Why Brandon Hyde's dismissal will not revive the Orioles' season

The Baltimore Orioles have been unraveling right before our eyes. A disappointing start to the 2025 season has quickly snowballed into organizational panic. Over the weekend, the club made the move everyone knew was coming — firing manager Brandon Hyde. But the aftermath made one thing brutally clear. The problem in Baltimore goes far deeper than the manager.

The Orioles didn’t just fire Hyde and bounce back. Instead, they followed it up by getting embarrassed in back-to-back games by a scrappy but still lowly Washington Nationals — a team with promise, but still one of the more talent-depleted rosters in baseball. Not only did Baltimore get swept, but it also gave up a 10-piece in both of the remaining games, getting punched in the mouth by a Nationals squad with nothing to lose. It wasn’t the response of a team waking up — it was the collapse of a team already out of answers.

Interim manager Tony Mansolino is saying all the right things, trying to convince his players and the media that there’s still enough season left to right the ship. But let’s be honest — the math isn’t in their favor. The Orioles sit 11 1/2 games out of first place, staring up at all four teams in the AL East. Even a miraculous turnaround doesn’t guarantee a Wild Card spot. And here’s the truth no one in the front office seems willing to own up to —  this team’s pitching is nowhere near postseason-caliber.

Brandon Hyde paid the price, but Baltimore’s front office built this disaster

Hyde wore the blame, as managers often do. But he didn’t build this flawed pitching staff. The Orioles have one of the weakest rotations in baseball and a bullpen that has done little to stop the bleeding. Even if the offense wakes up tomorrow and averages six runs per game, it won’t matter if they give up ten. You can swap out the managers all you want — the result will be the same until the front office invests in real pitching help.

What’s worse is the lack of energy coming from the players themselves. There was no spark, rallying cry, or visible fight in their response to Hyde’s dismissal. What followed instead was a sign of defeat, fueled by lifeless comments and an even worse performance. There was no chip on their shoulder, no “win it for the skipper” moment. They looked like a team that saw the writing on the wall and felt powerless to stop it.

Mansolino might bring a fresh voice, but he doesn’t have a magic wand with him. The Orioles' front office has left too many holes in this pitching staff and not enough time to fix them. Baltimore isn't climbing out of this mess unless it makes aggressive moves to overhaul its pitching.

With twice as many losses as wins, the Orioles aren’t positioning themselves as buyers at the July 31 trade deadline. Like it or not, they’re heading straight toward a fire sale. Hyde’s gone, but the real problems are still here. And they’re only going to get harder to ignore.

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