BALTIMORE — The Orioles have shut down starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez once again.
When he’ll resume throwing remains to be seen, let alone when he might be able to make his 2025 debut.
Rodriguez had been scheduled to complete his latest bullpen session Thursday, but manager Brandon Hyde instead revealed he began experiencing shoulder soreness earlier this week, which prompted an MRI. The 25-year-old began the season on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation and triceps soreness stemming from an abbreviated Grapefruit League start on March 5.
“He woke up a few days ago with a little bit of soreness in his shoulder area,” Hyde said. “We were getting imaging this morning. The results have not come back on that yet.
“We’re hoping for the best, but we felt like it was necessary to get some imaging done.”
Meeting with reporters at Camden Yards on Tuesday, general manager Mike Elias said Rodriguez was “tolerating everything well physically” after completing two bullpen sessions while also acknowledging the organization wasn’t ready to set a potential timetable for the young pitcher’s return to game action. This marks the latest setback for the 2018 first-round pick once regarded as the best pitching prospect in baseball and expected to take the place of Corbin Burnes as Baltimore’s ace in 2025.
Rodriguez hasn’t pitched in a regular-season game since July 31 of last season as he was scratched from his following start in Toronto and placed on the IL with a right lat strain, the same kind of injury that cost him three months of his 2022 minor-league season and delayed his major league debut until the following season. He also had an IL stint for shoulder inflammation last May, but he was able to return from that in less than three weeks to make 14 more starts before the lat strain that ultimately sidelined him for the rest of the 2024 season and the playoffs.
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In 43 career major league starts covering 238 2/3 innings, Rodriguez has gone 20-8 with a 4.11 ERA while averaging 9.8 strikeouts and 2.9 walks per nine innings.
The Rodriguez news is the latest blow to a pitching staff that’s been ravaged by injuries dating back to before the start of spring training. Opening Day starter Zach Eflin is also on the IL with a right lat strain sustained April 7, but the 31-year-old began playing catch this week with Elias expressing optimism that his absence “will be measured more in weeks than in months.”
Other pitchers currently on the IL include Albert Suarez (right subscapularis strain), Andrew Kittredge (left knee debridement surgery), Chayce McDermott (right lat strain), Trevor Rogers (right knee subluxation), Kyle Bradish (right elbow UCL surgery), and Tyler Wells (right elbow UCL surgery). None of their returns are imminent, but Kittredge, Rogers, and McDermott are regarded as the closest to returning by the end of next month. Still recovering from their respective 2024 elbow surgeries, Bradish and Wells remain on track to be able to return to major league action by the latter part of the summer, according to Elias.
