Heading into the 2025 MLB season, the Baltimore Orioles were the only other team in the American League besides the New York Yankees predicted to win over 90 games. And after Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole was ruled out for the year with Tommy John surgery, and reigning Rookie of the Year Luis Gil injured for an extended period of time, the Orioles were looked at as the favourites to represent the American League in this year's World Series by many.
Now, one month into the season, they're looking like the complete opposite of such.
So, where does it all begin? The finger of shame and disappointment gravitates towards General Manager Mike Elias.
Manager Brandon Hyde is by no means innocent in the team's woes this season.
However, the root cause of the problem is undoubtedly Elias at this point and it's going to be the reason why what was once a wide open window to World Series success feels like it's been slammed shut and nailed down like in some cartoon.
Mike Elias
After former General Manager Dan Duquette left Elias with basically nothing to work with in 2018, and an iron-fist owner (John Angelos) who lacked the common sense to cut a check for a player, or local broadcaster, who was worth it, the only hope the team's fans held on to with the hiring was this guy who built the stellar Houston Astros teams that eventually went on to win the 2017 and 2020 World Series with the main core he created, asteriks and all.
However, in his time with the Orioles, Elias started to look like a miracle worker right away.
He drafted stars in Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman - the two cornerstones of the current Orioles team. They went on a historic streak without getting swept for 106 straight series and it seemed to be all around Rutschman as the franchise's new leader (tweet below from 2023).
Other Elias gems included Jordan Westburg, Heston Kjerstad, and the former No. 1 overall prospect in Jackson Holliday. So, he undoubtedly nailed it when it came to prospects who will (possibly) be good on a consistent level for their career and can build a team around.
He also drafted prospect studs in Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby - oh, wait. Elias traded them for a veteran pitcher in Trevor Rodgers who can't even go five innings in Double-A ball without getting hammered.
So let's check on those two real quick.
At the end of April, Stowers was batting .323 and recently hit a pinch-hit home run while Norby hit .263, along with a game-tying home run recently as well.
If he were still in Baltimore, Stowers would be first on the Orioles in batting average by a wide margin while Norby would be fourth.
After the team's rough start this year, Elias addressed the media to which he said he believes the Orioles are a "playoff team."
Not a World Series contender. Not the best team in the league...simply a playoff team.
I couldn't help but shake my head at this comment. Then, when you dive down the incompetent Elias rabbit hole, it just gets even worse. Some Orioles fans are running off the high of winning their first series of the season by taking two of three from the Yankees to wrap up April.
But Orioles fans are about to know everything I'm going to talk about. For other fans, let me lay this entire thing out for you and why the Baltimore Orioles are in some deep trouble and should, without doubt, be past the point of the word "disappointment."
Free Agency Insanity
This past offseason, Elias signed outfielder Tyler O'Neill to a three-year, $49.5 million contract. It was the very first free agent contract under Elias that was for more than one year since he took over in 2018.
O'Neill, who was brought in to replace Anthony Santander as the team's new power-hitting outfielder, is hitting a beautiful (sarcasm) .215 batting average with two home runs, which is tied for last among Orioles - then he got hurt.
So let me repeat this - in the seven years Elias has been in the role of general manager, he has not signed a single free agent to a multi-year contract until O'Neill - and even that might not be a multi-year contract. Why? Because it includes an opt-out after this season.
So, technically, it can still be a one-year deal.
"Well, the Orioles aren't as big of a market as the Dodgers or Yankees so they can't spend the money."
Nobody can. That's why they're the Dodgers and Yankees. It's why there have been discussions about how baseball's entire situation around payroll is completely screwed up.
But the Orioles are still in the top half of baseball markets across the league. Their new ownership is backed by some of the wealthiest people on planet Earth - I don't want to hear it.
"But they do spend money." Yes, they without a doubt do. The problem is that they spend money on the wrong people.
Baltimore spent $33 million this offseason on Charlie Morton (41), Tomoyuki Sugano (35), and Kyle Gibson (37). Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks gave former Orioles ace Corbin Burnes $35 million per year this past offseason in a six-year deal. And it wasn't even about the money - it was the years. Elias refused to sign a pitcher to a long-term deal that ultimately paid more at the end of it all.
So in a way, it's about both, no matter what argument fans make by saying, "Well, Burnes signed with Arizona because of his family." Here's a wild idea - make him an offer he can't refuse.
New owner David Rubenstein, who was seen by Orioles fans as the second coming of Jesus Christ to free them, and Elias, from the shackles of minimal player salaries, seems to be oddly not living up to the hype fans originally thought.
Fans gave Elias the benefit of the doubt under Angelos and not being able to spend money - but now Elias has shown maybe it wasn't all Angelos.
