Not 24 hours earlier, the Orioles’ season came crashing down. It came crashing down despite a strong pitching effort, left hanging because of a lineup that failed to muster much fight — and, instead, the Orioles were punched in the gut for a second season in a row.

“It’s been a tough night,” executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said at Camden Yards on Thursday. “Today is a tough day. This is all very raw, very fresh.”

This time, it was a two-game sweep in the American League Wild Card Series against the Kansas City Royals that left Baltimore’s head decision-maker holding an offseason news conference earlier than he would’ve liked.

Elias said he wanted to avoid “a bunch of sweeping, knee-jerk reactions 15, 16 hours after the season ended with all the emotions that we’re feeling.” He sidestepped many of the biggest roster questions surrounding the impending free agency of outfielder Anthony Santander and right-hander Corbin Burnes.

But Elias did say manager Brandon Hyde will return for 2025 (there was less outward assurance for the remainder of the coaching staff).

These are the biggest takeaways from Elias and Hyde’s press conference to discuss the Orioles season.

What happens with Hyde’s staff is unknown

Hyde will be back for his seventh season as manager.

Will his coaching staff as it stands now also return? That remains unclear.

“We’re going to examine things,” Elias said. “Things did not go the way that we wanted this year. We did not meet expectations.”

Last offseason, the Orioles made changes only on the pitching side, hiring Drew French as pitching coach and promoting Mitch Plassmeyer to assistant pitching coach. Elias rated their first year in the organization as “absolutely fantastic,” especially given the way the staff had to adapt when three starters suffered season-ending injuries midway through the year.

If any changes are made, it will likely be to the hitting side. Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller have been co-hitting coaches for three seasons, with Cody Asche joining as an offensive strategy coach after the 2022 season. There was a measurable drop-off in production in the second half.

Hitting woes and relying on the home run

For the first half of the season, Baltimore’s .253 batting average ranked ninth in the majors. The Orioles were second with a .764 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Those marks crumbled down the stretch, with the team posting a .246 average (14th) and .731 OPS (11th) in the second half.

The largest issue, of course, came with runners in scoring position. Elias and Hyde acknowledged there seemed to be a tendency to rely on the home run. And it cost them.

After the All-Star break, the Orioles were a below-average team with runners in scoring position, ranking 16th in OPS (.725) with a .254 average. Part of it can be tied to injuries, with the absences of Ryan Mountcastle, Jordan Westburg, Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías hindering the lineup. But the issues made themselves apparent once more in the postseason, with one run scored in two games.

“We relied on the homer, which, when you’re facing really good pitching, that’s tough to do,” Hyde said.

Added Elias: “That’s not a good experience going through that for months where we’re struggling to get runners in from second base. That wasn’t the case last year. We were great at it with a lot of the same guys. [I have] a lot of confidence that that can correct next year, but it’s going to involve some work by us.”

That could force changes to the lineup or hitting philosophy.

“We will look at everything,” Elias said. “We do that every winter, but it’s a little easier to do when you have this punch in the gut and this bad taste in your mouth, and it puts everyone in a mode — we have the kind of people around here who want constructive criticism and want to continue to get better.”

Ownership will be ‘very supportive.’ But will it be enough to bring back Corbin Burnes?

This winter is a big test for David Rubenstein and his fellow owners as they enter their first offseason overseeing the Orioles.

Will the Orioles, who for many years did not spend money, open the checkbook?

“This is what I think Baltimore’s been waiting for,” Elias said of new ownership. “They’re smart; they’re business savvy; they’re well equipped for this. … I think they’re going to be very supportive and helpful in providing us with kind of the necessary backdrop from the ownership level to help us achieve that goal.”

The Orioles had the fourth-lowest payroll in MLB on opening day at $94,520,400, an increase of $30 million from 2023 but not necessarily by choice. They made just one free-agent signing — bringing in Craig Kimbrel for $13 million — but were faced with a wave of arbitration-eligible players who needed contracts tendered.

Baltimore has just one player beyond his arbitration years under contract for next season — Zach Eflin at $18 million.

If they spend, a veteran bat should be a priority, especially because they stand to lose Santander, who hit 44 home runs this year, to free agency. The front office still intends to have the lineup revolve around its homegrown players — Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg — but could bring in someone to enhance the group.

“We have developed a young core that is and remains very talented, and many, many, many of those guys had great seasons, and that is going to continue to be the backbone of this team,” Elias said. “I don’t see any way that that changes.”

On the pitching side, Elias did not say whether they have plans to bring back Burnes, whom they acquired from the Brewers in February. He led the rotation with a 2.92 ERA and did his part in the Wild Card Series, allowing one run in eight innings in Game 1. Although Rubenstein seems willing to spend, there have been no signs that the front office is willing to dole out the kind of contract Burnes is likely seeking.

“Clearly after this disappointing exit we are all going to feel a lot of urgency to not have this be the case next year,” Elias said. “What I’m saying is I’m going to have to be smart about how to make that happen.”

Even if Burnes doesn’t return, Elias views the trade — which saw Baltimore send infielder Joey Ortiz and left-hander DL Hall to Milwaukee — as a success.

“More than held up his end of the bargain,” Elias said. “It was very impactful and impressive to see Corbin come into a brand-new organization, a lot of pressure on his shoulders in a major trade and everyone knows he’s going into free agency and in a place he’s never been before.

“I felt that was a necessary move and we did push chips in to this season with that trade, and it’s a shame we weren’t able to carry his impact further into the playoffs, because we saw what that was capable of doing for us. But that’s part of sports, sometimes. It doesn’t work out well. But bringing in Corbin Burnes this season certainly did work out well, from my point of view, and it was just tremendously impressive watching him do his thing.”

Adley Rutschman is still ‘our guy’

The pressure on Adley Rutschman is significant. As the first overall draft pick in 2019, he carried the flag for Baltimore’s rebuild. When he arrived in the majors in 2022, he helped the Orioles find immediate success.

But the second half of Rutschman’s season was a struggle — perhaps the first time in his life he has ever been as unsteady in the batter’s box. The catcher hit .207 with a .585 OPS after the All-Star break. In the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s loss, Rutschman said he would take a few days to reflect on the year, but he acknowledged throughout the second half that he hoped to turn things around.

As a catcher, Elias said, Rutschman grew tired as the season went along. “I think we’re all tired. But so are other teams in the league; that’s not an excuse,” Elias said. The fatigue, however, was seen in the dip in Rutschman’s bat speed over the year. In May, his average bat speed was 67.7 mph. It dipped slightly to 65.9 mph by September.

Still, the Orioles see Rutschman as a cornerstone of their organization and expect him to remain in that level of importance next year and beyond.

“[He’s] been such a key to our ascent that it’s been very frustrating for him, and for us, to see him experience the degree of struggles that he did in the second half, really for the first time since we’ve had him,” Elias said. “But he is an elite competitor, an athlete, and he’s our guy. I have nothing but confidence that he’s going to be back to Adley Rutschman in 2025.”