MILWAUKEE — The day before Brandon Hyde’s tenure as Orioles manager ended, the topic of conversation in his final pregame press conference circled around the player that had as much impact as any on Hyde’s time with Baltimore.

During Hyde’s first season — a 108-loss slog — the Orioles drafted catcher Adley Rutschman. He became the face of the rebuild, a harbinger of better days, and Rutschman’s arrival in the majors on the third Saturday of May in 2022 brought about organizational change, with winning the predominant outcome.

As this Orioles season begins in a much different way — resulting in Hyde’s ouster — it coincides with a troublesome beginning to Rutschman’s season. Still, to the very end of Hyde’s tenure, the former manager emphasized his belief in Rutschman to find consistency at the plate.

One of the last things Hyde told Rutschman in a one-on-one setting will stick with the 27-year-old, even after the manager’s dismissal.

“I talked to him the other day about, ‘Let’s see how many doubles you can hit the rest of the year. Let’s see how many line drives we can hit through the gaps the rest of the year,’” Hyde said Friday.

By Saturday, he was gone. But that mentality he urged Rutschman to adopt isn’t.

“I think that’s always a phenomenal approach,” Rutschman said. “Hitting balls on a line, gap to gap, you’re giving yourself the most opportunity for success, I think. That’s a great mindset to be in at the plate and with your work.”

When studying Rutschman’s season thus far, the obvious stands out. He holds a .208 average and a .637 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Those aren’t anywhere near the levels he produced in 2023, his first All-Star season, which finished with a .277 average and .809 OPS.

Digging deeper, the expected statistics for Rutschman on Statcast are much more promising. Don’t get sucked in by those, though — Rutschman doesn’t care for expected stats, which are calculated based on launch angles, exit velocities and the like.

“It’s always going to be my process,” Rutschman said. And that is broken down into three categories.

“Am I swinging at the right pitch?” Rutschman explained. “Am I in a good position, on time, and am I getting off a good swing on the ball? And when I’m getting off a good swing, what’s that doing?”

Let’s focus on those areas, then. What is plain is that Rutschman has excelled at controlling the strike zone, even with poor numbers to show for it. His 17.9% chase rate is in the 96th percentile. When he makes contact, he’s squaring the ball up 37.8% of the time (98th percentile), which means he is producing nearly as much exit velocity as possible on any given swing.

And then the last one: When he does produce a good swing, what’s the outcome?

That’s the missing part. When Rutschman is at his best, he’s hitting balls to the opposite field. Too often this season Rutschman is pulling ground balls (a career-high 23%). He’s pulling balls at a 42.1% rate, which is also a career high. In 2023, for instance, Rutschman hit balls the opposite way 31.5% of the time. That’s down to 24.6% this year.

All of that is to say: Rutschman’s timing, for whatever reason, is not optimized yet.

“I obviously believe in my ability, and my ability to be a good player,” Rutschman said. “I hate seeing the numbers at where they are. But, you know, I’m working every day to try to figure out that 1% every day that’s going to give me an edge to be able to go out and have batter results on balls in play.”

Rutschman studies those three principles at the end of each plate appearance. And despite the lack of ball-in-play success, Rutschman is still walking at an acceptable 11% rate, which helps.

His stance has altered slightly each season in the majors. In 2023, Rutschman employed a larger leg kick than he does now. His hands, once loaded, are at a higher point. Now, Rutschman has a noticeably wider base and has introduced a toe tap.

“The toe tap was something I started doing unconsciously during the offseason,” Rutschman said, “and then it kind of became one of those things where I found my body was in a good position to hit.”

He feels the newer stance helps his “adjustability,” or in non-baseball jargon, his ability to react to various pitch types to still get an A-swing off. It’s hard to see that as the case, however, when Rutschman’s statistics are down across the board so far.

But before Rutschman’s scheduled day off Monday, there was a small sign of consistency. He had a base knock Thursday. He followed it with a three-hit night Friday, including a double. And on Saturday, the day Hyde was fired, Rutschman produced another two-bagger.

Then he went hitless Sunday with two strikeouts, and he watched on during the first game in Milwaukee against the Brewers until a ninth-inning pinch-hit opportunity, which ended in an opposite-field fly out. With that time off, Rutschman could sit and think of the start he has produced. He’s not happy about it. He knows he can do better.

But he’s not in a spiral mentally, and he’s not abandoning the process that got him to the majors in the first place.

“I have all the belief in my ability, and I’m optimistic,” Rutschman said. “I don’t have doubt in my mind. All anyone wants to do is play to their potential, and that’s all I’m trying to do, to put in the work every single day.”