Elias confirms Hyde's return in 2025 and talks coaches, Rutschman, payroll, analytics and much more

Mike Elias’ annual season-ending press conference lasted 36 minutes today at Camden Yards. The time wasn’t an issue.

It was the date.

The Orioles thought they’d be playing games instead of packing and heading home. The sixth-year executive vice president/general manager didn’t want to reflect only a few days into October.

The Royals swept the best-of-three Wild Card series and traveled to New York for the Division Series. Some Orioles players and coaches returned to the ballpark today, including major league field coordinator Tim Cossins, pitchers Dean Kremer and Seranthony Domínguez and infielder Jorge Mateo, to grab the rest of their belongings. Everyone believed they had a chance to hoist a World Series trophy, but they didn’t get close to it.

“Clearly a very disappointing, bitter ending, whatever word you want to use. I think a lot of those words were used last night by the players and those of us in the organization that spoke publicly,” Elias said.

“I don’t have much more to add from the emotions that we all feel after the disappointing end to the season. All that I want to say and can say right now is that I am going to work tirelessly to make adjustments and improve and put us in the position to have a better outcome than we just had. My staff and I will not rest this winter, and we will put ourselves in that position. There is a lot to be confident about with this team’s positioning going forward into 2025. I don’t want to discard that and all of the optimism that this group of players deserves with their accomplishments despite the difficult second half, despite another early playoff exit, which makes this press conference that I’m doing a lot more difficult the second time with that being the case.

“There’s a lot that goes into that, but it is my responsibility to have that not be the case and make it better, and I’m going to be laser-focused over the next few weeks in preparing for the offseason and then throughout the offseason in doing whatever we can to get over this hump. … It’s been a tough night. Today is a tough day. This is all very raw, very fresh, and the thrust of what I want to say right now is the seriousness with which we will be attacking questions about what we’ve done well, but more importantly what we can do better, what we need to self-examine and adjust starting this offseason and going into next season, so that this very promising, very talented group can reach a better facsimile of its potential in the postseason.”

The immediate action from the Orioles after Wednesday night was to grieve, get over it and start thinking about ways to tackle the offseason. Roll up the sleeves – again in a dry shirt rather than the one drenched in champagne and beer after the clinching.

“It’s two games, but we do this two years in a row, and in the context of a second half where the sort of run creation just dissipated in the second half,” Elias said. “There were health reasons for that, but I’m not going to pretend that that was the entirety of it, especially with the way that the quick postseason went. I think there are growing pains, and it’s not just for the players, it’s organizationally. Whether that’s me, the processes that we put in place, the approaches that we have put in place. The entirety of our baseball operation is experiencing growing pains, and it would be naive to not expect that to happen, but it would be a failure on my part if we’re not able to adjust.

“So look, I think we have a lineup of young players that have done exceptionally well and exhibit a lot of promise. The expectations, I think, from this season were different. We didn’t meet them. 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 just going to happen automatically. We’re going to have to put in the right work this winter. Everyone’s going to have to look internally, self-assess, self-correct, put in the appropriate work to put themselves in a better position. That extends down to players, but it starts first and foremost right here.

“I know that this group will do that, and we will not rest until we get to Sarasota because of that.”

Beyond the promise that the front office will keep grinding, which we knew would be the case, many other nuggets were obtained late this morning and into the early afternoon.

Manager Brandon Hyde is back in 2025.

The Orioles weren’t going to dismiss Hyde after consecutive postseason appearances, proving again that teams don’t operate via social media posts.

“Brandon and I, you go back to end of 2018, the organization was at a morass, 115 losses. We have been working extraordinarily closely and successfully to bring this organization out of a very dreary spot and have produced a team that won (101) games, won the East, won 91 this year. Kind of a rare back-to-back Oriole playoff team and one that I believe is positioned for continued success the next several years going forward. That is going to continue to be the case, and we’re going to sit down immediately.

“I mean, we’ve been talking a lot lately, but we’ve been focused on, ‘How do we win these next games coming up?’ And that’s been the case for weeks and weeks and weeks. Now that we’re done, we’re going to spend a lot of time together self-assessing, readjusting, coming up with a plan for the offseason. He and I are going to be in on that together in the next season.”

So, to be clear, Hyde is returning?

“Yes,” Elias said.

As one would expect, Hyde appreciates the continuing support. And he can be his harshest critic, believe it or not. He evaluates his work “on a nightly basis,” he said.

“So whether things work out or don't work out, I'm the toughest on myself, to be honest with you, because I know the process I've gone through from the thinking standpoint,” he said. “I dive in, I watch the game, I go through stuff, and self-reflect a little bit.

“I love this organization, I love working with Mike, I love our players. It was heartbreaking last night to say goodbye to a lot of guys. I'm going to have a cup of coffee and relax for a little bit, and I'm looking forward to next year.”

The coaches didn’t receive the same immediate public assurances.

It’s rare for the Orioles to share the composition of their staff a day or two after the season. Today’s response shouldn’t be interpreted any way except that Hyde was more obvious and he’s one individual.

