UPDATE: New Orioles GM Mike Elias is publicly denying that the Orioles have chosen Hyde as their new manager, per MLB.com’s Joe Trezza:
Here is what Mike Elias said about O's managerial search, straight from tonight's media session.
— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) December 12, 2018
Q: "Are the reports accurate?"
A: "No."
Q: "Have you made an offer?"
A: "No."
Q: "When might you?"
A: "I would not anticipate this hire completed during the Winter Meetings."
This development would appear to make it unlikely that the Orioles will make a managerial announcement this week, though if this year’s progression of events with Mike Scioscia and the Angels taught us anything, it’s that Hyde very well still may end up as Baltimore’s manager at some point.
It is hard to find an organization that seems to be remaking itself so radically so quick than the Baltimore Orioles. It is no secret that the Orioles were terrible last season and that there were inevitably going to be changes. Gone now are general manager Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter. In their place, there is new general manager Mike Elias who came from one of the more analytically driven front offices in the entire league and now they have a manager who worked under one of the more forward thinking managers in the game.
#Cubs coach Brandon Hyde will be the #Orioles’ next manager, sources tell The Athletic. First reported as close: @JoelSherman1.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 12, 2018
After a fairly long and exhaustive search, the Orioles went for Brandon Hyde, the Cubs’ current bench coach, to helm the team for the 2019 season. Hyde has coached or managed since 2005 when he started as minor league manager in the Marlins organization where he worked his way up to the major league staff before he left (presumably sold off because this is the Marlins we are talking about) to join the Cubs coaching staff in 2013 where he has been ever since.
It is worth mentioning that while Rosenthal’s reporting is usually quite spot on, there is some amount of uncertainty around whether or not he has ACTUALLY accepted the job yet.
Mike Elias says reports that Brandon Hyde has been hired are “premature.”
— Rich DubroffMLB (@RichDubroffMLB) December 12, 2018
Hyde has been in demand as a coach, so bringing him in is no small get for an Orioles franchise in desperate need of a clear path forward. They are likely to be bad in the coming years as they undertake a rebuild without much in the way of a farm system or assets that they can trade off to stock said bereft farm system, but so far they have done an admirable job of bringing in guys that should make good decisions as the team moves forward.