A few notes on the Elias and Hyde press conferences

During the first day of the Orioles offseason, executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde took numerous questions from reporters trying to assess what went wrong again for the Orioles with a quick out in the playoffs.

Elias spoke for over 30 minutes.

After a 91-71 regular season, and 192 wins, the second-most in the majors since the start of last year, the O’s went 0-2 this October after going 0-3 last year against Texas.

“The expectations, I think, for this season were different. We didn’t meet them,” said Elias. “We all feel that. And it has applied a different kind of pressure that is new for a lot of people in this building. The big leagues can do that to you.

“I am optimistic, bullish, I believe in this group going forward, but it’s not going to just happen automatically. We’re going to have to put in the right work this winter. Everyone is going to have to look internally. Self assess, self correct.”

A big question to answer and try to fix – why did the runs dry up?

Through July, the Orioles team OPS of .774 led MLB and they were first in homers and third scoring 5.07 runs per game.

But from Aug. 1 on, when they went 26-27, Baltimore batters produced 4.4 runs per game, 13^th in the majors. They fell to 11^th in homers and to 15^th with an OPS of .702.

They scored one run in two playoff losses.

“In the context of a second half where the sort of run creation just dissipated in the second half, there were health reasons for that, but I’m not going to pretend that was the entirety of it, especially with the quick postseason,” said Elias.

“I think there are growing pains and it’s not just for the players. That is organizationally, whether that’s me, the processes we put in place, the approaches that we have put in place, the entirety of our baseball operation is experiencing growing pains. It would be naïve to not expect that to happen, but it would be a failure on my part if we’re not able to adjust.”

He indicated everything will be looked at, everything discussed as the O’s decide what changes and/or what level of changes they may need to make.

Hyde is back: In the least surprising news, if we can even call it that, of the press conference, Elias confirmed that Hyde will return in 2025. Anyone that has been paying attention to how this organization works and is run and the close professional relationship between Elias and Hyde had to be sure this would be true. Yes, of course, it is.

“We have been working extraordinarily closely and successfully to bring this organization out of a very dreary spot,” Elias said. “And have produced a team that won 100 games, won the East. And won 91 this year. Kind of a rare back-to-back Oriole playoff team. And one that I believe is positioned for continued success.”

On another topic, are the Orioles too reliant on homers and slugging, I asked Elias?

“Definitely experienced the frustration of that. Who didn’t,” he said. “Been around baseball and a lot of the very best information out there in baseball my entire life and career and getting hits, getting RBI with runners in scoring position – there is a lot of evidence that can be kind of difficult to control in a year-over-year, month-to-month basis.

“That said, I am going to behave as though it is under our control, and we are going to examine everything about our offensive approach, teachings, the mix of personnel, the kind of things that you mentioned and put ourselves in position to where we feel like we have addressed any potential shortcomings there.

“Because I don’t believe it’s necessarily all chance. I do think there are things that our organization and ultimately our players can do to improve our odds in that front. Because it’s not a good experience going through that for months where we are struggling to get runners in from second base. That wasn’t the case last year. We were great at it. With a lot of the same guys. So, a lot of confidence that can correct next year but it’s going to involve some work by us.”

Holliday’s late-year hit parade: Okay, hit parade may be a bit over the top, but Jackson Holliday went 4-for-5 in the final two games of the O’s regular season, after they had clinched a playoff spot.

As it turned out, Holliday made a big batting adjustment by eliminating his high leg kick with the pitch incoming for a quick toe tap that seemed to work quite well in those games.

There were scouts that at one time felt the high leg kick could hinder Holliday in the majors. The O’s made a change and Holliday was on board with it. The 4-for-5 results provided nice feedback.

“I really liked his swing a lot. I thought it was way simpler,” Hyde said of the change. “He was getting his foot down early. He was able to be on time with the fastball a little more, especially the elevated fastball. And so, he took 97 with ride off the left-field wall in Minnesota when he got his foot down early. And it just had less movement. Less things going on with his swing.

“That is something he was working on with the hitting guys here for a couple weeks. And I think I’m sure they will tinker with things this offseason as well. But I really like the adjustment that they made.”

Perhaps that leg kick is gone forever.

“He loved it,” Hyde said of Holliday. “I didn’t say anything at first. I knew they were doing stuff with him and I knew he was open to it. I wanted to make sure I followed up after I saw a couple of at-bats about how he was able to get his foot down in time. The swing was a lot shorter. And his eyes were wide open. He loved how it felt.”

Here is video evidence of Holliday losing the leg kick in Minnesota, click here.