The Baltimore Orioles faced the Washington Nationals, a year after Brandon Hyde was fired following a loss to the same team.
The 4-3 defeat last year sunk the Orioles to 15-28 on the season. While Hyde was the one who got the boot, the 2025 Orioles being as bad as they were had a lot more to do with the roster construction. Managers exist to absorb criticism and be the fall guy when the team underperforms.
Front Office Under Fire
After Hyde’s dismissal, Mike Elias addressed the media. He offered platitudes about being disappointed and fixing the team’s issues. Elias said the starting pitching staff had been a huge problem, and he put that on himself and the front office in terms of roster construction.
The Orioles were recently blown out by the Washington Nationals, a team that traded away its best pitcher in the offseason in anticipation of being one of the worst teams in the league. The Orioles currently sit at 20-26. Their only saving grace is that somehow the entire American League is playing just as poorly as they are, and despite their slow start, they’re still just 1.5 games out of a playoff spot.
Repeating Past Mistakes
The team’s current position is only two games better in the loss column than they were a year ago when Hyde was fired. The Orioles got off to a terrible start last year because Elias and his front office did not put together a major league-caliber starting rotation. Elias fired Hyde and promised to fix the problem.
A year later, the team is almost in the exact same position because the front office made the exact same mistake again.
Questions About Team’s Direction
The Orioles have the worst run differential in all of baseball. Watching the team on the field and seeing where their lineup, pitching, and defense rank compared to the rest of the league, this looks much more like a team destined for the top of the draft than a playoff spot. A year later, the team is almost in the exact same position because the front office made the exact same mistake again.
They cheaped out on the rotation again. They didn’t make the big signing. They didn’t make the big trade. They played it safe with one-year deals for aging veterans Chris Bassitt and Zach Eflin and targeted an “undervalued” starter in Shane Baz in a trade.
If the Orioles want to change the results they’re getting on the field, they need to address the source of the problem, which is that their front office has proven incapable of building a quality major league rotation.