Elias on managerial change: Orioles needed a different voice

Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said that while he made the decision to dismiss Brandon Hyde as manager, he did talk with owner David Rubenstein about it.

“This is something that I execute as the general manager, but when you’re making a decision as grave as changing the manager or the head coach, that’s something you consult ownership on very heavily, and I did,” Elias told reporters in Milwaukee on Tuesday. It was the first time Elias addressed the media after Saturday’s dismissal of Hyde.

“We saw a ton from him over the years, and again I want to emphatically credit the wonderful job that he did and the skill set that he has that I’m sure will continue in a fantastic career,” Elias said. “After a certain number of years, a certain group of players to go forward a bit, sometimes the organization tries something different, and that’s what we did.”

Hyde was replaced on an interim basis by Tony Mansolino, who had been the team’s third base coach. Elias declined to say whether Mansolino would be the manager through the rest of the season.

“Looking at our internal options because this is not a time of year when you [hire] external options easily, Tony had the combination of a lot of major league coaching experience but also minor league managerial experience, so that made him the best candidate in my mind,” Elias said.

The Orioles entered Tuesday night’s game in Milwaukee with a 15-31 record. Elias said that his decision wasn’t made solely on this year’s underperformance.

“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. “Now we find ourselves where we find ourselves. This has been hitting us all very hard. It’s unusual for that to be so sudden and I’m in the process of heavily evaluating everything that we do across the organization.

“That pertains to the front office, analytics department, player development, you name it. We’re looking at it very hard. To our credit, this is not something that’s been lingering for years and years. It’s something that has mounted in months. It’s been very tough on those of us in leadership positions in the organization. We’re focused on fixing it right now. 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 are on a seven-game losing streak, the longest since August 2021.

“I’m very disappointed in where we are in the standings right now,” he said. “This is a big surprise to all of us. If you look at the preseason media predictions, projections, there’s nobody that saw this to this degree. We’re pretty stunned about that. We’re reacting to it. We’re not in denial about it. I’m working to fix it as rapidly as I can.”

Hyde was in his seventh season as the Orioles’ manager. He had a record of 421-492. Only Earl Weaver, Buck Showalter and Paul Richards had more wins.

“We’re hoping that part of the solution to fixing this team will be achieved inside with a different head coaching voice,” Elias said. “So we’ve done that.”

Elias said the team needed a new voice. “Ultimately, that’s the conclusion that we reached.”

Elias wouldn’t rule out any change.

“Some of it is individualistic, ‘Let’s do something different with this player,’” he said. “Other things will involve perhaps sweeping changes to the way we do business in the Warehouse. I’m just not ready to go into it right now.”

Elias said the season can be salvaged.

“We need to play much better baseball,” he said. “This team hasn’t been fully healthy for almost a year. I don’t know that it ever will be or that any team could expect to be. We have perhaps a league-leading amount of injuries right now. We need to get some of that back.”

“We don’t have our head in the sand about our offensive struggles. Guys are just hitting the ball really hard to other spots, and hopefully that evens out. At this point, we’ve dug ourselves quite a hole, and there’s plenty of time to play better baseball. We’ll see where the standings end up.”

Elias continues to defend himself and express confidence that he can lead this team out of its decline.

“I have had a lot of success, I believe, in my career, and I think that we did a really strong job in building up the franchise to the position that it was in at least through the end of 2024,” Elias said.

“A big point of pride for me in my career has been to adapt in a sport where you’ve got to do that, and where it’s almost impossible to have consistent success. What we’re going through right now and the degree to which we’re going through it is well below anyone’s standards, including mine and this is deeply disappointing to me, and I’m doing everything in my power to correct it and improve it going forward.”

Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.