Hyde's final pregame media session of 2020

The Orioles are finishing their "two-part season" today, as manager Brandon Hyde calls it.

Players who were hot early and faded this month. A team that made a run at the playoffs and fell hard down the stretch.

"I think a lot of guys are disappointed in the last 20 games and how they're finishing up, and that's really them putting pressure on themselves, wishing from a team aspect they could have done more to help us in the last 20 games," Hyde said today in his final pregame Zoom conference call of 2020.

"The first 40 games, I thought we played really well. I thought we were right around a .500 club that had an opportunity to win a handful of games more than that at that point and then we just ran into a little bit of a buzz saw here the last few weeks where we just didn't swing the bats very well and a lot of guys went through some tough times offensively kind of together and had a tough time getting out of that. So I think there's some disappointment a little bit.

"Listen, I'm proud of our guys. I think we have gotten better. Being a consistent major league player is easier said than done. We've had the toughest schedule of anybody in the game. Our guys have improved, they've posted up, they come out to play and it just didn't happen for us offensively the last few weeks. But there is a lot of positives going forward. But there is some disappointment on some of our offensive players about how they finished up."

The defensive breakdowns also stood out.

"I think as we started to struggle swinging the bat a little bit, our defense wasn't as good and we didn't play as well defensively as we did the first month of the season," Hyde said. "I thought we played better team defense, I thought we made the routine play a lot more. I don't think we were perfect and there were still areas we needed to improve at that point, but I think the defense has fallen off the last few weeks and that's because of some frustration from some of our position players, their offensive frustration. And that's inexperience and that's just not having a ton of veterans to help pick up the pieces a little bit.

"Young guys kind of going through this together. The one veteran that we have, (José) Iglesias, has been an incredible voice for our guys, somebody who sits down individually and talks to a lot of our guys. I met with Iggy this morning and he's been a huge help with that. We just don't have a whole lot of guys with a lot of service time up here and sometimes offensive struggles impact defensively also, and that's just an area we've got to improve. We've got to be more consistent on the defensive side."

Hyde is returning home on Monday and will stay in contact with executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. Hyde will travel back to Baltimore and down to Sarasota.

"I'll be talking to Mike every day, probably two or three times a day, for the rest of the offseason. I've only seen my family a couple days since we started summer camp, so looking forward to going home and taking the kids to school," Hyde said.

"Just being home. Taking the kids to school, picking them up, having family dinners, watching activities. Just looking forward to being around and taking my daughter to horseback riding, etc."

Hyde and Elias have been conducting exit interviews with players this weekend, which include various points of emphasis and winter instructions.

"What we feel they need to do to improve, a little recapping of the season," Hyde said. "Want to hear them talk, also, get their perspective on a lot of things.

"I just think we have a lot of young and inexperienced players that are going to continue to improve and this offseason is big for a lot of our guys, to go home and decompress and then work on improving areas that they and we also feel like they need to improve on. I thought we did take a step forward in a lot of way. I thought a lot of guys took a step forward from last year and we're just looking to continue to improve every single day."

Keegan Akin was chosen as today's starter a few days ago. Hyde hadn't made an initial commitment to the rookie.

"Just felt like he was ready to make one more start," he said. "Just wanted to make sure Keegan responded well after his last start and he did and he's ready to go today. I like watching Keegan pitch. I think he's done a nice job since he's gotten here from Bowie. It's been exciting to watch him. Excited to watch him improve and facing a good Blue Jays lineup today and I think he's going to have a good last start."