The Orioles will be without infielder Ramon Urias for another 2-3 weeks, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASN). Urias was placed on the IL during the week with a hamstring strain, and it appears he’ll be out a little longer than the minimum stint.
Urias was enjoying a productive start to the season, compiling a .278/.375/.381 line with a single home run over 112 plate appearances. He’s spent the majority of his time manning third this season, and defensive metrics haven’t loved his work there, with Outs Above Average marking him at -5 and Defensive Runs Saved at -3. It’s been a better story at second, with Urias worth 3 DRS at that spot.
One player the Orioles should be able to call on soon is Mychal Givens, with Hyde saying (via Jake Rill of MLB.com) that he’s “pretty close” to a return. Givens has made five relief appearances on a rehab stint in Double-A, and there’s a chance he makes one more appearance in the minor league before being activated.
Givens returned to Baltimore on a one-year, $5MM deal in the winter, but exited a spring game with a knee injury and is yet to make his season debut. He last appeared for the Orioles in 2020 when he was a quality late-inning relief option. The numbers have dropped off a bit since, but he still turned in a solid season last year between time with the Cubs and Mets, working to a 3.38 ERA over 59 1/3 innings.
The backend of the Orioles bullpen has been a strength this season, with Felix Bautista, Yennier Cano and Bryan Baker all sporting ERAs south of 2. The hope will certainly be that Givens can provide important relief innings in the future, but the strength of that trio allows them a bit of flexibility to ease the veteran back into the bullpen as he gets up to speed.
Taking a look at the rotation, and Hyde adds (via Kubatko) that the team hasn’t put a hard cap on top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez’ innings this season. The 23-year-old has made seven big league starts so far, working to a 5.08 ERA. A lot of the damage done there was in his first three outings, and Rodriguez has been sporting a far healthier 3.72 ERA over his past four starts, which includes getting rocked for six earned runs in Kansas City, so he does appear to be settling in nicely at the highest level.
In any case, while there’s no hard innings limit, the Orioles would surely be keeping an eye on things. Rodriguez pitched 75 2/3 innings last year, and 103 innings in 2021 (his career high). He’s at 33 1/3 innings so far this season, but it makes sense that the Orioles might start get a little more cautious as he approaches his career highs. It’s a tricky situation for the Orioles to navigate with the team 25-13 and in the thick of a competitive AL East division race, particularly with Rodriguez pitching nicely in his last handful of starts, so it’ll be interesting to see how far the Orioles are willing to push Rodriguez as the season rolls on.
Getting rocked for six runs in Kansas City is “settling in nicely?” You seem to be really stretching things there. At best, the guy is inconsistent so far. He could easily improve, so I don’t discount that possibility. But he could also be just another guy. At this point, prospect status is in the past and all we can go on are results.
Have u watched him pitch? He looks better almost every time out with KC being an exception. Even early most of the damage would be in one inning. He will be an ace
See the difference between you and I is that I am a realist knowing that the guy could go either way and you are an idealist convinced that only the best can happen. I used to be like you, but I got tired of being wrong so many times.
So you dismiss one of the most talented P prospects in MLB after a bad first few starts? Some of his best performances have been vs. top offenses (TB, TEX), while that KC start looks more like an anomaly (high-scoring affair on both sides that day). I’ll take how he looks vs. TEX/TB (one of the few pitchers to have beaten the Rays this year) — over 1 game vs. Royals.
Sounds more like a Debbie Downer to me. I don’t automatically believe every pitcher that looks good will be the next Jim Palmer. Grod is different, it doesn’t take expert scouting knowledge to believe in his talent
Even I get accused of being “pessimistic” (realistic) but even I have to say that Rodriguez needs a little more time to prove himself. I haven’t seen anything yet that makes me say that its clicked yet and he’s going to be really good…but its too early to DFA him for sure lol.
Part of the issue is the hype surrounding him which often comes from the club or club outlets. There have been many Next Jim Palmers, but then they come up and become Brian Matusz or Eric Bell or Daniel Cabrera.
Totally. I thought Larry Bigbie looked like a star. Dylan Bundy was a sure thing. It’s a hard sport. Grayson is far and away the best prospect I can recall on the pitching side in a long time.
Rav The one who turned me pessimistic was Ken Dixon. I was a kid and I’d watched them bring up Boddicker and Storm Davis and have 20 game winners pretty much every year. Dixon put up great #’s when they brought him up, and he got shellacked after some time. Then you heard about Eric Bell being the next Jim Palmer but a lefty and he was nothing (I think he blew his arm out). The hype was then non stop about Ben McDonald and even though he had a couple decent seasons he could never live up to the billing, which was similar to the approach on Matt Wieters. Other than Mussina…who wasn’t trumpeted like McDonald…and Machado, no one’s lived up to it but they set the bar so high. Wieters was a good player and borderline all star but after the hype we all expected Johnny Bench.
Grayson will be fine. I don’t go all-out like some people and say he’s the next Carlton or Koufax, but he certainly can be Baltimore’s # 1 or 2 guy.
Tell us you haven’t watched Rodriguez pitch without coming out and saying it.
I haven’t watched him pitch and I don’t intend to watch him pitch unless he plays for or against the Rockies. I never disliked the Orioles, but I never cared for them either. They were always just a team in name only to me like the Rangers or Mariners.
Hasn’t watched anything but acts like he’s knows something…Mile high indeed
Not sure what’s more of an anomaly. A Rockies fan or someone so tone deaf and not a Yankees or Sox fan.
I was at his last start against TB. He started out rough but got stronger with better command as the game went along. Command meaning effective with at least 4, maybe 5, kinds of different pitches. Dude can be filthy. He’s a keeper. Go Os!
“At this point, prospect status is in the past”
You might want to tell MLB Pipeline that, since they presently have him ranked as the top prospect in a top 3 farm system and the third best prospect in all of baseball 😉
Baseball fans have around 475 million reasons for the All Star game to be at Camden Yards for the 1st-time since 1993.
Shameful to not have it at one of MLBs best parks for so long
Not really shameful. Each team should only get the ASG once every 30 years. And since there was no game in 2020, they are not due until next year.
You would have a point if not for the fact that 3 different stadiums have hosted the ASG more than once since OPACY hosted it all the way back in 1993- Seattle (01 and 23), Cleveland (97 and 19), and Colorado (98 and 21).
Is that the latest homicide count in the city?
I hope there actually is a cap of around the 140-150 mark for an even scarier run next season.. But then again Adley hasn’t gotten a break, one game and he pinch hit. So saying no cap on Grayson makes sense.
Grayson threw over 100 pitches with ease against TB in his most recent start. He’s a big boy! Let him pitch.
I’m a Phillies fan, but I live in Baltimore City. this Oriole team is exciting to watch. after what Elias was part of in Houston how they lost 100 games for three or four straight years and turn the team into a perennial World Series Contender and now I’m doing it in Baltimore with all the great young Talent this is going to be a fun time for Oriole fans over the next 7 to 10 years in my opinion
O’s looking great this year. Might have to jump on the bandwagon so I can cheer them on for their 2023 World Series Championship against the Pirates.
Looking forward to seeing Givens and Terrin Vavra, who we traded Givens to Colorado for, on the field for the Orioles at the same time.