Brandon Hyde, who played at Long Beach State in 1997, was voted American League Manager of the Year in 2023 after his Baltimore Orioles won 101 games en route to their first AL East title since 2014.
Hyde took over the managerial position in Baltimore after the 2018 season. He inherited a team that had been a major league worse record of 47-115, but had a full rebuild on the horizon.
“I’m really appreciative of the Angelos family, the general manager Mike Elias and to show patience through those first few years. We all knew it was going to be challenging, a redo in a lot of ways organizationally, and so Mike did a great job those first few years putting a lot of things in place analytically,” Hyde said.
Baltimore finished eighteen games better than their 2022 campaign, where they narrowly missed out on the third American League wild card spot.
“It was hard for a few years, and for those guys to see we’re doing good things even though it wasn’t equally wins and losses, I appreciate that,” Hyde said.
On the field, they were led by big years from 2023 AL Rookie of the Year Gunnar Henderson, all-star catcher Adley Rutschman and one of the best closers in the game, Félix Bautista.
The race to the top of AL East was both thrilling and unexpected, as a lot of early season predictions did not have the Orioles finishing top arguably the toughest division in baseball.
“It’s tough to be in first place and hold a lead, especially with such a good team like the Rays right behind you. They weren’t losing much, so for our guys with very little postseason or even pennant race experience, for those guys to play and perform the way they did says a lot about them,” Hyde said.
The former Dirtbag credited his playing time at Long Beach and what he learned during his season at The Beach to his managerial career.
“Even to this day, I still think a lot about Coach Snow and Coach Weathers. I’m still very close with them, I try and see them on a yearly basis, and a lot of the fundamentals of coaching I’ve taken from them.”
“I hold them with the highest regard, of not just coaches but people, and how they treated me. They are incredible mentors to me,” Hyde said.
After exceeding all expectations during the regular season to win the AL East, and also capturing the number one seed in the American League, the season would come to a sour end as the Orioles would fall to the eventual champion Texas Rangers in the ALDS.
“I think that our guys are going to come in really hungry into spring training. The season did not finish the way we wanted it to,” Hyde said. “I think it left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth, and I think our guys are going to be really raring to go.”