“I’ve never made a habit of making this immediate press conference right after the season ends to start talking about contracts, players, staff. It’s not fair to me, it’s not fair to anybody,” Elias said.

“We’re going to examine things. Things did not go the way that we wanted this year. We did not meet expectations. There were a lot of positives this year, and I don’t want to lose sight of there are probably a lot of other more difficult press conferences than this one going on around the league. But it feels bad to us, and it was a bad outcome at the end of the season. So we had a lot of success with this group. One of the winningest teams going back more than two calendar years in baseball, and the achievements that this group have made together to pull the organization up into a spot where it’s one of the most admired organizations in baseball. There are a lot of people that have had a lot of contributions to that.

“So as I try to look this offseason about what we can adjust in many different ways, whether that’s staffing, all the stuff I just mentioned, processes, information, all the things that we do around here, I need to find the appropriate balance with all the positivity that we’ve achieved with this bad taste in our mouths and bad outcome in the playoffs and a disappointing sort of second half overall. I need some time to examine striking the right balance between analoging the positives of what’s going on here with our apparent shortcomings.”

Specific areas that need to be addressed weren’t divulged, but feel free to read between lines.

Elias said it wasn’t fair to throw out “a bunch of sweeping, knee-jerk reactions” less than 24 hours after the final out. Not with emotions being like tartare (my word, not his). The roster and market will be examined.

“One of the unwanted side effects of having an early playoff exit is you do get some time in October to do that more judiciously than had you gone deeper, so I’m going to make use of that,” Elias said.

Then came a reference to the bats.

“The main theme that’s pretty evident from this season, regardless of the cause, is that the offensive side of the team was not there to the degree that I expected in the second half,” he said. “As I said a few weeks ago, I think a lot of my moves and concerns had been toward the pitching side and that sort of ended up not being our shortcoming in the second half or in October, so that’s on me, but we’re going to take some time to look at things professionally, talk to everyone in the warehouse, every bit of information that we can and come up with a plan to not have this happen again.”

So hitting will be one of the priorities.  

No one is blaming an injury for Adley Rutschman’s offensive decline in the second half.

Rutschman slashed .207/.282/.303 after the break and hit only three of his 19 home runs. He went 1-for-8 in the Wild Card round.

“Physically, he’s a catcher, he gives his all to this team and this position when he’s out there, and he’s naturally tired,” Elias said. “A lot of these guys are tired. I think we’re all tired, but so are other teams in the league. That’s not an excuse. I think he’s said as much.

“He has done so much here, kind of turned our organization around, or a big part of it. Turned around cultures, both in the minor leagues and the major leagues. Has been such a key to our ascent that it’s been very frustrating for him and for us to see him experience the degree of struggles that he did in the second half, really for the first time since we’ve had him. But he is an elite competitor, an athlete, and he’s our guy. I have nothing but confidence that he’s going to be back to Adley Rutschman in 2025.”

Elias was asked about a possible health issue.

“There is not an injury that I would speak to of any nature,” he replied.

The payroll should increase in 2025, but the Orioles aren’t going crazy with it.

The response was positive but had a caution sign planted next to it.

“I could dance around that because it’s early and I don’t think it’s really fair before I get into my planning, but yeah, I would be pretty confident that we’re going to keep investing in the major league payroll given what we’ve got here and the upward slope that we hope to get back on. We’ll see what happens,” Elias said.

“We’re going to be smart about it. And if it doesn’t happen for some reason, it’s not going to be because the financial support wasn’t there. It’s going to be because the people running this team thought it was the right thing to do from a number of levels on a case-by-case basis. But I want to reiterate that I don’t expect that to be the case.”

Having financial flexibility is a good way to view it.

“Alluding to the new ownership group, I mean, these guys are great,” Elias said. “This is what I think Baltimore’s been waiting for. They’re smart, they’re business-savvy, they’re well equipped for this. They’re going to be all-in to win. This is Major League Baseball and the situations are uneven between franchises and there are economics involved that are tricky, but this is a phenomenal ownership group. We’re all very excited about it.

“And yeah, this has not been an easy task rebuilding this franchise with the backdrop of everything, franchise level, that we’ve been dealing with. I think we’ve brought it to a very impressive point, but it’s time to get over a new hump. And for this to be the style of press conference I’m having two years in a row, this has not gone to plan this year. And yeah, making the playoffs is good. We won 91 games through some injury adversity. There are positives. But my goal is not to be having a press conference this early next year, let’s put it that way. I think they’re going to be very supportive and helpful in providing us with kind of the necessary backdrop from the ownership level to help us achieve that goal.”

Elias will look in the mirror again, and not to check his hair.

As he’s done in several media sessions, Elias placed the blame and burden on his own shoulders first.

“Everything went really smoothly last year, and then the playoffs didn’t,” he said. “This year, I felt like the first few months of the season we picked up where we left off, and then through a variety of factors, it just dissipated. We did rally at the very end. I felt very confident once the players got back for the last 10 games of the season, and the last six in particular on the road trip, ‘OK, here we go,’ and then we got punched in the stomach again in the playoffs.

