Every struggling season has a point in time when fans turn their gaze from on-field to upstairs, and that point has arrived for Baltimore. Orioles owner David Rubenstein has finally broken his silence during the franchise’s midseason slump. But instead of stepping up, he’s stepped back, having shifted the limelight back onto the “baseball professionals.” His remarks fueled more questions than clarity, and for now, with the season slipping away, the franchise finds itself caught between public optimism and private confusion.
It took about two months and a managerial firing for Rubenstein to step up to the mic. And when he finally spoke at the National Press Club, it was not the accountability speech many were waiting for.
Rubenstein casually passed the baseball buck: “I leave the baseball to the baseball professionals,” he stated. “My job is to be the owner. It’s to help with ticket sales, commercial things, and take the blame when something goes wrong.” The irony? He has taken no actual blame, at least not yet.
David Rubenstein, the Orioles’ owner, addressed the state of the team for the first time since Brandon Hyde’s firing on @cspan.
“I leave the baseball to the baseball professionals, he said. “My job is to be the owner. It’s to help with ticket sales, commercial things…” pic.twitter.com/hwjqJjVo6h
— Andy Kostka (@afkostka) July 10, 2025
Painting the picture of a man free of clubhouse grind, Rubenstein further commented, “I’m 75; these guys are 21, 22 years old,” he joked. “I’m not able to coach these players very much. I can’t tell them what to do.” A humorous line on its own, but the fanbase is not laughing.
The Baltimore Orioles are standing at a 42–50 record, seven games out of the final Wild Card spot, and languishing dead last in the division. The pivot? Injuries. Rubenstein leaned hard on that narrative: “We have a lot of injuries. We lead the major leagues, I think, in injuries. And what are you supposed to say to a young person who injures his arm? You can’t say, ‘Go out and play.’” Adley Rutschman’s oblique strain, four catchers on the injured list, and 24 stars shelved overall aren’t ideal.
But this team did not look right, even when they were considered healthy.
Which brings us to the awkward silence around Brandon Hyde. Rubenstein never highlighted the fired skipper. GM Mike Elias admitted he consulted ownership “very heavily” before making the decision related to Hyde after a 15–28 start. Afterwards, Rubenstein stayed silent till the narrative floated just far enough away from his office.
“We have a very good team,” Rubenstein pointed out amid the deflections. “We won three games in a row against the Atlanta Braves the other day. We’re going to play the Mets soon, and I think we have a reasonably good chance in the second half of doing much, much better.” It is the kind of optimism that reads fine in media interaction, but feels tone-deaf when the season has already unraveled.
And just as the owner stepped away from accountability, the brightest star of the team did the opposite — he spoke directly to management.
David Rubenstein remains silent, but the Orioles are urged to buy at the deadline
When management hesitates, the team speaks louder. That is exactly what happened when Gunnar Henderson stepped up with a pointed message. “We want to be buyers at the Deadline. We’re going out every day, playing games and proving that we should be buyers.”
Coming from someone like Henderson, this carries weight. The 2023 AL Rookie of the Year helped lead the Orioles to 101 wins that season, followed by another postseason run in 2024. His back-to-back All-Star campaigns and Silver Slugger make him the face of Baltimore’s resurgence. So when he talks about being “buyers,” it is not coming from desperation, but experience in winning.
However, beneath that conviction is a team teetering between two futures. The Orioles are staring at a seven-and-a-half game gap from a Wild Card spot—far from insurmountable, yet hardly promising. As the July 31 deadline looms, management faces a defining call: Lean into the optimism and push for a third straight postseason or offload veterans and reset the clock for 2026. It’s not just a playoff question—it’s a philosophical one.
Unlike the past two seasons, the Orioles aren’t just missing wins; they’re missing identity and momentum.
That reality has now landed on Executive VP Mike Elias’s desk. The man who built a 101-win powerhouse is being tested in real time, navigating a roster that’s clearly not at full throttle. With Adley Rutschman still sidelined, the bullpen running thin, and key bats underperforming, the team doesn’t exactly scream “contender.” Even Henderson, the face of the clubhouse, has seen his numbers dip—his OPS dropping to .773 and his home run count falling to 10 from last year’s 37.
Rubenstein may have been right about not controlling the players, but now the question becomes: Do they roll the dice one last time, or start selling pieces before August hits?
The window is closing. Trade buzz is already swirling, and every game from here is a verdict on whether the Orioles have any business buying. Henderson’s message was a shot of adrenaline, but could it be too late to save the season?
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