The Orioles lost another game and another pitcher in Arizona on Tuesday with the post-game announcement that top starter Zach Eflin is dealing with a low-grade lat strain.
Manager Brandon Hyde told reporters that Eflin would be shut down for “about a week” in hopes that he’ll resume throwing at that point. Though Eflin told the club he was feeling good the morning after exiting Monday’s start that included six innings of one-run ball on just 73 pitches, the 31-year-old is now expected to join seven other Baltimore pitchers currently on the injured list: Grayson Rodriguez (right elbow inflammation), Albert Suarez (right subscapularis strain), Andrew Kittredge (left knee debridement), Chayce McDermott (right lat strain), Trevor Rogers (right knee subluxation), Kyle Bradish (right elbow UCL surgery), and Tyler Wells (right elbow UCL surgery).
What was initially described as “shoulder fatigue” cut short what had been Eflin’s third straight quality start to begin the season in Monday’s 5-1 victory over the Diamondbacks. In 18 innings this season, Eflin owns a 3.00 ERA with eight strikeouts, one walk, and two home runs allowed.
Eflin became the first Orioles pitcher since Dylan Bundy in 2018 to open a season with three straight quality starts and just the seventh to do so since 2000. No other Baltimore pitcher has logged a quality start this season with the club entering Wednesday ranked 25th in the majors in starter ERA.
The Orioles have scheduled off-days on Thursday and Monday, meaning they technically wouldn’t need a fifth starter again until April 19. Signed late in spring training, the 37-year-old Kyle Gibson is expected to make his first start with Triple-A Norfolk on Thursday as he continues to ramp up his workload to join the major league club. If it’s not Gibson, the most logical candidate to replace Eflin in the short term would be the 26-year-old Brandon Young, who was named the organization’s pitcher of the year in 2024. In 89 innings with Triple-A Norfolk last season, the right-hander pitched to a 3.44 ERA while averaging 9.7 strikeouts and 3.3 walks per nine innings.
This isn’t the first time Eflin has dealt with a shoulder issue since being acquired last summer as he was placed on the IL with what was called inflammation in mid-August and was able to return after the 15-day minimum on Sept. 1. However, a lat strain isn’t typically the kind of injury from which a pitcher hurries back to live-game action with Rodriguez — who missed significant portions of the 2022 and 2024 seasons — being a prime example.
The news about Eflin continues a brutal run of injuries for the projected major league pitching staff as well as the organization’s depth options going back to the start of spring training. On Monday, Suarez joined Bradish and Wells on the 60-day IL after imaging revealed a strain in his rotator cuff, an injury expected to keep him out until at least the summer months.
Right-handed pitcher Colin Selby was on Baltimore’s taxi squad on Tuesday as the Orioles waited on the MRI results for Eflin. The 27-year-old has tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings for Triple-A Norfolk this season and made three scoreless relief appearances for Baltimore last season.
(Updated 12:30 p.m. — Selby was recalled from Norfolk with Eflin officially being placed on the 15-day IL with a right lat strain)
