The Orioles have activated right-hander Zach Eflin from the injured list ahead of his start against the Angels this afternoon, per a team announcement. Right-hander Colin Selby was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk to make room for Eflin on the active roster. In an additional move, southpaw Trevor Rogers was activated from the injured list and optioned to Triple-A.
Eflin, 31, went on the shelf just over a month ago with what was described at the time as a “low-grade” lat strain. The right-hander has been a revelation for the Orioles ever since he was acquried from the Rays ahead of last year’s trade deadline. He pitched to a 2.60 ERA in nine starts down the stretch last year, and his first three starts of 2025 saw him post a 3.00 ERA despite an unusually small 11.8% strikeout rate. The Orioles were 5-6 after Eflin’s last start with the club, but since losing him from the front of their rotation the wheels have come off. The club has posted a brutal 9-18 record since then, however, and much of those struggles have been attributable to lackluster performances in the rotation.
Since the day Eflin went on the shelf, Baltimore has the worst rotation in baseball by FIP (6.10), and the third-worst by ERA (5.97). Tomoyuki Sugano has pitched quite well with a 2.72 ERA despite his 4.61 FIP and 14.2% strikeout rate, but that doesn’t appear to be particularly sustainable and the rest of the rotation has ERAs north of 5.00 across the board. Perhaps adding Eflin to the rotation ahead of Sugano can help stabilize things, particularly if he rediscovers the bat-missing abilities he flashed when he struck out 21.0% of opponents down the stretch last year. Even so, more reinforcements appear to be necessary if the Orioles are going to have a serious chance of getting back into the playoff picture.
One other potential rotation option was also activated from the IL today alongside Eflin: Rogers. Acquired from the Marlins in exchange for Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby at last year’s trade deadline, Rogers struggled badly in four starts for the Orioles before being optioned to Triple-A late last year. He could have been in the mix for a rotation job this spring had he not suffered a kneecap subluxation in January that slowed his start of the season. He’s been ramping back up ever since, and is finally healthy enough to be activated from the shelf. With that being said, he’s currently set to act as Triple-A depth for the club rather than come up and pitch in the majors immediately. Perhaps that’s a sensible decision, seeing as he’s struggled to a 7.50 ERA across four rehab starts this year.
Making room for Eflin on the active roster is Selby, who made his big league debut with the Pirates back in 2023. He struggled to a 9.00 ERA in 24 innings of work, and since then has bounced between the Royals and Orioles organizations with just 10 2/3 frames in the majors total over the past two years. Most recently, he’s logged 3 2/3 innings of 4.91 ERA ball for Baltimore this year. He’ll head to Triple-A as a potential depth option for the birds going forward.
Thank God, now the chances of Morton ever being put back in the rotation are even lower.
Hey now, he lowered his ERA by over two points last night.
The ump helped him out a couple of times.
That’s not really a viable retort considering the Os have been the m most hurt team in baseball by umps errors this year (0.29 runs per game last time I checked).
It is when specifically discussing Morton’s performance last night, in which he was definitely helped out by bad calls more than once.
Could have traded Mayo away for Crochet. How is Crochet doing? Pretty good last time I checked……
Did Chris Getz personally tell you that he would have preferred Mayo to Teel or are you just pulling things out of your butt again?
No need to respond, I already know the answer 😉
Well Mayo was rated much higher. And the White Sox have an immediate hole for a 3b and a long term hole for a 1b.
I told you hoarding prospects wasn’t the way to go. The window can close quickly and it appears it’s already closing.
That’s nice, but you didn’t answer the question. Did Chris Getz personally prefer Mayo to Teel or not?
Also, Mayo is not now and will never be a playable 3B at the MLB level, but you have repeatedly demonstrated that you aren’t particularly well-informed about the Orioles so I guess I can forgive you for saying something so objectively silly.
Who’s playing 3b for the White Sox currently?
I have no clue. I would have to look it up.
It’s been a rough year for the Orioles.
You forgot to answer the question again, but whoever is playing 3B for the White Sox right now is undoubtedly a better defensive 3B than Mayo since Mayo makes Rafael Devers look like Brooks Robinson.
And yes, it has been a rough year for the Orioles so far, but losing your best 2 SPs and your AS 3B, ROTY runner up LF, and 30 HR RF to injury, while also having multiple vets significantly underperform their career norms, all before the end of the first month of the season, is probably going to be pretty rough on most teams out there.
It doesn’t matter if Mayo ends up moving to 1b because the White Sox need a 1b too. I just told you that listen.
The Orioles window is closing. But hey they got Mayo still. So…..
