Orioles GM Elias speaks 3 days after firing manager, says he's evaluating reasons for team's decline
Orioles general manager Mike Elias broke his silence about his decision to fire manager Brandon Hyde, saying Tuesday he's doing an across-the-board evaluation to determine what has caused Baltimore's remarkably rapid decline.
"You go back to last June, we were on top of the sport in almost every facet of the sport, including majors and minors," Elias said of his team, which carries an eight-game skid. "Now we find ourselves where we find ourselves. This has been hitting us all very hard, but it's unusual for that to be so sudden."
Elias fired Hyde on Saturday, and since then, only players and interim manager Tony Mansolino had answered reporters' questions about the move. The Orioles, who won a combined 192 games from 2023-24, entered Tuesday last in the American League East with the fourth-worst record (15-31) in the majors.
Elias praised Hyde for getting the Orioles back into contention but said the time had come for a new voice. Baltimore has gone 0-3 since Mansolino was promoted from third-base coach.
"I want to emphatically credit (Hyde) for the wonderful job that he did and the skill set that he has," Elias said. "I'm sure he's going to continue and have a fantastic career. It's very endemic to sports. After a certain number of years, sometimes organizations try something different, and that's what this was."
Elias was asked why he waited this long to speak about the move.
"It's a pretty hectic few days," he said. "I got Tony in place and traveled up here with the team. I just needed a couple of days."
Hyde was named the AL manager of the year in 2023 after leading the Orioles to a 101-61 record and their first division title since 2014. Baltimore followed that up by going 91-71 and returning to the playoffs as a wild card last year, though it struggled to a 34-38 record to finish the season.
This year, the Orioles have been dreadful despite bringing back the young core that sparked the franchise's resurgence.
"I'm in the process of very heavily evaluating everything that we do across the organization — that (includes) the front office, analytics department, player development," Elias said. "You name it, we're looking at it very hard.
"To our credit, this has something that has not been lingering for years and years. This is something that's mounted in months, and it's been very tough on those of us in leadership positions in the organization, but we're focused on fixing it right now. I think the main focus is trying to stabilize this team, improve the play on the field and get this core of players back on track."
The Orioles entered Tuesday with a 5.53 ERA that ranked ahead of only major league-worst Colorado (5.85). Baltimore added Japanese veteran Tomoyuki Sugano, 41-year-old Charlie Morton and 37-year-old Kyle Gibson on one-year deals in the offseason to try to help offset the loss of four-time All-Star and 2021 Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, who signed a six-year, $210 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Sugano is 4-3 with a 3.08 ERA, but Morton is 0-7 with a 7.68 ERA and currently working out of the bullpen. Gibson was released after going 0-3 with a 16.78 ERA.
Baltimore's offensive struggles are a bigger surprise.
The Orioles entered Tuesday ranked 25th in the majors in runs (173) after finishing fourth in that category last year and seventh in 2023. The Orioles also were 25th in batting average (.230) and 18th in slugging percentage (.388) after being the top 10 in both categories each of the last two years.
"I think I've been pretty clear that our pitching staff, our starting pitching staff, has been a huge problem," Elias said. "I put that on myself and the front office in terms of roster construction. The position player group, again, we haven't had perfect health, but this is a universally lauded group and (has) had a lot of success. There's underperformance happening there, and that's something we need to address via player development, via coaching."
Elias said he's confident he can help Baltimore rebound. He took over when the Orioles were coming off a 47-115 season in 2018 and hired Hyde a month later.
Now, he'll try to do it again, without Hyde.
"I think a big point of pride for me throughout my career has been my ability to adapt in a sport where you've got to do that," Elias said. "What we're going through right now and the degree to which we're going through is well below anyone's standards, including mine. This is deeply disappointing. I'm doing everything in my power to correct and improve it going forward."
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