Orioles general manager Mike Elias “just needed a couple days” before finally answering questions about Brandon Hyde’s firing in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
Never mind the 65,000 paying customers who came to watch the most disappointing team in baseball at Camden Yards Saturday and Sunday or the players half his age who had no such luxury of hiding over the weekend. The delay exuded poor leadership, but we won’t pretend Elias had any chance of “winning” such a press conference either. The same goes for the disappearance of principal owner David Rubenstein, who has enjoyed the limelight when times are good.
The reality is Elias doesn’t have the answers besides stating the need for a new “voice” after firing Hyde. That’s not to say the 42-year-old executive can’t figure them out in the coming weeks and months to get this organization back on track, but he’s likely as dumbfounded as anyone else over why everything is this bad and has trended this horribly for 11 months now. Elias has owned botching the offseason and starting rotation — and there’s no understating that miserable truth — and injuries remain another real reason why Baltimore is among the very worst teams in baseball, but those factors don’t explain it all.
How did the Orioles go from being one of the best teams in baseball to one of the worst in less than a year’s time?
Regardless of whether it’ll be enough to preserve his job in the eyes of a new ownership group that didn’t hire him and was “very heavily” consulted in the decision to dismiss a seventh-year field manager, Elias must get this young core of position talent back on track if anything else — including cobbling together enough pitching for next season — is going to matter. Yes, one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball puts pressure on the offense, but ranking 25th in the majors in runs scored per game doesn’t warrant a pass by any stretch of the imagination, especially when problems with situational hitting and left-handed pitching came to the forefront last summer when Baltimore’s pitching wasn’t a full-blown crisis.
If the position talent was tabbed to be the foundation of the multiyear rebuild and a prolonged window for contention, why has it failed to this degree in 2025? The exception to the disappointment being the 21-year-old Jackson Holliday speaks to not being able to default to inexperience as the only excuse. This team isn’t that young to pretend 2023 and the first half of 2024 didn’t happen and revert to the very low expectations of the rebuild days.
These failures have already cost Hyde his job, but what about the rest of an inexperienced coaching staff and other changes to baseball operations and the process? Is Elias really going to stick with interim manager Tony Mansolino for more than four months of baseball or at least seriously explore the possibility of hiring a permanent manager before season’s end as Baltimore did with Buck Showalter 15 years ago? How much of the club’s difficulty is mental at this point?
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While Wednesday’s heroics were encouraging to see, Adley Rutschman offering bottom-10 production among qualified hitters in baseball since July 1 of last season coincides with this club’s precipitous decline. And while the peripheral numbers are better now than in last year’s second half, a 27-year-old catcher going from being the face of the franchise and a fringe MVP candidate for the better part of two years to one of your worst hitters is a crushing — and very troubling — blow to a club.
In a vacuum, Gunnar Henderson is still having a solid season after missing most of the spring and the first week of the season with an injury, but his strikeout rate has spiked, the walk rate has declined, and his numbers against lefties have plummeted. Perhaps his MVP-caliber first half last year was just an outlier, but the 23-year-old showing that kind of super-elite potential is why you add his start to 2025 to the long list of frustrations.
Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser? The Orioles need to start by getting these guys back on the field, and it does look like their returns will come in the next couple weeks.
The handling of Heston Kjerstad, Coby Mayo, and — later this season — Samuel Basallo could be telling in gauging what Elias has learned from this mess. With 2025 all but doomed in terms of playoff aspirations, there’s no reason not to play these less-established talents every day and let them take their lumps in the majors. Despite his underwhelming numbers to this point, Kjerstad needs to continue to play every day. Mayo should be back in the majors in the not-too-distant future and playing first base — not third — with Ryan Mountcastle looking like a non-tender candidate if he isn’t dealt before the trade deadline. And assuming he stays healthy, Basallo should receive enough of a look down the stretch to get the inevitable early struggles out of the way with designs to have him hit the ground running next season.
For all the farm-system hype for years now, Elias has too often prioritized middling veteran depth to the degree that it’s disrupted the runway for prospects to establish themselves and succeed in the majors. That’s stunted the club’s overall ceiling in the process. If you’re going to address a position with a veteran, then really upgrade it. Otherwise, let these young guys play when you promote them to the majors.
It’s certainly possible — if not likely — that some of these names won’t be good enough, but Elias and this organization need to learn their lesson from watching Kyle Stowers take off in Miami after never really giving him an extended everyday look in Baltimore. If you’re not a believer in a prospect’s major league potential, then trade him before his value plummets. Otherwise, show your belief and conviction in the young talent you’ve sold to the fan base for years.
8Even the biggest proponents of analytics should recognize the human element and its impact on performance.
In a season not going anywhere in the standings anyway, create a silver lining by giving these guys the proper runway and resources to continue to develop and make meaningful strides. If that requires additional coaching adjustments and changes to player development, then do it.
If the Orioles can finish 2025 having gotten much of this young core back on track, one will certainly feel better about the future of this club, regardless of the win-loss record and how much other roster-building work remains. If that doesn’t happen, others will surely be following Hyde out the door.
