Orioles Fire Manager Brandon Hyde

The Orioles announced that manager Brandon Hyde has been fired.  Third base coach Tony Mansolino will become the interim manager, while the coaching staff was further shaken up since Major League field coordinator and catching instructor Tim Cossins was also let go.

“Brandon Hyde is someone I have come to know and deeply admire, not only for his extensive knowledge of baseball, but also for his exceptional leadership as a manager,” Orioles owner David Rubenstein said in the club’s official media statement.  “I am sincerely grateful for his significant accomplishments over the past six years, which have greatly benefited both the Orioles and the city of Baltimore.  However, as is sometimes the case in baseball, change becomes necessary, and we believe this is one of those moments. The Orioles organization is truly appreciative of everything Brandon has contributed during his tenure, and we wish him nothing but success in whatever path he chooses next in the world of baseball.  Brandon is a man of great character, and we thank him for his dedication and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Today’s news would’ve seemed hard to fathom two months ago, when the O’s entered the 2025 season again looking like a strong contender to reach the playoffs for the third year in a row.  Unfortunately, Baltimore has been perhaps the biggest disappointment in baseball this year, as the team stumbled out of the blocks to a 15-28 record.  Of the four teams with 15 or fewer victories this season, three have already changed managers within the last two weeks, as Hyde’s dismissal comes on the heels of the Pirates firing Derek Shelton and the Rockies firing Bud Black.

Orioles GM Mike Elias acknowledged his own role in the team’s struggles, noting in the press release that “as the head of baseball operations, the poor start to our season is ultimately my responsibility.  Part of that responsibility is pursuing difficult changes in order to set a different course for the future.  I want to thank Brandon for his hard work, dedication, and passion all these years, and for returning the team to the playoffs and winning an AL East Championship.  His many positive contributions to this organization and to Baltimore will remain, and we wish he and his family the best.”

Hyde was initially hired as the Orioles’ skipper during the 2018-19 offseason, soon after Mike Elias was hired as the club’s new general manager.  The duo became the faces of the multi-year rebuild project that took the O’s through three dismal losing seasons in 2019-21 before Baltimore made a somewhat surprisingly early return to competitive baseball by posting an 83-79 record in 2022.  That winning season was the harbinger for the Orioles’ AL East title and a 101-win campaign in 2023, as Hyde captured AL Manager of the Year honors.  That huge season was followed up with 91 wins and a wild card berth in 2024.

Neither of those trips to the postseason, however, resulted in even a single victory, let alone a series win.  Even before the O’s were swept away by the Royals in the 2024 Wild Card Series, some cracks were showing in Baltimore’s foundation — the club had only a 33-33 record after the All-Star break, as compared to a 58-38 record in the first half.  Still, with so much position player talent in place as the Orioles’ core, the expectation going into the offseason was that Rubenstein (in his first offseason as the club’s owner) would be open to boosting payroll in order to augment the pitching help that the O’s needed as the final pieces of the puzzle.

Instead, the Orioles spent more modestly, and their main pitching additions were one-year investments in Tomoyuki Sugano (who was coming to MLB for the first time after a long career in Japan) and longtime veteran Charlie Morton.  While Sugano has performed well, Morton’s disastrous performance cost him his rotation job, adding to a litany of struggles within Baltimore’s rotation.  Injuries and under-performance have left the Orioles with a pitching staff that ranks at or near the bottom of the league in most major statistical categories, both in the rotation and in the bullpen.

More troubling results have some on the offensive side, as much about every member of the lineup has taken a step backwards from their 2024 numbers.  Losing Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser to injury hasn’t helped, and Gunnar Henderson also spent time on the IL at the start of the year.  But, health woes don’t explain why Adley Rutschman’s production has fallen off a cliff since the middle of 2024, or why Ryan Mountcastle or offseason addition Tyler O’Neill have also posted subpar numbers.

How much of this is directly Hyde’s fault is an open question, of course, as obviously Hyde wasn’t the one who added or didn’t add necessary pieces to the roster.  It is also fair to assume that decisions over playing time (i.e. how much or how often the young budding stars were incorporated into the lineup) were made by both Hyde and the front office, rather than just the skipper himself.

Still, several changes were made to Baltimore’s coaching staff after last season, indicating that upper management felt some alterations were necessary, even if Hyde’s job was seemingly safe.  And, given both the high expectations and the depths of the Orioles’ brutal start, Rubenstein, Elias and company may have felt that a managerial change needed to be made sooner rather than later, in order to see what the O’s might be able to salvage from the season.

The situation puts some extra pressure on Mansolino as the 42-year-old takes on his first assignment as a manager at the Major League level.  Mansolino has several years of managerial experience at multiple levels of Cleveland’s farm system, which led to a temporary job as the big league third base coach in 2020, as the club’s staff was shuffled around due to manager Terry Francona’s medical leave.  The 2020 campaign proved to be Mansolino’s last in Cleveland, as he was hired by the Orioles to become the team’s new third base coach.

If Mansolino can get the O’s turned around, he’ll have a great case for himself as the team’s next full-time manager heading into 2026.  Perhaps moreso than the questions surrounding the managerial situation is what today’s news means for Elias, who could potentially be on the hot seat himself in the wake of what now may be a sudden end to the Orioles’ competitive window.  In some ways, firing the architect of what is still a strong core of talent on paper would be even more surprising than firing Hyde, though it is worth noting that Elias wasn’t hired by Rubenstein himself.

Hyde completes his tenure with a 421-492 record over parts of seven seasons.  He’ll leave Baltimore along with Cossins, who USA Today’s Bob Nightengale described as a close friend of the ex-skipper.  Cossins has been a member of the Orioles staff for the entirety of Hyde’s tenure, and the two also worked together in the Cubs organization before joining the Orioles in the 2018-19 offseason.

Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer/Imagn Images