The Orioles have announced that right-hander Grayson Rodriguez has been recalled and will start today’s game against the Rangers. It was reported last night that the prospect was joining the club and likely to jump into the rotation. Fellow righty Kyle Bradish was placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 4, with a right foot contusion.
Rodriguez, 23, will be making his major league debut today, which has been a long time coming. A first-round pick from 2018, he’s been considered one of the top pitching prospects in the sport for a while. Baseball America has ranked him on their top 100 list in each of the past four seasons, with Rodriguez in the top 10 both this year and last year. He seemed to be cruising towards a debut last year since he began the season in Triple-A, but a lat strain then put him on the shelf for about three months and prevented that from happening.
Throughout the winter, it was expected by many that Rodriguez would crack the club’s Opening Day rotation, with general manager Mike Elias stating that was his expectation as well. But the young hurler didn’t look great in spring, posting a 7.04 ERA in his five starts. He struck out 19 hitters in his 15 1/3 innings but also walked seven and allowed 17 hits, including three home runs. The club decided not to carry him in the Opening Day rotation after all and optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk at the end of camp.
The O’s were probably hoping for Rodriguez to spend a bit more time in the minors getting into a good groove, but circumstances necessitated a quick change. Bradish was struck on his foot by a comebacker on Monday and was removed after just 28 pitches and 1 2/3 innings. That’s led to the recall of Rodriguez after just a single start for Norfolk, which didn’t exactly go swimmingly. He threw 75 pitches over four innings, allowing three runs, two earned. He only struck out two opponents, walked four of them and surrendered four hits.
It will be interesting to see how he fares in his first taste of major league action. On the one hand, the recent results haven’t been amazing. On the other, he’s ranked high on prospect lists because of his quality arsenal and has had better results in the past. He posted a 2.20 ERA in his 14 Triple-A starts last year, striking out 35.8% of batters he faced along the way.
If Rodriguez is able to thrive and hold onto his roster spot the rest of the way, he’ll be able to earn a full year of service time. The major league baseball season is 187 days long but a player needs to only spend 172 days on the active roster, or injured list, in order to bank a full year. That will obviously have implications for him personally, as hitting that mark would put him on track to reach arbitration after 2025 and free agency after 2028. But further time in the minors could keep him shy of that line and potentially push those timelines back a year.
The team could also benefit if Rodriguez sticks around, on top of whatever contributions he makes on the field. If a player has less than 60 days of service time and is considered a top 100 prospect by two of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline or ESPN then earns a full service year, they become eligible for the prospect promotion incentive. If that player wins Rookie of the Year or cracks the top three in Cy Young or MVP voting during their pre-arbitration years, the team will net an extra draft pick. This began with the new collective bargaining agreement that was signed a year ago and has already happened once, with the Mariners getting an extra draft pick when Julio Rodríguez won Rookie of the Year last season. Baltimore’s young pitcher is on all three of the aforementioned prospect lists, putting all of this on the table.
Those will be concerns for the future. In the short term, the club will have to see which version of Rodriguez shows up, the one who looked dominant in Triple-A last year or the one who floundered in spring this year. He’ll slot into the rotation next to Kyle Gibson, Cole Irvin, Dean Kremer and Tyler Wells, with Bradish returning at some point down the line.
I love women big time but there are two ballplayers I would sleep with: Kevin Kiermaier and Tyler Glasnow.
Kind of strange that media outlets determine service time. Never a good idea when the media votes for anything.
So now it begins. Will Grayson be a Mussina or a Matusz?
He’ll be far better than Matusz and I would settle for him being as good as Mussina.
GROD will never be Matusz – he has a real fastball- up to 99; Matusz “fastball” topped out at 90ish.
I never understood Matusz even when he started well. I’d watch and wonder how batters weren’t hitting him and hard. Seemed like smoke and mirrors. Until batters did start hitting him and hard and he became a LOOGY.
