It’s officially time to consider the Orioles at risk of missing the 2025 postseason. Although they’ve only played 46 games, this early-season flop has turned from an anomaly to a horrible pattern of underperformance, and Baltimore finally admitted to themselves and the league that something’s disastrously wrong by firing manager Brandon Hyde.

Hyde’s firing is timely. The Orioles are 15-31 and are 12 games behind the first-place Yankees in the AL East. From injuries to underperformances, nothing has gone right for this team, who were considered by many the favorites to win the AL pennant.

Their starting rotation is ranked second-to-last in baseball in ERA and WHIP, with only the Rockies beating them for worst starting pitching. Rookie Tomoyuki Sugano is the only pitcher who’s sustaining the rotation, which is alarming considering Zach Eflin and Charlie Morton have previously gotten Cy Young votes.

To make matters worse, half of the lineup has been injured or batting terribly. Missing Adley Rutschman’s consistency and Jordan Westburg’s slug has stuck the offense with a paltry .230/.298/.388 slash line. The bullpen is slightly better than the lineup and rotation, but the weak offense doesn’t often put Baltimore in a winning position.

But was this uneventful, deficient team performance Hyde’s fault?

Since 2019, Hyde has overseen the Orioles rebuild and was largely credited with the team’s success until recently. A year after the Orioles dropped 110 losses in a single season, Hyde turned the team around to improve by 29 more wins with three new lineup fixtures, including AL ROY runner-up Rutschman, and a transformed rotation. Two years later, he was named AL Manager of the Year.

Hyde deserves even more credit for operating on a shoestring budget. The Orioles payroll ranked in the bottom third of the league in payroll in its three latest winning seasons, and dropped below $50 million. With a top-tier farm system and a few less-expensive free agents sprinkled in, Hyde exceeded expectations.

The burden of this failed team doesn’t solely fall on Hyde, but the front office had to blame someone. Unfortunately, Hyde is the first and easiest person to make responsible for Baltimore’s terrible season.

While some would say Hyde’s time was over, the biggest takeaway from Baltimore’s dramatic move is that nothing has been fixed. The pitching problems aren’t going anywhere, and there’s a strong likelihood they won’t be spenders at the deadline after bumping their payroll by nearly $50 million from last year. From this vantage point, it’s hard to envision them gaining enough momentum to come close to .500 by the end of June.

With 24 games left in the season against the Red Sox, Yankees, and Blue Jays, who are miles better, Baltimore will need a miracle to limp into the playoffs. Hopefully, this year is just a blip in their road to the World Series, and not a failed rebuild.