Orioles at 15-32 have to be the biggest disappointment in baseball. Even PECOTA had them at 89.5 wins, winning AL East. Most projections had them at least at a wildcard.
Hyde lost the locker room between late last year and early this year. He may in fact be a decent manager. Is he a miracle worker that is the primary reason a team wins 101 games or a brick wall that sinks a team to lose 110? No. But he’s managed teams that have done both. The team has been moping, playing uninspired. And this year, lacking fundamentals, hustle, making inattentive plays, they’ve looked bad. I don’t think replacing with his 3B coach in Mansolino and keeping the rest of the staff is bringing in the new message the team needs.
Hyde mismanaged the bullpen at times and seemed to either yank starters way early or leave a reliever in a couple batters too long and turn a winnable game into a 4 run deficit. He also had questionable lineup decisions. If O’Hearn or Holliday got a few hits and a lefty came in, they sat and Mateo (who is not a major league hitter) would start. Mountcastle continues to bat 4th or even 2nd. Leadoff hitters deployed can’t get on base.
There are glimmers recently:
– Henderson in the past 20 games: batting .288, OPS .882 with 5 HR. These stack up with 2024 #’s. Despite 2 inexcusable errors, he has just 4 on the year and his other defensive metrics aren’t bad.
– Holliday in 86 May AB: 3 doubles, 4 HR, hitting .303, OPS of .903
– Mullins and O’Hearn have been doing very well in intervals.
But, the offense seems to pull individually and not as a group. Especially when they hit .190 with RISP, hardly ever show patience at the plate, and there never seems to be a sustained rally.
– Mountcastle despite a recent hit streak still only has 2 HR in 45 games despite the wall moving in.
– Rutschman still around .200 and that’s puzzling given increase in line drives, hard hit %, EV, etc.
Notice these are all offense players. Nothing is going to overcome this pitching staff. Only Sugano, whose underlying metrics are still questionable, has fared well as a starter. Povich shows some glimmers, Kremer will always run hot and cold, Eflin hurt, Morton and Gibson provided 10 losses singlehandedly and the bullpen that was solid has shown overuse.
But again, not Hyde’s fault he was stuck with Morton or Gibson, or the total bust in O’Neill. That’s on the GM who’s stepped in it more often than not since obtaining Flaherty down the stretch in 2023. Like 3 bad moves for ever decent one at best.
I’m afraid that Elias will set the team further back at the deadline and this winter if he stays unless he’s been humbled and undertakes a major course correction. The Orioles could have gotten Fried with what they spent last year. No reason they couldn’t have traded for Luzardo or gotten Pivetta. They can’t be cute, as the podcast mentioned. They must be THE players for all the top and #2-#3 starters and getting 3 or 4 of them in the fold is the goal.
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