This Is How A 'Rebuild' Looks And Feels
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Orioles rebuild.
It arrived at first as theory: tear down Baltimore's Major League baseball team and start over with a plan to be a playoff contender in maybe three or four years or longer.
Theory has become reality and the O's are halfway through the first season of the rebuild under general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde (as well as an army of newly hired scouts, performances trackers and statistical analysts).
Fans of the team were given fair warning of what the process would entail and the pain has been as promised- and more.
At 22-58, the O's have the worst record in the Majors and are breaking records for pitching futility with blowout losses piling up.
They've lost 13 of their last 14 games in what Elias says is "probably the worst two-week stretch we've had.
Not only in terms of the losses, but just the player has been rougher. The pitching's kind of barely making it through games."
The manager has a front row seat to the daily demolition and found it especially disheartening to see the O's get slammed by Manny Machado and the San Diego Padres in a two-game sweep at Camden Yards that saw the visitors pound out nine home runs, winning 8-3 and 10-5.
"There's not a whole lot of bright spots when you give up 18 runs in two games to the Padres. Tough to win that way," Hyde said.
The two days with the Padres served as a snapshot of the O's rebuild.
Before each loss, the O's held a press conference to introduce a new draft pick.
First, it was number one overall pick Adley Rutschman- the star switch-hitting catcher from Oregon State who was the consensus national college player of the year.
Then, O's second-round draft pick Gunnar Henderson- the best high school player from the state of Alabama who had committed to play college baseball at Auburn but chose the O's lucrative contract offer instead.
The juxtaposition of events- the ushering in of fresh-faced, young talent prior to the O's getting unmercifully crushed in consecutive lopsided losses in their home park- is the essence of "rebuild."
What's happening now hurts while the building blocks of potential future success provide hope. Hope is all the O's can sell right now and they're counting on their fans to buy in.
It's a tough sell, especially with the nightly and daily demolition done to the big league team.
Halfway through the first season of the O's years-long rebuild, my question(s) to O's fans: how are you handling it?
Is it what you expected? Is it worse? Are you still tuned in to the process? Are you checking out now and maybe checking back later- like in a couple years?
There are no wrong answers.
