Peter Schmuck: Someone always has to pay, and it’s usually the wrong guy

The Orioles had to do something, because it had all become too embarrassing. The performance of the team in the loss to the Nationals on Friday night was so inept and the slump the O’s are in is now so deep that the ownership and the front office couldn’t let themselves be seen doing nothing.

So, they took a page from baseball’s oldest playbook. Fire the manager at that moment knowing that it can’t really get any worse than this, then take credit when the team starts playing better.

Timing, in baseball and in life, really is everything, and I’ll be very surprised if the Orioles don’t start playing better under interim guy Tony Mansolino and bench coach Robinson Chirinos. Because it would be almost impossible not to.

Obviously, general manager Mike Elias wasn’t going to fire himself, but he was right when he said he was ultimately responsible for the poor condition of his team.

He is the guy who put it together. He’s the guy who guaranteed $49 million to an injury-prone outfielder Tyler O’Neill in a three-year deal that includes an out clause that I’m pretty sure the team will be hoping he exercises at the end of the season.

Elias is also the guy that made a great trade for starting pitcher Zach Eflin last summer and what is looking like a very good decision to sign Japanese starter Tomoyuki Segano over the offseason.

He also traded valuable prospects Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers to the Miami Marlins last year for ineffective starter Trevor Rogers, which now looks like one of those deals that the club might regret for a very long time.

He may have done everything he could to replace free-agent pitching ace Corbin Burnes and slugger Anthony Santander, but it was not nearly enough and that has been reflected in the docile look of the team. Maybe that wouldn’t have made any difference considering the dire injury situation the O’s have had since early in spring training, but it’s all part of the ugly mosaic that has been the first quarter of what was supposed to be a very successful season.

The point is, when a season goes this wrong, there is always plenty of blame to go around, even when a lot of this is nobody’s fault.

Hyde did everything this team asked of him. He suffered through a long and painful rebuilding period and guided the Orioles through a string of three very competitive seasons that included two playoff appearances.

The O’s won more regular-season games than any other American League team (including the billion-dollar babies in New York) but all that bought him were the greater expectations that come with that kind of success and a growing segment of the fan base with a very short memory.

I’m already on record, writing only 24 hours ago, that this would be a bad idea. They should have ignored the social media panic and shown more confidence in the overall strength of the organization.

Two years ago, the Yankees finished fourth in the AL East during a season in which Brandon Hyde’s team won 101 games. There was a public clamor for manager Aaron Boone’s head, but the Yankees stayed the course and went to the World Series last year. Obviously, they are in a different economic universe, but confident organizations can get through a bad stretch and actually grow from the experience. I hope that happens here, because firing managers can be habit-forming.

Obviously, owner David Rubenstein hears all the noise and maybe he ordered Elias to make this change. That would be his prerogative. If it was Elias who couldn’t stand the heat that was building rapidly on both social and traditional media, I’m reminded of a quote on that subject from Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda.

Somebody in the media (it wasn’t me) asked him if he realized how much the fans wanted him to make a certain personnel decision when the Dodgers were struggling. He was quick to reply,

“When I start listening to the fans,’’ he said, “pretty soon I’ll be sitting up there with them.”