The 2025 season is supposed to be part of a wide-open contending window for the Baltimore Orioles.

After enduring multiple 100-loss seasons that netted the franchise two No. 1 overall picks, the Orioles built a contending team that made the playoffs in 2023 and 2024. Much of that same roster has its work cut out to attain a playoff berth in 2025.

The finger-pointing has begun in Baltimore amid a 15-24 record as the quarter-mark of the season approaches. Two MLB managers were relieved of their duties this past week. A chunk of the Orioles fanbase wants Brandon Hyde to be next on the chopping block.

Pressure is on Baltimore’s skipper in his seventh season at the helm. General manager Mike Elias gave Hyde a vote of confidence earlier this month. The duo has a great working relationship and talks multiple times a day, per Hyde. The Orioles’ manager says Elias’s consistent approach has helped relieve some of the pressure.

“He was very patient in my first few years when we were not good, then we got pretty good,” Hyde said, per The Baltimore Banner. “For him to show the patience this year, too, and an understanding of where we are roster-wise, I appreciate that very much.”

A strong relationship between the field manager and the head of baseball operations is great, but patience from the fans is starting to wear thin.

The Orioles’ roster is not that of a World Series contender, and much of that has to do with how Elias built it.

Lack of significant additions are hurting Baltimore’s playoff chances

It’s difficult for any team to anticipate the mountain of injuries the Orioles have dealt with over the season’s first two months. Baltimore has 10 players on the injured list after several were removed this past weekend, including key players Zach Eflin and Tyler O’Neill.

The injuries alone, however, are not why the Orioles are in last place in the American League East. Hyde alluded to Baltimore not playing up to standard, but a step in the wrong direction this year could have been predicted with how the O’s played in the second half in 2024.

The Orioles were 57-33 through 90 games, two games better than what they were at the point in 2023 when they finished with 101 wins. Baltimore went 34-38 the rest of the way last year, finishing with 10 fewer wins than in 2023. The season ended with one run scored in two playoff games.

Despite the roster’s core being set, Elias and the front office were not aggressive in pursuing the pieces necessary to get over the hump in 2025. Not everything was in Baltimore’s control, but the lack of significant additions is becoming an obvious cripple.

Most notably, the decision to sign 41-year-old Charlie Morton and 35-year-old Tomoyuki Sugano after losing ace Corbin Burnes in free agency hasn’t gone to plan. Sugano has pitched well, but he’s supposed to be a back-end rotation piece, not arguably Baltimore’s No. 1 starter. Morton, on the other hand, has shuffled between starting and relieving and carries an 8.82 ERA in 10 appearances.

Orioles starters outside of Burnes had a 4.40 ERA in 2024. That should have alarmed the front office and put Baltimore in the market for a high-end starting pitcher last winter.

To their credit, the O’s tried to re-sign Burnes and were linked to several other nine-figure pitchers.

No massive deal came to fruition, though, and now the franchise is stuck with a significant pitching problem.

Grayson Rodriguez was supposed to take the next step this year.

Instead, he has yet to throw a pitch due to multiple injuries.

Again, it’s hard to predict, but Rodriguez had two stints on the IL in 2024. The Orioles shouldn’t have just gotten more pitching depth, they should’ve gotten better pitching depth.

With hindsight, relying on what they had in the organization with the signings of Morton and Sugano wasn’t enough for the Orioles to contend for a title this season.

However, there were signs before Opening Day that it wouldn’t work. Now, the lack of urgency could force Elias to fire Hyde, or cost Baltimore’s general manager his job as well.