Brandon Hyde of the Baltimore Orioles finished second in the 2022 AL Manager of the Year voting and is a leading contender for the hardware again this year.
It sounds like instead of anticipation and excitement, however, he’s feeling more anger and bitterness about how the team’s season ended this week.
Hyde led the Orioles to an AL-best 101-61 record in 2023, securing a playoff bye into the division series against the Texas Rangers (who beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the wild-card round). Despite having a pair of home games to begin the ALDS, Baltimore lost two nail-biters at Camden Yards, before being blown out 7-1 on the road Tuesday to finish off their sweep.
The early October exit was a stunner, as Hyde’s club was dominant both at home (49-32) and on the road (52-29) during the regular season. Baltimore entered the playoffs hot too, having won six of their final eight during the campaign and having gone 18-10 in September.
Furthermore, the team had only six three-game losing streaks (two four-game skids) during the regular season, prior to dropping three in a row against Texas.
Even with the disappointing finish, Hyde is a near-lock for the honor.
The Orioles lost 108 games during the 50-year-old’s first season with the Birds in 2019, and after the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, went 52-110 in 2021. The group had a big turnaround last year by going 83-79 and stepped it up a notch in 2023.
Hyde may not care much about winning the AL Manager of the Year award, but he should be recognized for the work he did all season.
