There is a specific point when frustration does not just bubble beneath the surface — it boils over. One missed call, could be two and some close strikes. You can shrug it off. However, when the same trend keeps crashing against the walls of a team night after night, then the most patient mouths begin to wear thin. In the Baltimore Orioles, the cooker finally boiled over too loud to ignore. As the team went through razor-thin margins, their manager, Brandon Hyde, decided enough was enough and challenged the silence.
It is no secret that bad umpiring can transform the momentum. For the Orioles, 2025 has been a brutal year. Through the first 24 games, the team has just been playing the opponent and battling the strike zone itself. In addition, the team has been ignored by home plate umpires, with opponents favored by a staggering 4.76 runs. That is almost 0.2 runs each game, just slipping through the cracks.
Brandon Hyde has seen young hitters, like Jackson Holliday, get rained up on pitches that did not sniff the strike zone. As a responsible manager, such a situation pushed him to speak loudly. He spoke in front of not just the media, but directly to his team. “I would like to see our guys step up and say something once in a while,” he said.
His frustration did not come out of nowhere. Since Hyde began his journey with the team in 2019, hitters have been targeted. In more than seven seasons, Orioles opponents have been favored by 55.64 runs. It is the third-worst number in MLB behind only the Marlins and Nationals. It is almost as if such calls is now a part of the team’s scouting report. In addition, 2025 has not stopped the trend. A blown strike zone cost the Orioles 1.29 runs in an extra-innings loss to the Jays. It is tough to survive the AL East without playing against the umpire, too.
Still, Hyde is not looking for full-on meltdowns. “There are good ejections and there are bad ejections,” he said. It looks like, he knew that barking at an umpire can land the team in a larger issue. What he is pushing for is something more stable and a respectful stand. At the base of this situation, Brandon Hyde’s request is related to growth. It is related to young hitters identifying their voice. “Part of being a major league player and learning to be a major league player is to learn to hold people accountable a little bit”, he said. It is a crash course in survival in MLB where respect is earned.
MLB’s umpire crisis in 2025 apart from Orioles
It is not just the Orioles feeling the heat. Across MLB, 2025 has seen a large list of umpiring disasters. In the Yankees, Jazz Chisholm Jr. erupted after being punched out on a ball that was not close. After this, he earned his first ejection of the season. Over in Philadelphia, J.T. Realmuto felt the heat and became an unfortunate star of another blown call. At that game, Tony Randazzo gifted the Giants a vital strikeout. In addition, eye clinics identified it and took part in trolling by providing LASIK deals to umpires after the fiasco. When bad calls are trending more than the other aspects, you know there is an issue.
It does not stop there. Umpire Mike Estabrook managed to miss 21 calls in a single Dodgers-Rockies game. He marked it the worst officiated games of the year at just 86.5 percent accuracy. In addition, Umpire Auditor continues to blast missed calls publicly, placing more focus on officiating mistakes. Fans, players and former stars are loudly asking MLB to adopt the Automated Ball-Strike system. With human mistakes piling up, MLB’s old-school “trust the umpire” approach has become outdated. If transformation does not come quickly, the chaos could only get louder.
The enhancing umpire debacles across MLB are not just bad optics — they are eroding trust in the game itself. With stars speaking out, MLB can not afford to keep ignoring the obvious. It is time to embrace transformation. Automated strike zones are not the future — they are the now.
The post “Step Up and Say Something” – Orioles’ Manager Fires Strong Message to Hitters as MLB Umpires’ Blunders Keep Wreaking Havoc appeared first on EssentiallySports.