The Orioles will retain manager Brandon Hyde for at least the 2022 season, reports Dan Connolly of The Athletic. The 2021 season marked the final guaranteed contract on his original three-year deal to manager the O’s, but Connolly reports that the Orioles and Hyde quietly agreed to an extension last offseason that runs through at least the 2022 season.
There’d been at least some speculation about Hyde’s job status, given his original contract was set to expire. MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko wrote recently, however, that the “expectation” was for Hyde to return in 2022, and it appears that will indeed be the case.
Hyde’s first three seasons at the helm haven’t been punctuated by many victories. The Orioles are just 127-246 since he was hired. Of course, there’s little sense in judging a manager on wins and losses when it’s clear that the front office isn’t making much of an effort to put a winning product on the field. The Orioles set out on the early stages a rebuild in the final few months of former general manager Dan Duquette’s tenure, trading Manny Machado, Zack Britton and others in the summer of 2018. Duquette was dismissed not long after, and ownership tabbed Astros assistant general manager Mike Elias as his replacement.
Elias hired Hyde as a successor to former manager Buck Showalter, but he’s gone on to continue that rebuilding effort that was set in motion by Duquette & Co. The most notable moves under Elias’ watch have been trades of some of the few remaining veterans on the roster — Dylan Bundy, Mychal Givens and Alex Cobb among them. The only free agents the Orioles have signed to Major League deals under the current regime are Freddy Galvis, Jose Iglesias, Nate Karns and Maikel Franco (in addition to some minor league deals for veterans like Matt Harvey, Wade LeBlanc, Tommy Milone and Felix Hernandez). Both Galvis and Iglesias were traded before their contracts expired. (Karns and Franco surely would have been as well, had those signings panned out as hoped.)
Given that Elias inherited a depleted farm and proceeded to strip down an already threadbare MLB roster, it’s not a surprise that Hyde doesn’t have much to show as far as wins and losses go. By all accounts, however, he’s been a steadying presence amid persistent roster turnover, and it’s certainly hard to ignore the manner in which some young players have begun to blossom under his watch and the watch of his coaching staff.
Cedric Mullins is in the midst of a breakout season and now looks like a possible cornerstone piece. Austin Hays had a productive August and has enjoyed a massive month of September thus far. Ryan Mountcastle recently swatted his 30th homer and could get some down-the-ballot Rookie of the Year votes, even if he’s not a favorite to actually win the award. John Means has broken out as a rock-solid starter to lead an otherwise inexperienced and struggling pitching staff. None of those successes can be pinned upon the manager/coaching staff alone — player development is an organization-wide effort — but it’s Hyde and his lieutenants who are working most directly with that blossoming young talent on a day-to-day basis.
Looking ahead, it seems unlikely that the 2022 season will be a turning point in terms of a return to contention. The Orioles aren’t expected to spend heavily in free agency this winter, and while they have several intriguing young players — and more on the very near horizon — the AL East is a stacked division. In all likelihood, the Orioles won’t be aiming to contend, in earnest, until 2023 at the earliest.
Still, it’s a vote of confidence in Hyde that he’s being entrusted with another key developmental season in 2022, when top-ranked MLB prospect Adley Rutschman is expected to debut along with other ballyhooed youngsters, including top-ranked pitchers DL Hall and Grayson Rodriguez. Time will tell whether the O’s decide he’s the right person to helm the ship as the rebuild draws to an actual close, but the new contract is ostensibly a step in that direction.
Proper move. A rebuild needs some type of continuity in the areas of front office and game management.
Otherwise I’m sure Ricky Renteria would have happily taken the helm of another tanking team
Ricky only gets to take over teams that are on the cusp of being good so he can be fired right before they go on to win.
True… Poor Ricky
Ricky don’t lose that number
Bang Bang
It’s the only (and proper) decision for Elias.
Why Not Fire Him?
Next season will be another dumpster fire no matter who manages…..And he has a contract for next year. You think old Petey wants to pay 2 guys to do 1 job????
Why fire him?
Why fire him? This may shock you. But managing isn’t only about wins and losses. Given the team he’s had wins are actually a bad thing.
He can run, but he can’t Hyde
Let’s go Os
Yeah looking forward to another 110 loss season in 2022!
Yeah. To Montreal.
Come back later to two chirps lol
The Orioles have had a “historic” year, no wonder they are keeping him, its a no-brainer…..
His handling of the starting rotation and the bullpen has been horrible. He will be done after next year.
Indeed, because the staff is chocked full of Cy Young candidates!
Can’t win the Kentucky Derby on a plough horse. Hyde is working with so little.
O’s fans: Hyde can’t manage a bullpen! The team makes too many fundamental mistakes! Hyde has to go!
The rest of MLB: Your team has no talent. Why are you blaming Hyde?
Fans tend to all say the same thing: fire the manager even when the manager is not the problem. Based on 2021 results, there might not be a single MLB manager who deserves to be fired.
The one that has does a very poor job, given all the talent he has been given many times in his managerial career, is Aaron Boone of NYY. I would agree otherwise.
Boone has been fine. He masterfully guided the team to 100-plus wins a couple of years ago despite an unusual rash of injuries. He also fell victim to Astros shenanigans. That adds up to a solid managerial record entering 2021.
As for the current team, you are overrating the talent. Given their roster, I never understood why the Yankees were considered a World Series favorite entering the season. The overall talent was, and is, far from exceptional. Nobody in their right mind thought the starting pitching was anything other than mediocre. And no one should have expected LeMahieu to continue hitting .360. Take a close look at rosters. They are the fourth-most talented team in their division. What the heck is the manager supposed to do?
