Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez is done for the year. Manager Tony Mansolino informed reporters today, including Jake Rill of MLB.com, that the righty will undergo an elbow debridement surgery and will miss the remainder of the season. General manager Mike Elias mentioned a few days ago that this was a possible outcome, which is now confirmed. It’s possible Rodriguez will be ready for the start of the 2026 season.
In the short term, the impact for the Orioles is minimal. 2025 is already going to be a lost season for the club. They are 51-61, putting them 8.5 games back of a playoff spot. The front office made a number of sell-side moves ahead of the deadline, flipping out several veterans for prospects.
For the long-term picture, it’s certainly worrisome. While everything is apparently fine with Rodriguez’s ulnar collateral ligament, his recent injury history keeps mounting. In 2023, between the majors and the minors, he tossed 163 1/3 innings. Last year, shoulder problems limited him to 116 2/3 innings. This year, elbow and shoulder problems have wiped out his entire campaign. He started the season on the IL due to elbow inflammation. While on the IL, he suffered a lat strain. By July, the shoulder was fine but the elbow soreness shut him down again. Now he’s going under the knife.
It’s a notable situation for the O’s to monitor. They had hoped for a pairing of Rodriguez and Zach Eflin to be a strong one-two punch atop their rotation this year but that didn’t happen. In addition to the aforementioned injuries for Rodriguez, Eflin also missed time and has a 5.93 earned run average on the year.
Going into next year, Eflin is an impending free agent. That’s also true of Tomoyuki Sugano. The O’s flipped out another impending free agent when they traded Charlie Morton to the Tigers. Going into 2026, the ideal outcome would be for Rodriguez and Kyle Bradish to be at the front of the group. However, Bradish is still recovering from last June’s Tommy John surgery. He has begun a rehab assignment but hasn’t gotten back on a big league mound yet.
Though the O’s will be hoping for comebacks from those two, they are surely aware they can’t rely on those. Bradish only pitched 39 1/3 innings last year. He might be able to come off the IL and make a few more starts down the stretch but won’t be able to shoulder a huge workload. Rodriguez will be coming off a completely lost season. Guys like Trevor Rogers, Dean Kremer and Cade Povich will also be in the mix but aren’t front-of-the-rotation type guys.
Perhaps the front office will be motivated to be more aggressive in addressing the rotation this coming winter. A year ago, with new ownership in place, many wondered if the O’s would get aggressive in bolstering their rotation ahead of 2025. Instead, they gave one-year deals to Sugano and Morton, neither of which worked out especially well.
Going into 2026, the club will be looking to put this nightmare season in the rear-view mirror. Doing so with their current rotation mix will be a challenge. That’s especially true with greater uncertainty now surrounding Rodriguez.
Photo courtesy of Tommy Gilligan, Imagn Images
Well it was expected. At this point you just hope the guy can still make a career out of it. Obviously still young enough to but the amount of time already missed due to injuries and add this to it, it’s definitely concerning.
Orioles should sign
Michael King
Ranger Suarez
Dustin May
That team needs to invest in pitching in the worst way.
Why May? Why not Cease, Fallen, or Valdez instead? O’S have plenty of money coming off their books.
I’d like to roll the dice on may for the likely cost. The o’s aren’t gonna sign 3 TOR arms.
They won’t sign one.
TOR always sign with big markets, occasionally under special circumstances w mid, never w small.
They aren’t spending 100/120 mil a year for 5/6 years for three pitchers.
Cease is having a down year and has had a down year up year down year last 3 seasons beteeen CWS and SDP. Id personally be weary of a long term contract of him
They definitely need to add pitching, but I doubt they’d add Suarez or King, since they seem pretty hesitant to add anyone with a QO attached to them, as indicated this past off-season. I could see May at least signing of that group.
I don’t think that’ll be a concern for the right target. They made Snell an offer.
King is new to SP and unreliable so far. May too many injuries. Suarez makes more sense. Cease seems like a good bet. Maybe Framber. They need to upgrade that team, but good luck in the division next year.
King has made 40 starts and averages 5.2 IP per start to a 2.86 ERA. That’s pretty reliable when healthy.
yet another example
last pitched 7/31/24. thats over a year ago
and only now was a decision made for surgery? they tried all the other options. all the skin creams, the rest, shutting down, starting up again, shutting down again, all the opinions, all the doctors, all the experts, all the trainers, all the personnel, and in the end, he’s done. it took him/baltimore over a year. as a fan, im disgusted
The decision belongs to the player. Blame GRod all you want for not knowing his own body better, but no amount of personnel can force him into getting surgery
then they should stop paying him since he’s not able to show up to work as a result of his delaying and poorly managing his injury. maybe he should stop being an athlete altogether. go into broadcasting. doesnt matter what aches and pains your elbow has, dont need to rehab, dont need surgery, just show up on tv and call the plays. stop wasting everyone’s time. incl your own
Not only did you admit in your first post that all nonsurgical options (which includes rehab), had been exhausted, MLB contracts are guaranteed. Try again.