Matusz and Hobgood were horrendous picks, even if Matusz was highly touted as “polished,” pre-draft.
Ra that’s the point that I make a lot, the hype that guys like Matusz got versus what happened when brought up. While watching loss after listless loss in 2008-09 (I probably watched 120 games each season) you kept hearing about the young guys who are coming. Matusz was at the top of the list. Other than that you had Arrieta who was nothing until after he left and was coached competently, Britton was yet another who turned into a reliever, Tillman gave a few decent seasons but came from Seattle’s system so you can’t say he was “home grown”. Garrett Olson was another briefly mentioned early on until he came up and got blown up.
Matusz was polished and technically sound, but not talented enough to stick in the majors. He couldn’t overpower, and hitters figured him out pretty quickly. Then he became a LOOGY.
Out of curiousity, what is ohtani considered of the active 13?
Solid debut for Grayson today, especially considering he hasn’t looked like the same pitcher since he returned from the IL last year.
Based on what? The last couple ST games where he looked great but struggled with command. Or the first few ST games where he looked great with solid command?
Curious: how many of his starts for Norfolk last year did you watch? Any???
The fact when he came back he got hit hard which seldom happened before that and then, yes, the fact he wasnt good in spring. Struggling w command means he wasn’t pitching well. Nasty stuff one pitch then bad command the next isn’t good pitching. I’ve been tracking him for a while, and watched many highlights and lowlights (never full games). He didn’t even have a good first milb start. So, based on criteria that anyone would use in evaluating a young pitcher.
So you have never actually watched GrOD pitch, I see. Too bad you didn’t watch his command yesterday. But that would get in the way of your opinion based on box scores.
You okay? Need help? Yes I’ve seen him pitch, tracked him for years. No, he hadn’t looked good since he came back from the injury. Yes several weeks later he’s starting to look like his old self, which he wasn’t back then. Get it? Can you follow?
He’s looked very good in his last three outings. You are just wrong. And probably have not watched the games, Otherwise you wouldn’t be spewing such drivel.
Guess I wasn’t wrong
You are still wrong. His lat strain is in the rear view and is no longer affecting him.
Not t what I said… I said he hasn’t looked the same since
Can’t just own that you were wrong on him looking great and that I might have known a lot about Grayson too?
Don’t be an azzhole and purposefully misquote me. I never used the word “great” and I was not wrong about anything I wrote.
To reiterate: “He’s looked very good in his last three outings.” – Ra 2 months ago
If you can’t honestly engage, then STFU.
My brother passed along the same as he watched…shaky 1st, settled down, got outs after that.
Still claiming GrOD doesn’t look like the same pitcher?
Wow Im glad you commented bc i just saw you wrote STFU. Real nice. Sure, I was way off for mischaracterizing “very good” as “great.” I’ll be literal.. You said he looked “very good in his last three outings” on May 2. And then proceeded to give up 26er in his next 21ip and got sent down.
They obviously worked w him and got him to a good place and he finished strong, which I’m happy about, I want him to do well. But he wasn’t looking good at the time and yes, he started to turn that around second half.
I hate being misquoted and think it is juvenile, thus my STFU. I rescind that.
Grayson did look very good through his first 5 starts, if you had actually watched him. Then he had 3 bad starts vs. 2 good ones in his next 5. It wasn’t his previous year’s lat strain that was causing this, it was his pitch selection and emotions. He was physically healthy in ST, through his first stint in MLB, through the subsequent 8 starts in AAA and his final 13 starts back in MLB, in addition to his playoff start (where his emotions got the better of him.)
Point is, his health was fine all of 2023. He needed to adjust to MLB like 99% of players. It was specious to claim his previous injury was not healed and was making him look like a different pitcher from his 2022 AAA starts.
PS: I just stumbled upon this comment thread accidentally and I have no idea how. Looking forward to watching GrOD Almighty establish himself as on of the top SPs in the league.