TODAY: Elias provided reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski) with another update, saying Rodriguez has suffered a Grade 2 lat strain. As a result, Rodriguez isn’t expected to return until September at the earliest, and while “I definitely don’t want to rule out him pitching later this season if we think it’s the right thing to do,” Elias said there is a possibility the team might ultimately shut the righty down for the rest of 2022. Ultimately, the Orioles’ aim is to have Rodriguez on the Opening Day roster for 2023.
JUNE 2: Orioles pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez suffered a right lat strain during his start last night with Triple-A Norfolk, general manager Mike Elias announced to reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com and Dan Connolly of the Athletic). Elias declined to specify a timetable for his return to game action but ominously noted the 22-year-old “is going to miss a decent amount of time at minimum.” (Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Sun first reported the diagnosis before the team announcement).
It’s a disappointing development both for Rodriguez personally and the Baltimore fanbase. The 11th overall pick in the 2018 draft, Rodriguez has cemented himself as one of the sport’s most highly-regarded minor league arms. Baseball America just ranked the right-hander the sport’s #3 overall prospect and top pitching farmhand on its updated Top 100 list this morning. FanGraphs and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN each rated him as the league’s best minor league pitcher heading into the season.
Rodriguez has backed up that optimism with an incredible start to the year in Norfolk. Through 11 starts with the Tides, he’s worked 56 innings of 2.09 ERA ball. The Texas native has fanned an incredible 37.4% of batters faced at the minors’ top level against a meager 6.5% walk rate. He’s allowed fewer than three earned runs per nine innings at every stop in his pro career.
That utter domination of Triple-A hitters had seemed to put Rodriguez on the map for an imminent call-up. That’ll obviously be on hold while he’s out of action, and Elias declined to answer when asked if this injury could prevent Rodriguez from making his major league debut at any point in 2022 (Connolly link). In any event, whatever hope O’s fans had of potentially seeing the prized young hurler in Camden Yards over the next few weeks has been dashed.
It’s a disappointing setback, although Elias expressed confidence Rodriguez wouldn’t be hampered long-term by his recovery process. At 22-30, the O’s are likely ticketed for another last place finish in the AL East. The timing of Rodriguez’s debut won’t change the team’s fortunes this season, but he’d provide a jolt to the fanbase and get a development opportunity against big league hitters if he returns to health and gets on a big league mound at some point this season.
The future is bright in B-More
Yeah right. I guess the Yankees and Red Sox are going to suddenly NOT be richer than them. Sure Baltimore might occasionally find a year where they are competitive and may even win the division, but it will be few ad far between. They are basically in the same boat as Colorado and Arizona in the NL West. When you have two teams in the same division that drastically outspend the rest, the rest don’t have much of a chance.
Yeah, poor Peter Angelos. Only worth $2+ billion dollars.
Maybe we can pass around a hat to pay the Orioles’ salary this season.
Chris Davis is getting paid $23M this year to disappear. Maybe he’ll do Mr. Angelos a favor, if only he can convince to come down from that deer stand.
well put pangolin, that same thought immediately popped into my head as well. He has always been cheap but I guess that’s why he has the money he has..
Yes, because net worth of the owner is how most teams set their payroll… that’s not totally asinine at all.
I always shake my head when people take an owners personal wealth and equate it with one of their companies wealth. A partner in a firm doesn’t pay salaries with their own money. They also pay themselves a salary from the business. How many MLB owners AREN’T worth a billion? A billion in what? Shares? Doesn’t mean they’re liquid.
Guys like Mike Illitch are special. They’ll spend their own cash like the game us their personal toy. But that’s not how businesses usually operate.
I don’t can speak English. I must be sound real job. Want to buy abridge?
@hiflew What’s sad is that the O’s were a big market team in the 90s, drawing from both Baltimore and DC. Heck, one year they had the highest payroll in MLB (1997 I believe). What happened? A popular belief in Baltimore is that an egotistical owner chased away successful baseball people like GM Pat Gillick, manager Davey Johnson, announcer John Miller and the like in the late 90s. The result? A series of losing seasons which killed attendance eventually opening up the opportunity for a franchise in DC. Some owners who enjoy participating in the baseball decisions making of their teams have success, others, not so much. Personally I much prefer following teams who’s ownership trys its utmost to stay out of the “on the field” decision making. I got spoiled following the O’s back in the 60s and 70s when under the ownership of Hoffberger. I miss those days. A lot of winning. Fan fun!
