How is this for a first act as interim manager? Tony Mansolino, elevated hours before first pitch to replace Brandon Hyde at the helm of the Orioles, walked to the mound with two outs in the first inning to remove his starting pitcher from the game.
Out came Kyle Gibson, who was met by boos from the Camden Yards fans, and out of the bullpen came Charlie Morton. The fact these two pitchers took center stage in the epic collapse that marked the unfortunate beginning of Mansolino’s interim managership is prophetic, because it underscores something else entirely.
A change was necessary amid the poor start to the season. But what Saturday’s 10-6 debacle against the Washington Nationals demonstrated is something that was abundantly clear even before Hyde’s firing and before Mansolino’s slow walk to the mound two outs into the game.
It showcased the roster construction from general manager Mike Elias, which led to Gibson and Morton being signed to help stabilize the rotation. The signings have been failures thus far, and as Elias looks at what went wrong, he can examine his own decisions as a major part.
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So a change was made Saturday. Hyde was shown the door midway through his seventh season in Baltimore.
And yet no change really was made.
To imagine that firing Hyde would suddenly reverse the fortunes of the club would be to overstate the importance of a manager. It would be to shut out the reality that the Orioles have been buffeted by deeper-set issues than the figurehead overseeing a group of adults.
Mansolino, in an interim manager role at the major league level for the first time, said there was no excitement about being here. “To get to this point where a change is made is not something any of us wanted by any means,” Mansolino said.
Players echoed that. Ryan O’Hearn, who credits Hyde with giving him an opportunity to become a regular player in the majors after years of part-time roles, said he doesn’t “think Hyde did anything wrong. We haven’t performed. So it sucks.”
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This is Elias’ team, and he recognizes that. In his statement, he said the poor start is “ultimately my responsibility.” The attention on Elias, then, only intensifies from here. Elias made his move. He made a change he deemed necessary. However the chips fall from here will be even more directly attributed to the roster moves Elias made — and the ones he didn’t make.
Gibson, signed late in spring training as rotation cover once Grayson Rodriguez’s prognosis made it clear he wouldn’t be on the opening day roster, has failed to make the impact he did with this team in 2023. His season spiraled to the lowest point yet Saturday, when he failed to get through one inning.
The Nationals batted around against Gibson, and it went like this: double, single, walk, double, single, single, strikeout, sacrifice fly, triple. By the time Nationals outfielder Jacob Young soared around the bases for that triple, the Orioles were losing 6-0. They had two outs in the frame, and Gibson’s ERA imploded to 16.78 through four starts.
“Four times taking the mound feeling like you haven’t given the team a chance to win each time is a pretty big gut punch,” Gibson said. “Feeling like you’re part of getting a manager fired is a gut punch. Just not going out there and being able to compete and give the team a chance to win every five days is frustrating.”
Morton, who signed for $15 million over the winter yet has been relegated to bullpen duty, got the Orioles out of the inning. He then pitched 4 1/3 innings with six strikeouts and one run against him — bringing his ERA down to 7.68.
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There were few bright spots Saturday, but Morton’s performance is one. He has allowed two runs in his last 10 1/3 innings, a sign that his curveball placement is improving. He drew seven whiffs with that curveball as part of his 12 swings and misses.
But that was a consolation prize in a game that could long be considered over, even when the Orioles mounted a bit of offensive life in the seventh inning. Adley Rutschman, whom Hyde ardently supported on his final day as manager, crushed a double off right-hander Jake Irvin.
Ramón Urías drove Rutschman in with a single, and a deep double from Ramón Laureano scored a second run in the frame.
Baltimore added on in the bottom of the ninth when Jorge Mateo, off the bench, came through with an RBI single. Jackson Holliday blasted a three-run homer later in the frame.
It was at least a semblance of fight, although the three runs scored in the top of the ninth against Yennier Cano and Seranthony Domínguez limited the impact. There hasn’t been much of that fight this season, though. If that returns, perhaps it’s not all lost yet.
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Mansolino countered that point, saying he thinks there has been fight all season under Hyde.
“Under Brandon’s leadership, they fought for him,” Mansolino said. “They had a lot of respect for him. They won a lot of games with him, myself included, so it was just a continuation of what they’ve been doing recently. You just had a lot of balls go through the holes than what we’ve seen here.”
In the immediate aftermath of Hyde’s firing, players vowed that the season wasn’t over. Right-hander Zach Eflin, acquired at last year’s trade deadline, said as much before his start in the series finale Sunday.
“The game’s not going to pause; it’s not going to freeze,” he said. “We have to continue to fight and continue to go forward and do everything we can to play within ourselves and play together, because this clubhouse wants to stay together.”
It’s hard to know whether Eflin’s last line is as meaningful as it could be. The underlying sentiment of wanting “to stay together” is that, if the Orioles’ season falls off the rails entirely, Elias will almost certainly look to sell assets with expiring contracts at the trade deadline. That includes Eflin.
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The first taste of post-Hyde life was not a good one. The disastrous first inning for Gibson dug a hole from which the Orioles could not climb out. There are so many more of these to play, though, and if real change is to happen, it won’t be because one man is not manager any longer.
“We need to find a way to just kind of take a step back, free ourselves up a little bit and go out there and just play our game,” outfielder Cedric Mullins said. “Fundamental baseball, I think that’s what we’re looking for and we elevate from there.”
This article has been updated.
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