BALTIMORE — Manager Brandon Hyde expressed his frustration over the Baltimore Orioles not getting more Major League All-Star bids.
The Orioles lead the American League East and still only have four players set to represent them in Arlington, Texas, on July 16.
Starting pitcher Corbin Burnes was the only Oriole selected when the pitchers and reserves were announced on Sunday. He joins shortstop Gunnar Henderson and catcher Adley Rutschman, who were both voted by the fans to start.
Infielder Jordan Westburg was a late addition as a replacement for Boston’s Rafael Devers.
“When you win as many games as we have in the last year and a half, and you only get three guys in — and you’re on the pace that we are on right now, and won 101 games last year with a lot of the same group, you’d think you’d get more guys in,” Hyde said. “I’m disappointed in that.”
The Philadelphia Phillies have seven players in the All-Star Game and the Los Angeles Dodgers have six. The Cleveland Guardians and San Diego Padres each have five players in the game.
The Orioles, with most of the same players, won 101 games in 2023 and made it to the playoffs.
Outfielder Anthony Santander has 23 home runs (tied for fourth) and 57 RBIs. Designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn is batting .285 with 11 home runs and 37 RBIs. First baseman Ryan Mountcastle is batting .268 with 12 home runs and 42 RBIs.
Pitching-wise, starter Grayson Rodriguez has an 11-3 record with a 3.52 ERA, while closer Craig Kimbrell has converted 23 saves with a 2.10 ERA.
In 2023, the Orioles also had three players in the All-Star Game.
There were nights he wanted to scream to the heavens, nights where he didn’t feel like leaving his office, nights where he wondered why in the world did he ever subject himself to this misery.
“There was pain, a lot of pain,” Brandon Hyde softly tells USA TODAY Sports. “There were a lot of nights I didn’t how I could do it. I felt good about the way I was going about doing things, but when you lose so much, you take it personally.’’
It was life as manager of the Baltimore Orioles before turning it into one of the most enviable jobs in all of baseball.
But for those first three years, managing the Orioles was like taking blows from Mike Tyson.
Night. After night. After every night.
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Hyde, 49, of course, knew what he was getting into when he accepted the job after the 2018 season.
There was no amount of Clive Christian, Chanel or Baccarat colognes in the world to camouflage the stench of the job.
Six managerial openings had emerged in the winter of 2018, and this one was the worst.
The Orioles had just lost 115 games, finishing 61 games out of first place in the AL East, and no longer had superstar infielder Manny Machado.
They had just fired GM Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter, and stripped their player payroll to major-league depths.
It was so bad that even when the Orioles called him to interview, after failing to land four other jobs during the winter, Hyde wondered whether he should even bother. Should he even pursue the job, or simply return back to the Chicago Cubs where he was their bench coach?
“He wondered if he should even take the job,’’ said former manager Joe Maddon, who had Hyde on his Cubs’ coaching staff. “I told him, ‘Hell yeah, never turn that down. You got to take it.’
“I said, ‘Brother, it’s going to be crappy. It’s going to stink. You’re going to hate it. You’re going to wonder why.’