More from Elias and Hyde at today's press conference

Before executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias presented new manager Mike Elias with his No. 18 Orioles jersey and cap, before they shook hands as cameras and iPhones captured the moment with varying degrees of clarity, the former Astros assistant explained his latest hire and why it felt like the right fit.

"Today represents the culmination of what was a very intensive, very thorough search for the next manager of the Baltimore Orioles," Elias said at today's press conference at Camden Yards.

"Throughout this search, it was an incredible experience for me. We had a great candidate pool, an unbelievable candidate pool. Talked a lot of baseball, heard a lot of ideas from some of the top managerial candidates from around the league. And it was a very competitive process and it was something that I could have gone in a number of different directions with. But what stood out throughout the entire process for me, for us, were Brandon's unique qualifications and experiences for this job.

"He's had a varied career across all different aspects of baseball operations with a ton of experience in player development, but also in major league coaching," Elias continued. "And the experiences that he's had as a member of a front office, a member of a minor league coaching staff, a minor league manager, a major league coach, a bench coach across two organizations, and as a player, as a catcher coming up. Just such a deep background, and brought such a wide breadth of perspective to the way he views the game, the way he views the manager's role, the way he views the relationship between the major's office and the front office.

"And certainly the specific mentorships that he benefitted from in the Marlins organization and most recently in the Cubs organization," the GM said. "And then being such a huge part in building the Cubs organization into a world champion and a playoff-caliber team year after year was very attractive to me and to us throughout this entire process."

Elias was just getting started. He zeroed in on Hyde early and clearly had no regrets, his enthusiasm for the hire evident in his words and on his face. He often nodded his head as Hyde spoke.

"I also think that the approach and the personal characteristics that he's going to bring to this job are ideal," Elias said. "He's someone with the reputation and experience in connecting with players, communicating very openly with players, empathizing with players, which is very important in today's game. But he also has the same view as I do, that this is a partnership between the front office and the coaching staff. We are going to be working toward the same goals and doing so in a collaborative, open manner where we're communicating constantly. So, to me, the connection I felt personally in dealing with Brandon was very important, as well.

"I'm very excited to have him here today, to have him as part of the team, to have his help in what we're going to be doing here. And I'm very pleased to announce Brandon Hyde as our 20th manager in franchise history."

The applause that built from the gathering included Hyde's wife, Lisa, daughters Aria and Addison and son Colton. Hyde checked his notes while thanking the people who were most influential in his professional and personal lives, calling the scene "overwhelming."

"I want to start out by saying how truly excited I am to be joining the Baltimore Orioles family," he said. "It's a very special community, it's a town of rich tradition and I cannot wait to be part of it.

"Being named manager of the Orioles is a dream come true, and I'm incredibly humbled to be here today."

Hyde thanked the Angelos family and Elias and assistant Sig Mejdal "for how you treated me through the interview process."

"When we met, it was immediately clear to me that we share the same vision and passion toward building a winning culture, an elite organization and a championship ballclub," he said. "I cannot wait to get to work with you guys.

"I'm so happy to be here, I'm proud to be an Oriole and I can't wait to get to work."

Elias said later in a smaller media scrum that Hyde's lack of managerial experience beyond the minors didn't bring any concerns.

"I think it speaks to how impressed we were with Brandon that the fact he has not had major league managing experience, and still he beat out very good candidates that did," Elias said. "I was a little bit attracted to experience because I'm a first-year GM and we have a lot to do all around the organization, so there was some attraction to that. But he impressed us to such a degree that we were able to move past that.

"He has a lot of experience in the dugout as a bench coach, and while he was not the manager, that type of close experience to the manager in different phases of an organization's life cycle, I think he's extremely experienced. About as experienced as you can get for somebody who has not managed."

One of the strongest takes from today's press conference was the insistence again that running the club and building a winner would be a collaborative effort, everyone pulling on the same rope, no more outside accusations of rampant dysfunction.

"I view, we view - that's not just me, it's Sig and the rest of the baseball operations staff and Brandon - we view the manager's chair as an outpost of the front office," Elias said. "So, while he's on a nightly basis managing the 25-man roster, worrying about the players on the 40-man roster, trying to win games at the major league level, he's also a full-blown senior member of our front office team. He will be involved on every decision, strategy, and that's the dynamic that I'm most familiar with because of my recent experience in Houston, and that's the dynamic that I know works around the league, works best.

