Orioles GM Elias speaks 3 days after firing manager, says he’s evaluating reasons for team’s decline

Mike Elias executive vice president and general manager for the Baltimore Orioles speaks to the media before a baseball meeting against the Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday May in Milwaukee AP Photo Aaron Gash AP Aaron Gash Mike Elias executive vice president and general manager for the Baltimore Orioles speaks to the media before a baseball championship against the Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday May in Milwaukee AP Photo Aaron Gash AP Aaron Gash MILWAUKEE AP Orioles general manager Mike Elias broke his silence about his decision to fire manager Brandon Hyde saying Tuesday he s doing an across-the-board evaluation to determine what has caused Baltimore s remarkably rapid decline You go back to last June we were on top of the sport in almost every facet of the sport including majors and minors Elias announced of his squad which carried a seven-game skid into Tuesday s contest at Milwaukee Now we find ourselves where we find ourselves This has been hitting us all very hard but it s rare for that to be so sudden Elias fired Hyde on Saturday and since then only players and interim manager Tony Mansolino had answered reporters questions about the move The Orioles who won a combined games from - entered Tuesday last in the American League East with the fourth-worst record - in the majors Elias praised Hyde for getting the Orioles back into contention but reported the time had come for a new voice Baltimore has gone - since Mansolino was promoted from third-base coach I want to emphatically credit Hyde for the wonderful job that he did and the skill set that he has Elias stated I m sure he s going to continue and have a fantastic career It s very endemic to sports After a certain number of years sometimes organizations try something different and that s what this was Elias was solicited why he waited this long to speak about the move It s a pretty hectic limited days he reported I got Tony in place and traveled up here with the unit I just needed a couple of days Hyde was named the AL manager of the year in after leading the Orioles to a - record and their first division title since Baltimore followed that up by going - and returning to the playoffs as a wild card last year though it struggled to a - record to finish the season This year the Orioles have been dreadful despite bringing back the young core that sparked the franchise s resurgence I m in the process of very heavily evaluating everything that we do across the organization that includes the front office analytics department athlete progress Elias revealed You name it we re looking at it very hard To our credit this has something that has not been lingering for years and years This is something that s mounted in months and it s been very tough on those of us in leadership positions in the organization but we re focused on fixing it right now I think the main focus is trying to stabilize this company improve the play on the field and get this core of players back on track The Orioles entered Tuesday with a ERA that ranked ahead of only major league-worst Colorado Baltimore added Japanese veteran Tomoyuki Sugano -year-old Charlie Morton and -year-old Kyle Gibson on one-year deals in the offseason to try to help offset the loss of four-time All-Star and Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes who signed a six-year million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks Sugano is - with a ERA but Morton is - with a ERA and currently working out of the bullpen Gibson was distributed after going - with a ERA Baltimore s offensive struggles are a bigger surprise The Orioles entered Tuesday ranked th in the majors in runs after finishing fourth in that category last year and seventh in The Orioles also were th in batting average and th in slugging percentage after being the top in both categories each of the last two years I think I ve been pretty clear that our pitching staff our starting pitching staff has been a huge issue Elias commented I put that on myself and the front office in terms of roster construction The position competitor group again we haven t had perfect vitality but this is a universally lauded group and has had a lot of success There s underperformance happening there and that s something we need to address via athlete advancement via coaching Elias stated he s confident he can help Baltimore rebound He took over when the Orioles were coming off a - season in and hired Hyde a month later Now he ll try to do it again without Hyde 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 Elias revealed What we re going through right now and the degree to which we re going through is well below anyone s standards including mine This is deeply disappointing I m doing everything in my power to correct and improve it going forward AP MLB https apnews com hub MLB Source