I think Brandon Hyde is the third best manager in that division, and that’s with me thinking he’s a bad manager. Montoyo and Boone’s teams have been able to make their way to 90+ wins in spite of them.
Really nobody thought the Red Sox were more talented than the Yankees going into the season. And Yankee pitching has been better than their hitting pretty much all year.
The performances of those guys in years since show it was a fluke. The fundamentals are missing with the team playing lethargically in too many games. The COVID Ccases helped them in that it shook up the roster and brought in guys that injected some life. They were excruciating to watch. Errors, base running, etc. just an awful team to watch, even if you’re rooting against them.
Fans should be ignored because every single one of them don’t know anything about baseball.
I’m an Orioles fan and I’ve heard zero people complain about Brandon Hyde lol who is this coming from?
Go to Roch’s blog or Melewski’s blog. It’s quite rampant there.
I’m pretty sure you have no clue what you’re talking about.
They’re blaming him because they don’t want to admit that the “rebuild” is smoke and mirrors thus far. In their view, it’s more palatable to replace one person than 22 or so. I’m giving them credit for the “Ms”: Mancini, Mountcastle, Means and Mullins.
Orioles aren’t far enough along in their rebuild to make a change. They have made zero forward improvement and will give Hyde another shot at 120 losses
Yeah I guess that top ranked farm system isn’t forward improvement.
Even if Rodriguez is the second coming of Jim Palmer in Baltimore they are nowhere close to competing with the rest of the east next season and by 2024 when they may be ready Hyde will be gone
It certainly doesn’t help when Machado, Gausman, Bundy, etc have (so far) been converted into absolutely nothing.
Great Googly Moogly
Heck… he’s already shown that he gets “out managed” by almost every other manager. So let him lead another 95-105 loss team…smh
He doesn’t get outmanaged. He gets out-talented.
Chef go back to your kitchen =)
Hyde was out manged and outmaneuvered several times, he is turrible
Given the lack of talent he has at his disposal, and in that division, what’s he supposed to maneuver? Unless the guy knows how to clone Mussina, Palmer and Ripken and is just holding out there isn’t much the guy can do.
Given the talent on the Orioles I don’t know how any of these simpletons can say he was out managed ever. It’s easy to pretend like you’re knowledge enough to know why the manager didn’t use who you think is the best guy, it’s hard to be smart enough to know why the manager in a lost season isn’t actually trying to win every game. But then again you’d have to be smart enough to understand baseball and how tanking works and simply put, baseball fans aren’t smart at all.
Assistant Manager Jeckyll will also be returning.
I’ll be honest, I had no idea who was managing the Orioles this year.
We’ll be honest, we really don’t care.
And yet you took the time out of your little life to speak to me. I feel so honored.
This isn’t shocking. The Orioles will certainly be better in 2022 simply with the addition of Adley Rutschman, but Rutschman won’t fix the pervasive issues with the O’s rotation and bullpen. There’s a couple of young arms who could pan out for Baltimore and they have a solid arm in Means. I’d say they are still a few years from realistically contending though.
The Os have the top pitching prospect in baseball too – and one or two behind him that should be pretty good
TINSTAAPP
Retaining Hyde is a sign they know they’re still far from contention. Not saying he should be fired at all, but it’s the way teams operate. He’s the “losing and rebuild” manager. Once they have a good core in place, Hyde will be replaced.
I could go either way. The Orioles are a dumpster fire, and a trio of Earl Weaver, Joe Torre, and Tony LaRussa (A’s era) wouldn’t be able to get the Orioles to .500. The only obvious chemistry problem was Chris Davis, and he’s at least getting all those AAAA players on the roster to be thankful about having an MLB job with no one undercutting him. That said he’s underperformed his Pythagorean W/L each of 3 years and that’s saying something with this group.
He’s given a “pitching staff” that is a full run above the next worse AL club and over 1.5 points worse than league average. You can’t find competent starters to go 6 solid innings consistently, you fry what little there is of the bullpen which was done by May 10. They’ve interchanged a bunch of AAAA players who have no business being in MLB beyond Mullins, Mountcastle, Mancini, Means, and Hays. Ever notice how like 90% of the players the Orioles put on waivers go unclaimed? There’s a reason.
It really doesn’t matter who manages the team right now as long as it isn’t someone like Ray Miller who will destroy any semblance of building confidence by berating an underachieving team in public, or Phil Regan who would do worse by deploying incorrectly, or Dave Trembley who would sit Mullins, Mountcastle, Mancini, and Hays on the same day (every Sunday).
I don’t believe a word about “pitching prospects” until they pitch at the MLB level for a year or two. Brian Matusz was hyped nearly as much. Daniel Cabrera was the reason why the Orioles didn’t need Randy Johnson – they had his prototype in their system. Hunter Harvey was hyped big time until they discovered he was made out of tinfoil and paper clips.
I don’t think they’ll be competitive even by 2023. They are going to have to go outside the organization to obtain at least 2 or 3 quality starters and now, several relievers (unlike the pre-2012 squad, there is no bullpen talent on the team). Just hoping by 2023 they aren’t flirting with 100 losses, but they are a long way from .500 much less a playoff run. Then the cycle starts again because the young guys like Mountcastle, Mullins, et al will approach 5 years on and the Orioles won’t pay for them.
They play hard, they just suck outside of most mentioned above. Can’t blame the manager for that.
I like Hyde and I know is not his fault to have the players he has, specially the starters and the bullpen but honestly, I believe they should have gone with a more experinced manager, having a rookie team and a rookie manager at the same time wasn’t smart IMO I think money was the issue, in my mind, Showalter would have done a better job, not making a winnig team but better record, problem, it was expensive to keep him
In other words we will keep a 50 win a year Mgr because nobody else would even consider this nightmare