Cal Ripken Jr.’s words have always carried weight in Baltimore. But, now that he’s risen from the dugout to the ownership suite, his opinions on the Orioles have stronger implications than ever.

The Orioles’ highest-profile minority owner weighed in on the team’s disappointing start with a full-throated endorsement of general manager Mike Elias.

As of Thursday morning, the Orioles (27-39) were in last place in the AL East and eight games out of a wild-card playoff spot a month and a half from the MLB trade deadline. But Ripken, who called himself “a resource” for Elias, said the ownership group’s support for the team’s leading executive is intact.

“Mike’s our guy,” Ripken said. “He’s the architect who brought back winning baseball, peppered the organization with a lot of talent. There’s a lot of hope for the future for the Orioles. And so you gotta trust your guy, trust Mike.”

Ripken became the first Orioles owner to publicly discuss the underwhelming 2025 campaign Thursday, speaking at an event for his Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation expanding its youth baseball and softball partnership with MLB’s RBI program. From the old Memorial Stadium site in Waverly, Ripken celebrated baseball’s support of 30 youth leagues across 14 states — philanthropy remains a large part of his life since retiring from playing in 2001.

But there is plenty of intrigue in the role he’s served in since March 2024, entering as the ownership group’s celebrated local figurehead and becoming an even more frequent spectator in his regular seats behind home plate. This season, throughout the Orioles’ slumping performances, it’s become a front-row seat to a collapse few anticipated.

“The expectations were sky-high, and rightfully so with the seasons we’ve had recently,” he said. “I think all of us were a little disappointed getting off to a slow start. And sometimes when you get off to a slow start — and to me I look at it as the injury bug, it hits everybody, but it hit us particularly strong.”

A particularly low point came last month when manager Brandon Hyde was fired just weeks removed from receiving Elias’ public endorsement.

Ripken said he was not a part of that decision — “I haven’t been pulled in that far back yet,” he said — but acknowledged how hard it was for Elias to fire the only manager he had worked with since 2019: “I know that he agonized over it and thought about it. But in the end he thought that a change was necessary at that time.”

It’s clear Hyde’s dismissal dredged up painful memories for Ripken. He called it “unsettling” how it reminded him of the 1988 season when the Orioles, off to an 0-6 start, fired their manager — his dad, Cal Sr. Baltimore would go on to lose the next 15.

This season’s slide hasn’t been nearly that bad and, indeed, Ripken is one of the people who believes the Orioles still have a chance to make the postseason. He believes the clubhouse has steadied itself since Hyde’s firing, crediting interim manager Tony Mansolino, and said the team’s 10-1 blowout of the AL-leading Tigers on Wednesday night was reminiscent of the past two seasons.

“To me, with the wild-card slots and all that stuff, if you can edge back to .500, if you can make that up in the next three months and get close, you got a shot at the end,” Ripken said. “So this team is way too talented. I’m looking forward to how they play when they get fully healthy. We’re getting really close right now. There’s no reason to lose total hope.”

Ripken has always had a fondness for nostalgia. It makes him deeply reverent of history but perhaps also reluctant to dive into the future. Standing at the spot where Memorial Stadium’s home plate once was, he described the awe he felt when he first started at Brooks Robinson’s old spot at third base. It feels not that long ago when he homered on opening day in 1982 and shook his dad’s hand as he rounded third.

When the Orioles announced they were moving to Camden Yards, Ripken was one of the people who wondered why the team would abandon the historic park where it won three World Series. He initially preferred a fix-up to Memorial Stadium: “Then one step into Camden Yards, you realize that was way better.”

After initially swooping in during a feel-good chapter of Orioles baseball, Ripken is seeing how being on the ownership side has its challenges. Compared to fellow owners David Rubenstein and Michael Arougheti, Ripken’s sway is relatively small-scale.

But his messaging about support for Elias felt earnest and speaks to the franchise’s direction. It also wasn’t surprising. You’d expect nothing less than steadfast loyalty from Ripken, who has spent his life attached to this franchise.

Ripken added that he doesn’t harbor ambitions for a larger role in ownership. It is, after all, more enjoyable to spend his time trying to expand his youth baseball program and watch games sitting next to Ravens coach John Harbaugh than to be a franchise power broker accountable for the Orioles’ biggest decisions.

But he is part of the group that ultimately answers when the team’s results don’t match the goals — and it is significant that he spoke out, and also said he spoke for the ownership at large. While other owners may truly steer the franchise’s decisions, Ripken’s sentiments weigh heavily for the fan base.

He’s no longer simply a figurehead, and that’s a tougher spot, even for a beloved Hall of Famer, when things aren’t going well.

“There’s an excitement in the ballpark,” he said, “and an expectation for success that we’re all gonna have to live with.”