** BREAKING NEWS UPDATE**
Grayson Rodriguez injured his shoulder while reading this post.
Considering his season never really started, shouldn’t this be considered season-preparation surgery ?
It’s all about making money. looking at it any other way is foolish. They’re making money (ownership) stop thinking they want to compete.
2026 isn’t looking so bad for the Orioles if they make the right free agent signings, but they gotta go big on them.
Theoretically, they should have:
Kyle Bradish
Grayson Rodriguez
Trevor Rogers
I think they should sign two free agent starters(Framber Valdez being the top target for one of them), and push Dean Kremer to the bullpen. Where theoretically there would also be a healthy Felix, Bautista, and Tyler Wells.
Mike Elias should have learned from his mistakes of the past, by not adding enough quality pitching, and make a big splash this offseason. David Rubenstein has been said to want to win, and willing to increase payroll, if that’s true, then Elias needs to put his ego aside and spend the money.
As for players who will be attached to a qualifying offer, the Orioles got a lot back in their trades at the deadline and infused a lot of new talent into the organization, and they had a lot of draft picks this year as well, so I think they may be more willing to sign that type of pitcher.
Keep Kremer as the SP5. Try to resign Eflin as a mid rotation piece. Yes to adding Valdez.
Move Grayson to 8th inning role.
Valdez (or another SP1)
Bradish
Rogers
Eflin (or another mid rotation piece)
Kremer
Bautista
Rodriguez
Wells
Akin
Etc
Etc
Etc
Perfect fifth place rotation
Can I ask…why did the Orioles wait until July to do a MRI on his arm? He’s been out hurt since Spring Training. What am I missing here?
Not only that, Is this good news or bad news? Is this worse than TJ or better? And if there was something wrong in there are they sure it didn’t affect his UCL? You just don’t hear about this one too often. I’ll wait.
If it is debridement surgery it basically means there spurs or chips floating in his elbow.much better than other possibilities.
Two to three months recovery time.
Here comes the bride…oh no!
I was thinking more like “Always debridement, never de bride.”
We’ll accept that. Points!
It’s about freaking time!!
Bradish should be good to go next season, after coming back down the stretch this year and easing back in. With that plus a full offseason of no limitations, he should be good next season. Obviously can’t be completely certain but he’s definitely the most certain out of him and Greyson.
Rodgers is going to continue surprising people next season I believe. They might want to explore extending him this offseason.
Kremer is a good back end starter and has been reliable.
Anything you get from Greyson should be considered a bonus at this point, so they need to bring on at least two solid mid rotation starters. Bringing back Eflin on a short term deal if he’s amenable to that should be explored. There are multiple other options they could pursue as well.
Then they must acquire a front of the rotation arm, either via trade or going after a Cease or King, etc in free agency.
If they do that they should be in pretty good shape to contend. If there is any lesson they take from this horrendous season, it’s that they can’t have enough pitching and they need more #1 or #2 type arms.
Cease/King or acquisition
Bradish
Rogers
Eflin or acquisition
Kremer
Greyson
Young
Wells
Povich
The arms from the group that are healthy and don’t make the rotation can slide to the bullpen. They would be well served to grab another high leverage arm if possible, but definitely by the deadline in season, if not during offseason.
Their position player core is fairly set. They will likely start the season with Basallo on the major league roster and possibly Beavers as well. Depending on how they acquire the arms, they may have to augment the position player group if they move anyone in a deal for a pitcher.
With the right moves, they could bounce back easily. The only question is whether Elias will pull the trigger on the acquisitions needed, trade or free agent wise.
In hindsight, Elias giggling at the winter meetings about moving the wall in and signing O’Neill and Sanchez (but no pitching) should have put 5th place in everyone’s brains.
I was wrong thinking they had just enough offense to overcome bad pitching and go 83-79. I was less wrong than many. When the offense finally woke up and hit a left hander or hit with RISP, they’ve had a .500 or so stretch.
“Building depth at the back end of the rotation” obviously doesn’t work when there’s no one in the front.
I would not count on Rodriguez or Wells to be more than bullpen fixtures at this point if they stay duct taped together. Not a bad thing because the bullpen needs to be rebuilt.
Bradish, plus need at least 2 who are a 1-2 type starter, if not 3. Rogers will get a shot – cheap and under team control (I think his ceiling long term is 3-4, recent stretch aside). I am also fine with Kremer as a 5, as hot and cold as he is. Povich, Young, et al can be that back-end depth when its needed.
I just don’t see this club making that bold a step. Not since the mid 90s.
Bust
Braddish has been shelled in his rehab assignment. It’s still too early to correlate but not looking good this far.