I can’t help but notice that you STILL haven’t answered the question, despite it only requiring a simple yes or no. So I’ll ask again:
Would Chris Getz have preferred Mayo to Teel? If you cannot answer this simple question, then I really don’t know why you’re wasting my time with your own personal headcanon.
And I see no reason whatsoever to think that the Orioles’ window is closing since not much of the Orioles’ 2025 troubles are related to the performance of our young core, but rather injuries (Gunnar, Grayson, Eflin, Cowser, Westburg, O’Neill, etc) and woefully underperforming vets (Morton, Gibson, Kremer, Mountcastle, etc.).
Every person who ranked prospects at the time of the trade preferred Mayo. The White Sox already had a top rated catching prospect and they had nothing at 1b or 3b.
I don’t know Chris Getz. It was a stupid question that’s why I ignored it.
I told you all offseason the Orioles needed an ace. Guess what? The Orioles still need an ace.
Wait, do you ACTUALLY believe MLB GMs consult MLB Pipeline when discussing trades with other teams? LOL, you do know that MLB teams have these things called “scouting departments” that help them to evaluate players according to their own unique criteria and preferences, right? Like, just because Keith Law or some other rando on the internet says “Prospect X is better than Prospect Y” doesn’t mean that a particular MLB FO will share the same opinion.
And it wasn’t a stupid question at all. You definitively and unequivocally stated that the Orioles could have had Crochet for Mayo. I simply asked how you knew that and now you’ve spent the last 4 or 5 comments desperately trying to change the subject.
Oh, and Sugano has a lower ERA and WHIP than Corbin Burnes so far this year in more innings, so…
What is Mayo doing right now to help the Orioles win?
Who would you rather have on your team Sugano or Burnes?
You were wrong. Just admit it.
Nothing really, but that still doesn’t mean that he should have been traded, or that he could have landed Crochet, which is what you *specifically* claimed. Maybe he could have, or maybe not, but I don’t actually care either way. I’m just not going to get upset about a hypothetical deal that may never have even been on the table (despite you repeatedly saying “dude, trust me…it TOTALLY was!”). Sorry, bro.
And who I would prefer between Sugano and Burnes is completely irrelevant. You implied that the lack of an “ace” is at the root of the Orioles’ 2025 woes, which is simply untrue. We already have a guy who is not only performing like an ace, but actually performing better than our old ace, and yet the team has struggled regardless.
Because the main issues have been injuries and dramatically underperforming vets, not the things you are claiming are the problem.
Sugano is outperforming his FIP by 2 runs. He’s not that good. Burnes is an ace. And I understand why they didn’t sign Burnes they should have traded for Crochet who is a Cy Young contender for the division rival Red Sox
Again, completely irrelevant. The lack of an “ace” is not the cause of the Orioles’ problems this year because they actually have had a guy performing like one and have stumbled to a 15-24 record anyway.
And again, I still don’t care that the Orioles didn’t trade for Crochet. Not even a little. Now, maybe that will change if he actually completes his first full, healthy, successful season as a SP in his entire career this year, but I doubt it.
I was always a little uncomfortable with Crochet for the health questions too.
I don’t think the offense has wasted too many high quality starts yet – 3 or 4. They’ve won a couple low scoring games. The number of games that Morton and Gibson gave them absolutely no chance in I think is the reason this team is 15-24 versus something like 19-20 or even 20-19.
That said, the offense was supposed to be giving the staff a cushion more often than not. This team should not be south of 4 runs per game.
Sugano gonna be the new Suarez for MLB tr this year, not every pitcher fits neatly into a box, I bet he is gonna be effective all year but ever article will have to have a BUT his strikeout rate. Some pitchers are just different.
Sugano’s overall K rate is also being dragged down significantly by his first 5 starts, during which he only had 9 total K’s.
In his last 3 starts, he has struck out 17 in 18.1 innings.
Sugano has a quality groundball rate, which helps.
Much better, Suarez was lightning in a bottle!
He’s not Suarez. I don’t think he’s quite going to maintain a 2.70 ERA either. The last 3 starts had far more K’s, but also less GB/more FB…yet only one HR allowed. Too soon to tell where he ultimately lands but he’s already showed more than Suarez did last year. It also hasn’t gotten too hot and humid in Baltimore yet.
If I had to guess, I’ll put it above average, 2-3 territory in a decent rotation. In the current Orioles getup he’s astronomically better than anything 2025 other than Kremer’s last 2 starts.
He can sing and dance like that Circus flic w Wolverine and Zendaya but is he good at play baseball?
Why not DFA Perez instead?
Digression here as a Phillies phan; I wonder what Eflin and Pivetta could have developed into if Caleb Cotham had a shot at them?
When those two lads were in Philly, there was a forceful theme of “do what we want pitching-wise vs what got you to the show”…..