Rubenstein stated multiple times last season, and yet again this year, that he is willing to spend whatever money he has to in order to create a World Series-winning Orioles team.
So, unless Rubenstein is lying, which is highly unlikely, Elias is the one to point the blame towards in not bringing in the players this team needs to be World Series contenders.
But that window isn't closing - it may already be shut.
By The Numbers
Baseball has a specific fan base that loves numbers more than they love the game itself. So let me break this down while some fans reading this push their glasses up on their noses.
Baltimore's starting rotation has a 6.04 earned run average (ERA), third worst behind the Miami Marlins (6.59) and Colorado Rockies (6.53). Last season? The Orioles' starting rotation was fifth-best in all of baseball.
The Orioles' 6.00 starting pitcher ERA in April alone is the worst in the Elias era. Even the god awful Orioles of 2021, who lost 110 games and finished the year with the worst starting ERA, had a better April than this team did.
Since Easter, the Orioles have a 3-7 record while being outscored 75-24. Not in a single one of those games did the Orioles shut out any team nor did they once score more than five runs in a game.
In the month of April, the Orioles scored the fifth fewest runs (88) while recording the fewest hits (164) in the entire league by a whopping 16-hit difference from the next worse - the Colorado Rockies with 180.
The same exact Rockies team that is breaking franchise records with how god awful their hitting is and are on pace to lose an MLB record 130+ games.
Baltimore's 164 hits aren't just the fewest in baseball in the month of April, it's also just the fourth time since 1990 that the Orioles finished below 170 hits for the month, one of the others in which was also under Elias in 2022 (144 hits).
The other two were in 1991 (136 hits, one shy of being dead last) and 1990 (161 hits, which ranked 15th in the league).
That Orioles team in 1991 finished the year 67-95 - also the same one that finished their April with the second-worst ERA in the league with 5.19, still better than this year. As for 1990, they finished 76-85.
This year, the Orioles finished April with a 12-18 record that spells bad news for what Elias thinks is a "playoff team." Under his rule as GM, the Orioles have finished April with a losing record three years (2019, 2021, 2022).
And in each of those three years, the Orioles failed to make the playoffs every single time. Only in 2023 and 2024 did they finish April with a winning record - made the playoffs each of those years before being swept in both the 2024 Wild Card and 2023 American League Divisional Series.
But what was Elias' gigantic answer to improving the starting rotation? Bringing in another starting pitcher (Gibson) willing to join teammate Morton in the retirement home - and he got hammered in his first start back with the Orioles.
Brilliant stuff, Elias.
But neither Morton nor Gibson should receive heavy blame. At their age, being offered a $15 million contract (Morton) or even $5.25 million (Gibson), who could blame them for signing with the Orioles?
"But they can't account for all the injuries." Yes, they can. It's called signing depth - all the great teams do it.
But let's lay off the starting pitching for a second and focus on something else the Orioles have been god awful at - hitting.
In the month of April, the 2025 Orioles finished dead last in batting average (.206), dead last in doubles (28), second-to-last in on-base percentage (.281), 27th in slugging percentage (.352), 26th in stolen bases (15), 27th in WAR (0.4), and 26th in walks (73).
So not only is the Orioles starting rotation an embarrassment on the mound outside of Sugano, but they've been even as much of a joke in the batter's box outside of Ramon Urias, Cedric Mullins, and Ryan O'Hearn, two of which Hyde seems to refuse to play every game because of his asinine obsession with lefty-righty matchups.
Or, because he needs the bench guys to get playing time with his little league mentality.
The Orioles are the third-worst team in baseball - but at least everyone gets to play!
In 2023, the Orioles under Elias and Hyde were at a peak in terms of hitting. Their .287 batting average was the best in baseball as was their OPS at .837.
This year? Total opposite and that falls on both of their shoulders.
Brandon Hyde
"But they'll get tired early on if he plays the same guys over and over again."
I can't help but laugh at this ridiculous argument. I understand that catchers have to rotate much like goalies do in hockey. But there's no reason why a guy on the Orioles hitting well (O'Hearn) should be benched because he needs a break or because he's facing a pitcher that throws on the same side he hits from.
Play the guys that are on a hot streak - it's that simple.
For example, in the recent Yankees series, the Orioles won the first game 4-3. O'Hearn went 1-3 with a home run and three RBI while Holliday went 1-3 with a run scored.
The very next game, Hyde benched both of them, along with Kjerstad, strictly because the Yankees had a left-handed pitcher, Carlos Rodon, on the mound to start the game - Orioles lost 15-3 with just three hits.
"But even if they played that game, they probably wouldn't have won anyways."
Correct, and that circles back to what I mentioned earlier about their abysmal starting pitching - funny how that works, ain't it?
