There are various the reason why the Yankees (out of the blue not so improbably) are firmly ensconced in first place this Memorial Day weekend. Amongst them:
Aaron Decide’s dominant season for the ages
Brian Cashman’s grand slam offseason, allotting a part of the $760 million he didn’t must spend on Juan Soto with Max Fried, Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and even Devin Williams
The emergence of Trent Grisham, who Cashman acquired because the throw-in with Soto within the December 2023 commerce with San Diego, as among the finest all-around energy/pace/protection middle fielders in baseball
Luke Weaver’s unsung ascendency as probably the most environment friendly closers within the sport
Superior 1-5 beginning pitching now that Clark Schmidt is again
Other than Decide, the event of the opposite homegrown gamers, Ben Rice, Austin Wells, Anthony Dominguez and Anthony Volpe into reliable on a regular basis gamers and Will Warren on the again finish of the rotation.
However whereas Cashman can definitely take a bow for placing collectively a reputable championship-contending workforce after the defection of Soto, one other main issue within the Yankees’ 2025 supremacy that can’t be ignored is the disappearance of the remainder of the American League East, all of whom have been beneath .500 many of the first two months. Of them, the Purple Sox and Blue Jays would appear to have sufficient expertise to finally make a run at a postseason berth, however the true American League East quandary is what on the earth occurred to the Baltimore Orioles, who two years in the past appeared on the verge of dominating the division for a lot of seasons to come back?
Certainly, that was what billionaire personal fairness mogul David Rubenstein will need to have thought when he purchased the Orioles from the Angelos household in March of 2024 for $1.725 billion – the third-highest value ever for a baseball workforce. They’d simply come off a 101-win season through which their GM Mike Elias was voted main league govt of the yr by his friends and their supervisor Brandon Hyde was named supervisor of the yr by the Baseball Writers Affiliation. However it was all a mirage and, as Rubenstein is hopefully discovering out, Elias, who operates nearly completely on analytics, is a fraud.
Employed as Orioles GM in December 2018 after serving as the highest assistant with the Astros for now-disgraced Jeff Luhnow, who was usually regarded in baseball circles because the grand patriarch of analytics, Elias wasted no time in firing all of the Orioles’ scouts and participant improvement managers and coaches and changing them with analytics geeks and personnel with largely no main league expertise. He then adopted identical components as Luhnow did in Houston by subjecting Baltimore followers to 4 years of tanking so as to safe a bunch of excessive picks within the newbie draft.
The issue was, excluding catcher Adley Rutschman (who has since regressed mightily) the core gamers on that ’23 Oriole workforce – outfielders Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander, and Austin Hays, first baseman Ryan Montcastle, righthanded starter Grayson Rodriguez and nearer Felix Bautista – had been all merchandise of the earlier Oriole GM Dan Duquette. In the meantime, two years later not certainly one of Elias’s No. 1 draft picks – all out of faculty — is wanting like a possible celebrity. Most are wanting like busts. Rutschman (.213) who Elias chosen No. 1 total over Bobby Witt Jr. in 2019), outfielder Heston Kjersted (.203), the second total choose in 2020), and infielder Jordan Westburg (.217), the thirtieth total choose in 2020, are all underperforming. The jury continues to be out on outfielder Colton Cowser , the fifth total choose in 2021 who’s been harm this season after hitting 24 homers (however placing out 172 occasions) final yr, and second baseman Jackson Vacation, the general No. 1 choose in 2022, who struggled mightily as a rookie in ’24 however is holding his personal at .268 with 6 HR as of Friday) this yr. One other one, beforehand extremely touted infielder Coby Mayo, a fourth spherical choose in 2020, was held out of quite a few commerce alternatives for frontline beginning pitching by Elias, is hitting .215 at Triple A and should have been ruined.
As documented in my new guide “Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals and Cooperstown” (Triumph), when Elias took over he had a gathering with all his scouts in preparation for the 2019 draft through which he and his high assistant Sig Mejdal knowledgeable them that they needn’t concern themselves with scouting pitchers. “We have our own formula with pitchers,” they informed the scouts with out revealing what it was.
No matter it was, Elias has not drafted or developed a single high quality main league beginning pitcher in his seven years on the job, and after dropping final yr’s ace Corbin Burnes (who was acquired in a commerce) to free company, the Oriole rotation has just one starter with an ERA beneath 5.00 (35-year outdated Japanese import Tomoyuki Sugano) and the general employees ranks twenty eighth within the majors with a 5.45 ERA.
It was hoped by Orioles followers that, after years of incompetence and penuriousness by the Angeloses, Rubenstein would spend cash to maintain the workforce aggressive with the Yankees, Purple Sox and Blue Jays. However that didn’t occur final winter once they did nothing to interchange Burnes. Was it Elias who informed Rubenstein he didn’t must spend cash to enhance the workforce?
With the Orioles mired in final place, final Saturday Elias fired Hyde (after undermining him over the winter by firing most of his extra skilled coaches) and changed him on an interim foundation with Tony Mansolino, one other profession minor leaguer who managed briefly within the minors in 1991 and 1997. He then disappeared for 3 days earlier than lastly addressing the media on the street in Milwaukee final Tuesday.
By now, Rubenstein must be seeing the sunshine at what’s incorrect along with his new baseball workforce and that’s his common supervisor who’s proliferated the group with analytical baseball neophytes. It’s now clear that Elias has achieved a horrible job of drafting, a horrible job of roster administration and a horrible job of creating pitchers. Firing Hyde gave Elias cowl, but when he desires to proper this ship earlier than it’s too late (which it could already be), Rubenstein wants to vary course and usher in skilled baseball individuals who imagine within the rules of scouting over metrics to run his workforce.
He would possibly even begin by dialing up Buck Showalter, who’s nonetheless immensely standard in Baltimore after eight largely profitable and overachieving years as Orioles supervisor. One other one is former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti, who made the playoffs in 5 of his 9 seasons as Dodger GM from 2006-14 and was within the finals for the Oriole GM job earlier than the Angeloses opted for Elias again in 2018.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
Final Monday evening Royals lefty Kris Bubic misplaced his bid for a no-hitter in opposition to the Giants when an official scorer modified an error to a success within the sixth inning.With two outs within the sixth, the Royals second baseman Michael Massey slipped to the grass on the sting of the infield making an attempt to discipline Wilmer Flores’ grounder which then rolled into proper discipline. It was the suitable name by official scorer Michael Duca to vary it from an error to a success however I might submit on this new period of emasculated beginning pitchers and the disappearance of full video games, it’s loads simpler for official scorers to name a success a success and never concern the wrath of the followers on borderline calls when the beginning pitcher extra seemingly than not is not going to be allowed to complete the sport anyway…Bravo to Purple Sox reliever Liam Hendriks for calling out the hateful, vile and merciless threats he and his spouse had been lately subjected to by social media trolls. “Leaving comments and telling me to commit suicide and that you wish I’d died from cancer is disgusting and vile,” Hendriks posted on his personal social media. “Maybe you should step back and re-evaluate your own life’s purpose before hiding behind a screen and attacking players and their families. I think I stand for all players who have had to deal with this when I say enough is enough.”…Going into the weekend Clay Holmes was almost 15 innings shy of his earlier one season excessive of 70 innings pitched. It’s not even June and it’s a must to marvel how excessive can he go? For level of reference, Seth Lugo jumped from 65 innings to 146.1 after changing from reliever to starter with the Padres in 2023.
Initially Printed: Might 24, 2025 at 10:17 AM EDT
