom, but the sloppy play out of spring reflected poorly on Hyde. Going back to last July, the Orioles have shown little fight and looked increasingly defeated. The manager was far from the biggest problem, but he showed few signs of having solutions.
3. Hyde endured so much losing from 2019-2021, so I’m glad he made it to the other side to taste some success unlike so many “rebuild” managers. Once he gets past the obvious disappointment, he’ll have a much better summer than anyone else associated with this woeful club.
4. Asked why he thought Mike Elias named him interim manager, Tony Mansolino answered, “That’s probably a better question for him.” The general manager — and man most responsible for this disaster — didn’t answer a question all weekend. Neither did principal owner David Rubenstein. That’s weak leadership and disrespectful to your fans.
5. Speaking of Rubenstein, you have to wonder what this ownership group is thinking about Elias and the current state of the franchise. These guys didn’t hire him or Hyde and are now staring at a summer in which fans have little incentive to attend games beyond giveaway promotions. Not good.
8
6. Some fans — not all, of course — tend to give players all credit for winning and coaches all blame for losing. Maybe they don’t like criticizing the ones whose jerseys they wear, but players have drastically underperformed to contribute to their manager losing his job. They admitted as much this weekend.
7. Hyde’s harshest critics saw Baltimore fall behind 6-0 in Saturday’s first inning and 7-0 in Sunday’s second inning to fall to 0-2 in the post-Hyde era. Mansolino, 42, is a smart guy, but it’s tough to feel good about a mostly inexperienced coaching staff navigating this, especially with this rotation.
8. “This is very different than what I was doing. I had a nice little silo that I worked in, and it was comfortable. This is about as uncomfortable as it gets right now.” I respect that degree of candor from Mansolino, and that last part summarizes the state of affairs.
9. The Orioles placed Tyler O’Neill on the injured list and designated Kyle Gibson for assignment Sunday. That’s Elias’ big free-agent acquisition who has as many IL stints as home runs (two) and late-spring signing to help a rotation that was lacking long before the injuries mounted. What an abysmal offseason.
10. Most of the young core are either underperforming or injured, but Jackson Holliday continues to be a major bright spot. Since an 0-for-17 skid that ran through April 13, the 21-year-old owns a slash line of .308/.388/.505 over 103 plate appearances. He’s looking more and more comfortable.
11. Appearing late in Sunday’s loss, Kade Strowd, 27, became the first pitcher drafted by Elias to make it to the majors with the Orioles. This organization simply must be more deliberate and smarter in its approach to pitching to turn this around for 2026 and beyond.
12. The 2010 and 2018 seasons were shockingly bad, but those clubs didn’t carry particularly high expectations either. The pitching and injuries were real concerns, but I’m still baffled to see this 2025 club exude no redeemable on-field qualities. I’m still not fully grasping why it’s this awful. But it is.