Then, in the final game of the series and of April entirely, O'Hearn got on base twice (two walks), Holliday went 1-4 with a run and RBI, and Kjerstad went 2-4 - Baltimore won the game 5-4 - shocker!
At the beginning of the season, Westburg hit two home runs against the Toronto Blue Jays in a game. The next day, Hyde took him out of the lineup - they lost.
Heading into their April 23rd game against the Washington Nationals (which they lost), Baltimore was 1-7 without Urias in the lineup and 9-9 when he was. And guess what, in all nine of those losses, Urias either recorded a hit or got on base at least once as well.
So, shouldn't Hyde play his best bats to give them the best chance of winning?
And remember the Kansas City Royals series, Orioles fans? I try not to.
These losses have some fans saying, "Losses in April don't matter", for some stupid reason or another. When in reality, they all stack up in the end - every game counts.
Those "few extra wins" in the early season eventually helped the Detroit Tigers make the postseason last year. And now look at them - the best team in the American League after doing what needed to be done to improve their team in the offseason.
Not only is this lineup headache every game a problem but it also shows off Hyde's inability to learn from his mistakes.
Sure, it's not his fault he was given this starting rotation, but he's still taking pitchers out whenever they're pitching well.
Hyde can't sit there and complain about relief pitchers getting tired because of starting pitchers failing to get into the seventh inning when he will bring in those same relief pitchers every single night because he thinks three batters is the limit no matter how incredible they're pitching.
Hyde, however, was given a pretty solid hitting lineup to work with, yet he's still terrified of playing O'Hearn, Holliday, and Kjerstad against left-handed pitchers in favor of right-handed batters like Mateo, even when the stats prove they're better anyway.
So this entire thing with Elias and Hyde goes both ways.
What's there to do?
For starters, Hyde and Elias need to go. Not simply because I want to see two guys lose their jobs, but because fans are tired of seeing the same mistakes being made over and over when they're the ones putting money into Hyde's and Elias' pockets to begin with.
Don't pull a Denver Nuggets and fire your head honcho and general manager right before the season ends - do it now.
Part of the blame has to be placed on owner David Rubenstein - it has to. All these media interviews in which he spouts winning this and winning that, paying whatever he has to in order to bring a World Series team back to Baltimore has been nothing but hot smoke because, on a certain level, if Hyde and Elias are just going to continue what they always do, then Rubenstein sitting and doing nothing is enabling them to run the team into the ground.
One of their top prospects in Coby Mayo finished April with a .268/.368/.567/.935 slash line in Triple-A Norfolk with six home runs and 21 RBI.
Mayo is batting .289 (11-38) in his last 10 April games with two home runs and seven RBI.
Remember that book of hitting stats Iearlier? Yeah, maybe calling him up to put a bat in the lineup wouldn't be the worst idea.
Jorge Mateo has been nothing of importance this season. He's fast, yes. But so are a lot of other guys on the team. Mateo has been god awful at the plate all season long and is no gold-glover in the field (he already has four total errors on the year, one of which you watched earlier in the article).
Fans have said not to bring Mayo up and to keep him in Norfolk to keep his trade value high, just in case he doesn't look promising in the majors.
Then, if that's the case, why wait? Trade him now and get a bonafied starting pitcher who can immediately make a difference for this team. Otherwise, we're going to need Sugano, at 35 years old, to continue to handle the weight of this abysmal team as their ace.
Since Elias took over as GM, he's only drafted 65 pitchers - and not a single one of them has yet to pitch in the major leagues. It's one thing if he does that, but it's another when he doesn't even bother to use the remedy - signing top-tier veteran starting pitchers via free agency - making it clear he's just another GM stuck in his ways.
While teams across the league are signing their standout rookies or young stars to new contract extensions, Elias hasn't gotten a single deal done.
It would be of no surprise to anyone if this team unfortunately becomes sellers at the deadline, meaning Mullins will probably be on the move because God knows Elias won't sign him to an extension if he continues to hit like he has been.
But hey, some concessions are cheaper this year, they have a new surround system in Oriole Park, and even new bobbleheads of Rubenstein. That'll get the fans riled up more than a winning team, right?
Conclusion
Tired of the ignorance. Being a general manager or manager isn't complicated. Busy, sure. But complicated? Spare me.
The formula is simple - you draft field players well, you go out and sign great pitchers (or vice versa), you play the best players on your team every day, you call up guys who are raking in the minors, you cut the dead weight in the majors, you win ball games, fans come out to see them play, you profit - rinse and repeat.
Can the Orioles turn it around? Well, they sure haven't given fans any reason to believe they will, that's for sure. Whether it's the stats or just watching a team that looks like they don't even want to win ball games, fans have legitimate reasons to be upset right now.
