Brandon Hyde, COME ON DOWN! You Are The New Orioles Manager! UPDATE - Maybe Hyde Isn't The Manager!
https://twitter.com/Joelsherman1/status/1072656564442578944
https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1072658466551013376
It took long enough, but Mike Elias and the Orioles finally have the guy they want. The new manager that will be riding in the Orioles World Series Parade in 2023 is Cubs Bench Coach, Brandon Hyde. It made sense that the club would wait until the Winter Meetings kicked off to announce it, and that is what they did.
Hyde had a short playing career with the White Sox from 1997 to 2001, and has held numerous coaching roles within the minors. In 2010 when the Marlins cleaned house, Hyde was the lucky guy named interim bench coach with Edwin Rodriguez named interim manager. Shortly before a game in 2011, Rodriguez resigned and Hyde managed that game, after the game Jack McKeon was named interim manager, and Hyde shifted back to his bench coach role. Then in 2013, Hyde was named Bench Coach for the Chicago Cubs under Rick Renteria. When Joe Maddon was brought in prior to the 2015 season, Hyde stayed with the organization and was named First Base Coach. He won a World Series with Maddon and the Cubs in 2016 and will now look to begin this rebuild in Baltimore. He has also worked with Player Development, and that is exactly what the Orioles need right now with a young, raw group of players. They need someone to mold these guys into baseball players, and they think they found him.
I'll be honest, I know 0 about this guy. He could walk in my living room right now and I wouldn't know who he was. Whoever is the Orioles manager now doesn't really matter, this team won't be good for 3 or 4 years, we could have mid-1990s Joe Torre and this team wouldn't be good. Hyde knows he is in for a WILD ride, a ride that will crash and burn a lot, but he is obviously the guy that Elias and the new front office members wanted. He was one of the six candidates interviews by Elias and I'm excited to see what made him stand out.
He is still a relatively young coach, only 45, has some manager experience at different levels, has somewhat of an analytic background from working under Joe Maddon, and who better to learn from than Maddon? I didn't know who he was 5 minutes ago but now I want to kiss him. I'm all in on Hyde.
No contract numbers have been released yet, but I'm anxious to see the years on it. My guess is there will be a press conference tomorrow in Vegas, and I'm excited to hear from my new skipper and see what his plan is to bring a parade back to Baltimore.
Brandon Hyde and Mike Elias, bring it home, baby.
UPDATE
Wouldn't be Orioles baseball without a hangup! Mike Elias is saying allllll the big baseball reporters are wrong and that Hyde hasn't been offered the job. I LOVE THE HOT STOVE!