The 2018 road woes and timing of O's big hires

With 115 losses, the 2018 Orioles were easily the worst team in the majors this year, and they posted their worst record since their move to Baltimore in 1954.

But their road record was where it went from bad to worse. And worst. In six months and 162 games of baseball, the Orioles won all of three road series. They split a two-game series in Yankee Stadium on July 31-Aug. 1. After that, they lost their last nine road series. They won their third road series June 22-24 at Atlanta. After that, they went 0-12-1 in series away from Camden Yards.

Worst road records in Orioles history:
.235 - 2018 (19-62)
.247 - 1988 (20-61)
.286 - 1954 (22-55)
.309 - 2009 (25-56)

The Orioles also had the worst road record in the majors in 2018 and lost seven more games than any other team.

.235 - Orioles (19-62)
.313 - Miami (25-55)
.321 - Detroit and Kansas City (26-55)
.358 - Minnesota (29-52)

The Orioles went 3-21-2 in 26 road series. They went 3-1 at Yankee Stadium from April 5-8, 2-0 at the New York Mets from June 5-6 and 2-1 in that Atlanta series in June. They split four at the Chicago White Sox from May 21-24 and split two at Yankee Stadium from July 31-Aug. 1. Every other series was lost and they were swept on the road 12 times.

The Orioles had road losing streaks of six, eight, 11 and 13 games. The 13-gamer was from April 13-May 17. That streak tied the club record set during the Orioles' historic 0-21 start in 1988. It was the longest in the majors since the Braves lost 13 straight on the road from Aug. 11-Sept. 6, 2015.

As rough as it would get for the Orioles, their 2018 road record by win percentage is nowhere close to the worst ever. Since 1901, the worst is .167 (13-65) by the 1935 Boston Braves. At .235, the Orioles were tied for 20th-worst since 1901.

What comes next?: With the road woes, a team that lost a club-record 115 games has a lot of work to do. Some of it is no doubt includes reorganization some aspects of the Orioles baseball operations department - maybe everything from handling the big league roster to player development to scouting and so much more.

So who will head this up and why haven't the Orioles hired that person yet?

We don't have the answer to either question yet, but the most important thing is to get the right person or persons to run the show. Getting that person or persons hired soon is somewhat important, but less so than getting the right people in place.

Whether it's upgrading analytics, adding international scouts or making changes to improve their minor league operation, the Orioles need to get this right. Getting their house in order off the field has to happen before they get it in order on the field.

Birdland is stressing a bit right now. There has not been much news about the process and fans are worried about the future of their team. That is understandable. But getting it right supersedes all of this. Whether we all know more on Nov. 8 or 10 or 15 is not relevant.