Hyde eyes long haul
Signed beyond ’22, he’ll get chance to manage prospect-laden club
During the roughest stretches of the Orioles’ rebuild, manager Brandon Hyde has thought about the past. It propels him to the future.
He’s lived a rebuild before, and he’s seen the results. He served in the Chicago Cubs’ front office and on their coaching staff during their teardown. He was their first base coach in 2016, when that effort paid off with the franchise’s first World Series title in more than a century.
“I go back to that experience a lot,” Hyde said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “I understand that there’s going to be a lot of tough nights, which we’ve had here the last few years. I’ve also seen what it looks like when it’s good.
“That feeling is kind of what drives you every day.”
The hope is, with members of Baltimore’s top-ranked farm system getting ever-closer to arriving at Camden Yards, Hyde will soon get to experience that again, this time as the Orioles manager. He is under contract beyond 2022, an industry source told The Sun, meaning that with as many as seven of the Orioles’ top 10 prospects positioned to arrive in the majors before the end of next season, Hyde could be the one to manage them.
His most prominent current players
believe he’s deserving of that opportunity.
“He’s done a hell of a job,” said Trey Mancini, the longest-tenured Oriole. “No matter what the record might reflect, I think he’s done an incredible job and he’s every bit of a big league manager and a really good one. … I would love to see him stick around here for as long as it takes.”
Said reigning Most Valuable Oriole Cedric Mullins: “I think he’s definitely earned that opportunity. Just given the cards that he was dealt, trying to make the most of it, I feel like we’re right at that cusp of having a turnaround.”
Added outfielder Austin Hays, who once ranked as the club’s top prospect: “To go through what he’s had to go through the last three years in the big leagues, with a lot of losing and a lot of different faces and players every year, when we have those pieces put into place, I think he definitely deserves the right to be able to go out there and manage that group and show what he can do.”
Hyde, too, is looking forward to the chance.
“I’m in this for the long haul,” he said. “I’ve had great support from our front office, and they’ve been extremely patient through this process and backed me the whole way. I’ll be here when we’re winning.”