Elias on Hyde's dismissal, issues plaguing Orioles

MILWAUKEE – Mike Elias isn’t a stranger to addressing the media in the midst of a losing season. 

Since taking the reins of the O’s front office in November 2018, Elias oversaw tough years in the win and loss columns from 2019 to 2021. 

The caveat there, of course, is that Baltimore was rebuilding. Soon, players like Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg and more would join the fold to propel the Orioles to a 100-win season and division title, and back-to-back postseason appearances. 

A stranger to this type of address? No. Just a bit unfamiliar. 

His next one just came much sooner than anyone expected. 

Today, the Orioles executive vice president and general manager met with the media for the first time since Brandon Hyde’s dismissal on Saturday. Elias started with some praise for his former skipper. 

“I want to emphasize and recognize the tremendous contributions to success that he supplied to this organization starting from a low point at the end of 2018, organizationally helping us build up a great talent base, getting the team back to playing great baseball, getting the team back to the playoffs and an American League East title,” Elias said. “It’s a tremendous accomplishment for which he deserves a ton of credit forever. We want to thank him for that and we miss him very much.”

But given the O’s record to begin the season, there was a decision to be made. 

“Ultimately, stretching back into early last summer, this is a team that we feel has been collectively and individually, to varying degrees, underperforming its talent level,” he added. “We want something new in order to, hopefully, restore them to the level of play that we expect of ourselves and that we think this team is capable of.”

That something new is interim manager Tony Mansolino, who is still in search of his first win in the new role. 

Mansolino’s performance, though, won’t be measured exclusively by the wins and losses. Yes, the Orioles want to turn things around, and Elias expressed belief that Baltimore can salvage this season. A higher priority, however, comes in the fact that the young core of position players has not been playing up to the standard that they have set for themselves in previous years. 

So, the new interim manager, the remaining coaches and the front office are tasked with finding the answer to that problem. It’s one that, if unsolved, will plague the Orioles down the line regardless of supplemental moves. 

“Some of it is just individualistic in, ‘Hey, let’s do something different with this player.’ Other things, I think, will involve perhaps sweeping changes in the way we do business in the warehouse,” Elias said. 

“It's very important in this organization that it's priority No. 1 that our guys, our players, play the way that they're capable of individually, but play the way that they're capable of together and the way that we saw in 2022, 2023 and the early part of 2024, and that is our main focus, in addition to kind of stabilizing the day-to-day play here on the field, which we're still trying to do.” 

Those young position players aren’t going anywhere. Sink or swim, this is the crew that the front office has drafted and developed. Elias does, however, take responsibility for the talent assembled around their young core to help push them to the top of the game. 

“I think I’ve been pretty clear that our pitching staff, our starting pitching staff, it’s been a huge problem, and I put that on myself and the front office in terms of roster construction,” he said. 

The dismissal of Hyde wasn’t a conclusion that arose from one moment. It’s been a frustrating calendar year for Baltimore.

It’s a team that, at its not-so-long-ago peak, boasted perhaps the best farm system and best major league team in the game. A stumble this steep is shocking. 

As such, the front office concluded that a new voice as manager was needed. More changes will be made, both in front of and behind the curtain. The Orioles want to put on a better performance. 

“What we’re going through right now, and the degree in which we’re going through it, is well below anyone’s standards, including mine,” Elias said. “This is deeply disappointing to me and I’m doing everything in my power to correct and improve it going forward.” 

Breadcrumbs from the GM and Interim Skipper 

Colton Cowser has joined the Aberdeen IronBirds and will begin a rehab assignment tomorrow. His exact timeline still isn’t known. That’s a bit of a theme. 

Elias said that Grayson Rodriguez is “very close to throwing,” but his injury is still something that the Orioles “don’t want to rush.” Westburg doesn’t have a timeline either, but Elias hopes that he will be back “early next month.” 

On Jackson Holliday being back in the leadoff spot, Mansolino noted that the former top prospect “might just grab this thing and run with it and never leave.” Nobody on the staff would be mad about that. 

Plenty are angry about the record. You want the players to be having fun, Mansolino says, but nobody is having a good time in this kind of stretch.

“Anybody that tells you when they’re whatever we are under .500 and whatever this losing streak is at the moment that they’re having fun? I’m not so sure we want those types of guys around here,” he said. 

“So, are they a little bit miserable? Yeah. Is that a good thing? Quite possibly. I’m not sure.”