"It's a big job, it's a complicated job. There's a lot that goes into all of our decisions and we want him a part of it and vice versa."

"The buzzword is 'collaboration' and that's true for me," Hyde said. "To be able to have an open dialogue, a give and take, maybe a healthy disagreement, but be able to have that relationship that you're able to get better with each other and be able to make solid decisions.

"The ideal situation for me and what I found out right away was somebody that I could have a working relationship with, become close friends with over time and be able to have a kind of daily interaction is super important."

Hyde said he interviewed for five jobs, meeting a few weeks ago with Elias and Mejdal. They talked, they dined and they laid the groundwork for news that broke at the Winter Meetings.

"I've heard about Mike and Sig from the past, and was just really interested in hearing what they had to say about this organization going forward," he said. "I thought we had a great day and a great evening at dinner. Great conversation. It was an easy conversation. And it was really intriguing to me at that point. I really felt like it was a good fit."

Elias intensified the background work on candidates shortly after the Orioles hired him. He called dozens of friends throughout baseball, and Hyde's was the first name that he heard.

"Every phone call that I made, his name always came up," Elias said. "It was a pretty easy decision to have him on the candidate list, and he's somebody who's viewed as an up-and-coming star in our business. So, I'm very happy that we've landed him here."

Hyde was asked to describe his reputation, the one that's been referenced so often over the course of the search and after the hiring.

"I hope good," he said, smiling. "I've always had a really good relationship with players and coaches. I'm passionate about coaching, I'm passionate about our players. I think that comes out pretty authentic."

Hyde continued the self-evaluation by calling himself "a player-development guy who loves the game, understands the grind, loves big league players, creates relationships."

"Those things are really important to me," he said.

Hyde could have added "late-bloomer," considering the long road traveled that brought him to Camden Yards - and later lunch with his family at Dempsey's Brew Pub and Restaurant.

"I think I was an average to below-average minor league player who had to work for everything he got," Hyde said. "Started as a Single-A hitting coach, hoping to someday be a big league coach, with no expectations. Just wanted to work, get players better. And I think I've just continued to get opportunities. Had really good people around me.

"I'm so fortunate, for the people that I've had an opportunity to work with made me better. Been surrounded by people that are better than me who made me better along the way. Up until today or this offseason, that's kind of when things started to happen a little bit. The timing of that, I'm not sure why. I think being a bench coach for Joe (Maddon) last year helped a little bit. I've learned so much from him the last four years and being next to him every day this last year was absolutely fantastic.

"I feel really fortunate. I'm super pumped to be here and work with Mike, and I'm ready to get started."

The early steps will include learning the players on the 25- and 40-man rosters and everyone else in the system. It won't come together overnight. It won't be done without all the technology available to him.

"To be 100 percent honest, I just got here," Hyde said. "It all happened pretty quick. My next order of business with Mike is going to be coaching staff, and I'm going to be getting as much video as possible, get to know our roster. I've been in the National League Central for the last five years. We played you guys in '17. There's been a lot of roster turnover since then. But I'm going to get after it and start watching video and get to know our guys, get on the phone and start the relationship process as early as possible."

How does Hyde envision himself as a major league manager, handling so many young players and, as a reporter suggested, balancing between being a "tough guy" and "fatherly?"

"That would be myself. That's the answer to that," he replied.

"Be myself and create great relationships with players. When you create great relationships, you're able to hold accountable, you're able to have tough conversations. Being able to coach veteran players as well as young players is a skill, and I've been fortunate to have all kinds of different teams as a coach. A team that's not very good to being a World Series champion.

"The bottom line is to be yourself, be true to yourself every single day, not be afraid of tough conversations. And it's all about staying positive throughout the process."

Hyde will remain in Baltimore through the week to more familiarize himself with his new surroundings - perhaps he will stop by Tuesday's holiday party in the warehouse - and work on assembling a coaching staff as his first order of business. Again, a collaborative effort, but with Hyde wielding the most influence.

He also will focus on player development and work with Mejdal on the research-and-development team.

"I think the whole package was the most attractive thing to me through this whole thing," he said.

"We're going to create a culture here of open thinking, free conversation, where there's going to be creative ideas and staying positive throughout. That's our goal here, is to take what we just came from and bring it here."