“I want to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen. It’s not an easy thing to control, baseball games. That’s why it’s such a long season, because one or two games, it’s not easy to control what happens. But we’re going to pretend, at least pretend, that we can control all this and we’re going to do our damnedest to adjust, course correct. We’re in a good position for that, but we need to get to a better position next year, and that’s going to be my responsibility.”

Elias didn’t dodge criticisms over the lack of bolder moves at the trade deadline.

“I’m hard on myself, as I should be, and when we don’t propel ourselves through the first round of the playoffs, Division Series, Wild Card, don’t win a game, I look at the things I did or didn’t do or what could’ve been,” he said. “We did get a lot of positive impacts by the trade deadline this year on the pitching side. Those guys are back in large degree next year, so that’s good.

“It’s tough. The deadline has reshaped quite a bit with extra Wild Card spots. Just look at the other trades that were made or didn’t get made. I think our image of that event, it may be different since those rule changes have taken place than over the previous 20-30 years. But I also am very aware of things — approaches, processes, decisions — that I feel like I can improve upon in any move that I make. I have a really good idea of what those are going to be, but I’m going to be spending a lot more time refining the answer to that question, as well, this winter.”

The Orioles don’t regret trading DL Hall and Joey Ortiz to the Brewers for rental Corbin Burnes.

That’s “ace rental,” to you.

“More than held up his end of the bargain,” Elias said. “It was very impactful and impressive to see Corbin come into a brand-new organization, a lot of pressure on his shoulders in a major trade and everyone knows he’s going into free agency, and in a place he’s never been before. To make every start like clockwork, to throw 194 innings, to spin a gem in a Wild Card, yeah, I felt that was a necessary move and we did push chips in to this season with that trade, and it’s a shame we weren’t able to carry his impact further into the playoffs, because we saw what that was capable of doing for us.

“That’s part of sports sometimes. It doesn’t work out well. But bringing in Corbin Burnes this season certainly did work out well from my point of view, and it was just tremendously impressive watching him do his thing.”

The Orioles aren’t going to ditch their analytics and go back to the darker ages.

The same philosophies that impact trades, the drafts, player development and advanced and pro scouting will be carried into 2025. But the Orioles don’t pretend to be perfect with it. Just really, really good.

“I think this is one of the better organizations in baseball, but one of the ways we have become one of the better organizations, and I plan to say one of the better organizations, is we’re hard on ourselves,” Elias said. “We will look at everything. We do that every winter, but it’s a little easier to do when you have this punch in the gut and this bad taste in your mouth, and it puts everyone in a mode …

“We have the kind of people around here who want constructive criticism and want to continue to get better, so I think by and large when you’re one of the winningest teams in the last 2 1/2 years and we’re doing it in a small market and we’re doing it against big competition and we’re coming from where we came from, it would be really tough on us to indict the pervasive philosophies of our baseball operations. But there is room for improvement and we’ll find those improvements this winter, and we’re confident that will lead to better late-season outcomes than we just experienced.”

Three important rehabbing players should be ready for Opening Day.

That would be Mateo, closer Félix Bautista and starter Grayson Rodriguez, assuming the speedy infielder is tendered a contract.

Bautista is facing hitters in a few weeks. The Orioles just ran out of time to get Rodriguez facing hitters and stretched out for the Wild Card. Mateo is recovering from elbow reconstructive surgery.

“They should be more or less full-go at spring training, but obviously, this can evolve,” Elias said. “Right now, very confident of planning around those guys being healthy players in 2025 for the totality of the season, more or less.”

Where slugger Coby Mayo plays in the field remains unsettled.

The Orioles wanted to develop Mayo at third base. They gave him starts in the minors at first.

They don’t seem to be considering right field.

“It’s remained a little bit longer of an answer than I would have liked because, you know, when you’re his size and body type, first base is going to be the easiest position for you to play and he’s probably the furthest along at first base despite most of his minor league repetitions coming at third. But as we saw even in the big leagues, he can play third base. Now, there is a whole lot of competition to play third base when you are a major league player, and where you ultimately are going to fall in and play is based on who your teammates are. So we faced a kind of tricky question with him with how quickly his bat moved up through Triple-A: How much time to invest in first base? How much time do you invest in third base? Do we explore other stuff?

“It hasn’t been easy to do, but to his credit he’s moved along so quickly. That’s the big reason it’s been kind of an unclear question, and I don’t have a new plan at this moment in time that’s different from what we’ve seen last year. But it’s very possible when we’re talking this winter or later toward spring training that we do have a different plan to articulate. But I think it’s going to depend a lot on the context of what we do with other players on the roster.”

The corner outfield seems the least likely landing spot if rankings are posted today.

“It’s come up in discussions,” Elias said. “I think that would be a pretty long-term investment project with him because he’s a shortstop in high school and he’s played infield his whole life. That’s a big adjustment, and then you talk about his body type, my expectation is that would be a pretty significant move. It has come up and I wouldn’t pull it off the table.”