CC Sabathia on entering the Hall of Fame and wearing a Yankees cap on his plaque
CC Sabathia will be enshrined into the Hall of Fame this July and tells USA TODAY Sports why his plaque will feature him wearing a Yankees cap.
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Brandon Hyde, who guided the Baltimore Orioles through a gutting rebuild and led them to a 101-win season and consecutive playoff berths, was fired by the club on Saturday as it holds the second-worst record in the American League.
Hyde, 51, was in his seventh season as Orioles manager, a tenure in which expectations grew exponentially after he was hired following a 115-loss season in 2019. The club lost 108 games in Hyde’s first year and 110 games in 2021, but held the team together as the top draft picks awarded for those lost seasons began to arrive in Baltimore.
The results were almost instantaneous: Baltimore won 101 games in 2023, the first full season for All-Star shortstop Gunnar Henderson, and just its second AL East title since 1997. The Orioles won 91 games in 2024 and again earned a home playoff series as the top wild card.
But the Orioles were 0-5 in postseason games under Hyde, getting swept by the Texas Rangers in the 2023 AL Division Series and the Kansas City Royals in a wild-card series last season. The postseason failures resulted in significant changes on Hyde’s staff, including new hitting coaches and bench coach Robinson Chirinos.
“The poor start to our season is ultimately my responsibility,” Orioles GM Mike Elias said in a statement. “Part of that responsibility is pursuing difficult changes in order to set a different course for the future.”
Third base coach Tony Mansolino will serve as the club’s interim manager.
Elias, architect of the teardown and rebuild, also aimed to fortify a roster badly exposed in the postseason. But his $15 million investment in 41-year-old pitcher Charlie Morton has been a disaster – he has an 8.35 ERA and the Orioles have lost all 11 games in whic he’s pitched – and slugger Tyler O’Neill has been both injured and ineffective, with a .180 average and .605 OPS in 93 plate appearances. The lineup has also badly missed 2024 All-Star Jordan Westburg, limited to 23 games due to a hamstring injury.
Elias’s inability to fortify the organizational pitching pool – both through the draft and in the offseason – put the club at a significant disadvantage when early-season injuries struck right-handers Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez. The club has won just two of its 14 series this season.
The slow start has been a continuation of a second-half fade last season: Baltimore went 34-38 to squander a narrow lead in the East and get relegated to the wild-card round. Now, the Orioles have backslid even further, very likely out of the playoff race and seeking a leader who might guide it through rough patches, just like its previous manager.