Every team could until salaries exploded. But once #4 starters were getting paid eight figure salaries, some teams just couldn’t or wouldn’t keep up.
I know I am old, but it wasn’t THAT long ago that it was considered a ridiculous contract when Bobby Bonilla signed with the Mets for almost $6 million a year. Yeah Bobby Bonilla Day is basically a joke nowadays, but at the time he was far and away the highest paid player in the game. Now $6 million a year will barely get you a middle reliever. Some places like Cincy can’t keep up, some places like Baltimore won’t keep up.
Hiflew: I agree with you with respect to salaries taking leaps, but the profit generated has gone up proportionally. Significant increases on both sides of that equation.
I think greed on {both} sides has contributed negatively to the sport. Heck, I mean, look at some of the ridiculous contracts handed out? 13 years for a baseball player? To play until 39? That’s a recipe for disaster for several years at contract’s end, but they still do it to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Seems insane to me though.
For the O’s look at the Chris Davis contract. Everybody knew that was a disaster from the start but he was well-liked by ownership. Stupid.
^^^true about salary explosion, but revenues are higher. Part of the issue with the last labor agreement was pay hadn’t kept up with revenue.
I love a world of relatable baseball players too. But business is business I guess. I’d rather some guy from a relatable background who’s worked hard to get there get his money than see it just drawing interest in an account.
I do question the long-term health of the game and business. I don’t know how salaries will escalate if the game keeps having fewer fans.
Doc Elvis: “ I do question the long-term health of the game and business.”
Yeah, keeping enough harmony between the two for future success is probably the biggest question mark.
Also, you’re correct about revenues, imo, their exponential increases have outpaced salaries.
To stop congress from taking away the anti trust exemption, post steroids, MLB forced Baltimore to give up half its market to the Nationals. They took one for the team (MLB), but the team hasn’t shown much appreciation of that.
Yea because the team with highest payroll won the last two division titles.
The Orioles are the product of poor player development. Period. Peter Angelo’s can’t mess with a team until they arrive.
Hell of a thread here. Thanks fellas! To @Dock_Elvis: interesting take on “when” an owner can influence his team. I lean towards ownership influencing their team before players arrive. Personally, I believe every business person, especially successful ones, has a vision with a plan in place to make it happen before any personnel become a part of it. In the MLB here recently I’ve enjoyed following the Mets under their current owner Cohen. Long time Os fan here, that said, I’m also following those Metropolitans this year because of him. Cheers!
$&@#!!!!
Seems easily half of stories on this site are injury related topics. Can get depressing. Have injuries always been a prominent part of this game?
Well Owings remains healthy
So there is that
No no one ever got injured before this year
Yes
yes
Yes, injuries have always been a part of this game. But at this rate/level? Hmm, not sure about that. At the risk of dating myself here, but back in the mid 60s thru the early 80s during the Orioles “heydey”, outside of Palmer’s arm troubles in the late 60s; starters, both position players and pitchers, … and role players … were seeing steady action and daily. And if you did have an injury you played through it. Hell, Mantle played pretty much on one leg for a good part of his career.
Injuries were much more career threatening in the past. Some guys never even made it. The game used to be built on pitchers tearing rotator cuffs.
The reason why there are so many pitching injuries now is because pitchers don’t pitch, they throw.
Using the Orioles as an example, look at guys like Scott McGregor or Mike Boddicker. If you want a better example outside of that? Tom Glavine. They rarely topped 90 on the radar gun with their best fastballs. But they could PITCH – place the ball where they wanted, change speeds, get movement. Nowadays, the guys just throw, 95, 97, 100 MPH. Obviously this is putting much more strain on their arms (and supporting bodies). The art of pitching has been replaced by brute force, and the brute force focus has increased injuries.
The art of hitting is gone too (Ichiro was a throwback). They swing as hard as they can to hit home runs, which causes more strikeouts, more useless groundouts into a shift, and more pop ups.
I miss the art in baseball.
DL Hall next?
Well, that was fast.
Hope he’s able to come back this season. These injuries take months and months to heal. Seems to be more of the lat injuries surfacing.
This thread is proof of why MLBTRADERUMORS has the worst comments section in all of the internet.
You ever been on Facebook or Twitter?
Don’t forget Reddit.
He won’t be in the majors now until next May. They’ll buy another year if service time.