MILWAUKEE — After firing manager Brandon Hyde on Saturday, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias held a news conference Tuesday in the visitors’ dugout at American Family Field to explain the organization’s decision and discuss the reasons behind their now 15-32 start to the 2025 season.

Here are five things he said:

Other than win, Hyde couldn’t have done much to keep his job

The driving factor behind the Orioles’ decision to fire Hyde was the need for a new voice, Elias said. He cited the extended stretch dating to the second half of last season in which the Orioles have underperformed expectations as evidence that a change was needed, but didn’t pin the club’s poor results on Hyde alone.

“I think we saw a ton from him over the years,” Elias said when asked what Hyde could’ve done differently. “I want to emphatically credit the wonderful job that he did and the skill set that he has that I’m sure is going to continue with him in a fantastic career. I think very endemic to sports, after a certain number of years, a certain group of players that go forward fit. Sometimes organizations try something different and that’s what this was.”Elias said nothing to suggest there was a specific shortcoming of Hyde as a manager that led to his dismissal. However, it was ultimately Hyde who lost his job because of the team’s lackluster performance, a casualty for what Elias saw as a team most impacted by injuries, a pitching staff the front office didn’t address well enough in the offseason and an underperforming lineup.

Elias didn’t speak immediately because he was busy

It took three days for the Orioles’ head of baseball operations to address Hyde’s dismissal publicly, leaving players and interim manager Tony Mansolino responsible for answering immediate questions about the team’s decision and its future.

“It’s a pretty hectic few days,” Elias said. “Got Tony in place and traveled up here with the team and just needed a couple days.”

Many of the players, none of whom were involved in the decision, blamed themselves for the front office’s drastic measure. Mansolino, who had never managed at the major league level, did his best to show respect for Hyde as someone who gave him a chance on an MLB staff while offering his perspective on how the club can turn its season around.

Players and managers have to answer for their decisions daily, sometimes mere minutes after making them. Elias needed a couple of days.

Ownership weighed in on the decision before it was finalized

Elias declined to say whether he went to Orioles owner David Rubenstein with the idea to fire Hyde or the other way around but said that he had conversations with ownership about it leading up to the team’s announcement Saturday. And once the decision was made, they acted quickly.

“This is something that I execute as the general manager,” Elias said. “But when you’re making a decision as grave as changing the manager or the head coach, that’s something you consult with ownership on very heavily, and I did.”

Rubenstein hasn’t held a news conference with local reporters regarding the Orioles since spring training but has often stated his primary goal of bringing a World Series title back to Baltimore, which hasn’t hosted a championship parade for its ballclub since 1983. A spokesman for the billionaire private equity investor didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Orioles are reviewing ‘everything about what we do’

In addition to making a change at manager, the Orioles are also examining several aspects of their organization to identify what led to the club’s lack of success over the past calendar year.

“You go back to last June, we were on top of the sport in almost every facet of the sport, including majors and minors, and now we find ourselves where we find ourselves, and this has been hitting us all very hard but it’s unusual for that to be so sudden,” Elias said. “I’m in the process of very heavily evaluating everything that we do across the organization that pertains to the front office, analytics department, player development. You name it, we’re looking at it very hard.”

As he did his previous news conference in early May, Elias took responsibility for the offseason moves he made to address the pitching staff that so far largely haven’t panned out. He said the “main focus” of people in leadership positions is to stabilize the ballclub, particularly its young core, and said “sweeping changes in the way we do business in the warehouse” were on the table.

Elias still believes he’s the right man for the job

After building up the Orioles’ organization from multiple 100-loss seasons to making the playoffs each of the past two seasons, Elias expressed confidence in his ability to lead the ballclub toward a more successful future.

“I think a big point of pride for me throughout my career has been my ability to adapt in a sport where you’ve got to do that, and where it’s almost impossible to have consistent success,” Elias said. “But what we’re going through right now, and the degree in which we’re going through it, is well below anyone’s standards, including mine, and this is deeply disappointing to me and I’m doing everything in my power to correct and improve it going forward.”

The results so far this season aren’t what Elias expected, but he said he’s not operating with any fear over his own job security. (Though, to be fair, Hyde wasn’t either.)

“This is a big surprise to all of us that we’re in the spot that we’re in,” Elias said. “I think you look at the preseason media predictions and things like that, projections and there’s nobody that saw this to this degree. So, we’re pretty stunned about that, but we’re reacting to it. We’re not in denial about it and I’m working to fix it as rapidly as I can and I’m in a position where, regardless of how it affects me or my personal situation, I have to make decisions that I judge in collaboration with my bosses and the people around me to be in the best interest of the Baltimore Orioles franchise so that’s what I’m doing.”

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Weyrich at mweyrich@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/ByMattWeyrichand instagram.com/bymattweyrich.