When Brandon Hyde sat at a microphone last week and declared that he was irritated at the abrupt end to the Orioles season, he spoke for a shockingly small number of Baltimoreans.
For the overwhelming bulk of Birds fans, the sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series was a not so pleasant coda to an amazing season.
Thousands, if not millions, of Charm City types got reawakened to the magic of Orioles baseball, a feeling long dormant around these parts.
As the season wore on and one series led to another and the wins stacked up like empty shells at a summertime crab feast, people around town latched on to this team in a way they hadn’t in years. Suddenly, it became cool to wear black and orange again, to get splashed and to name your sons Adley and Gunnar and Cedric, the way sons of a different baseball generation were named Cal and Brooks.
And the shorthand from the season’s sudden termination was that with young players like Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg, this will be the start of something big, a bright future of playoff appearance after playoff appearance.
But, maybe after overseeing seasons with 108 and 110 losses in two of his first three seasons as manager, Hyde is allowed to be a bit more circumspect, a little more wary of declaring that happy days are here again.
The truth is that the Orioles did underachieve in the postseason, through largely no fault of the players or Hyde. The manager is right to be ticked that his club isn’t still playing.
For all the dazzling young talent on the roster and on the way from the minors, the Orioles frankly let a golden opportunity slip away.
While Hyde made a couple of questionable calls during the Texas series, the Birds were effectively grounded in late July when general manager Mike Elias didn’t sufficiently bolster their lineup with playoff-experienced talent.
To wit, the Orioles had just six players on their postseason slate who had ever played in the playoffs before last week.
The Rangers, meanwhile, had extensive playoff experience, including shortstop Corey Seager, the 2020 World Series Most Valuable Player when he was with the Dodgers. To get that experience means you have to spend money, and that’s where Elias could be let off the hook. The Orioles started the 2023 season with the second-lowest payroll in all of baseball, while the Rangers had the second-highest in the American League.
Elias and Hyde can only cook with the groceries they’re provided and that points right to ownership, led by CEO John Angelos.
Under Angelos, the Birds have been perennially at the bottom of payroll lists. That’s great for the bottom line, but lousy for producing perennially winning baseball teams, which is what this should be all about.
The Orioles, as presently constituted and with the sting of this year’s near miss as fuel, look like they’re primed to bring Baltimore another exciting run in 2024.
But without a little more experience on his roster, Brandon Hyde isn’t likely to be any happier next October than this one.
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X, formerly known as Twitter, at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.
