The Orioles announced that Zach Eflin underwent UCL reconstruction (Tommy John) surgery today. He’ll miss the rest of the season and probably at least the first half of 2027.
Things had seemingly been trending in this direction. Eflin, who turns 32 today, left his season debut citing elbow discomfort. The team announced last week that he was going for a second opinion, implying the initial prognosis wasn’t good. The reexamination evidently confirmed the ligament damage that required surgical repair.
It’s another injury-wrecked season for Eflin, a mid-rotation caliber starter who has an unfortunately checkered health history. He battled chronic knee issues early in his career with Philadelphia. Eflin stayed mostly healthy between 2023-24 despite intermittent back discomfort, combining for a 3.54 ERA with a 23.1% strikeout rate over 343 innings between the Rays and Orioles.
The more significant injuries have resurfaced over the past two seasons. Eflin sustained a lat strain early in 2025. That shelved him for a month. He quickly returned to the injured list with lower back discomfort. After a brief reinstatement, he underwent season-ending lumbar surgery. Eflin made an encouraging return from that procedure and entered this season with no restrictions, but he could only complete 3 2/3 frames before his elbow gave out.
Baltimore re-signed Eflin to a one-year, $10MM free agent contract last offseason. That’ll go down as an unfortunately lost investment. Eflin, whom the O’s have already moved to the 60-day injured list, will return to the open market at season’s end. He’ll likely look for a two-year deal to cover his rehab season. That might need to be a minor league contract given his age and recent durability record.
Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz and Chris Bassitt remain Baltimore’s top four starters. They recalled lefty Cade Povich as a potential fifth starter on Sunday. He was needed in relief of Bassitt, who was shelled and only made it through two innings against the Pirates. Povich tossed 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball in relief. Brandon Young made a spot start on Monday and was optioned back to Triple-A postgame.
The O’s are off tomorrow and list Baz, Bassitt and Povich as the probable starters for their weekend series against the Giants. Rogers and Bradish, who started the final two games of this week’s series against the White Sox, would line up early next week against the Diamondbacks. It seems they’ll give Povich first look as Eflin’s replacement in the rotation. Young and Dean Kremer are on optional assignment with Triple-A Norfolk.
He’s essentially gonna miss two full seasons? Isn’t that unusual?
“Dont you think?” – Alanis
Just a portion of 2027, so not two seasons.
Actually 4 seasons. Maybe 5
I bet based on his demeanor, his favourite season is Winter, but if hes anything like his songbird cousin in High School Musical, maybe its Summer
All the cold weather games are doing these elbows no favors.
Hope you stretched before that reach. Don’t pull something.
You could have worked in a joke about the the cold and reaching…
Points!
Don’t worry doc, I drank my pre-workout.
But did he use the ringworm cream? If not that explains a lot
This is validating my earlier point about reducing the need for max velo and max spin on every pitch. A real pitcher is a true craftsman, and has the mental fortitude to recognize when a pitch should be delivered with extra oomph. The human body can only produce so much oomph, and then it begins to break down. That’s what we’re seeing already early this season with the voluminous plethora of arm injuries to starting pitchers. Gotta respect the oomph.
@foppert4
“Gotta respect the oomph.”
That’s what she said. 😉😉
As long as these pitchers keep throwing the same way and doing the same things I guess the never-ending surgeries are gonna happen and everyone is good with it. Max velo! Spin rate! Just keep doing the same things no big deal.
Tough blow for Eflin and the Orioles playoff hopes. They cheaped out on starters, unfortunately for fans. We’ll see if they pivot to the best FA still available in Giolito or stay cheap and promote a young pitcher who probably won’t be ready. They made some good moves in the offseason, although unfortunately didn’t try very hard to improve their rotation with higher-end talent
But at least they saved their prospects.
Kremer is better than giolito and under contract. Eflin was depth not expected back till June initially and insurance if bradish or wells couldn’t make the rotation all year. Someone else goes down povich , young or wells stretched out move into the 5th slot… not worried.
Who is worth picking up in fantasy? Kremer?
For the millionth time, free agents don’t have to sign with any particular team. They were in on both Suarez and Valdez. They also offered Burnes more money than Arizona. To say they didn’t go after higher-end talent is flat out false.
Eflin’s agent: “He sucked in June, stopped pitching in July, but give us $10M. He’s fine……trust me.”
Great move Elias! You only paid $909,090 per out recorded for Eflin plus what you’re paying Bassitt. We’re all so glad you didn’t spend the $28.5M on Suarez or Valdez instead.
This sucks for Zack, he built himself into a very good pitcher.
Really feel for the guy as he can be an effective starter when healthy. I don’t know what he decides to do at this point but I wish him the best. My O’s have some younger still very unproven depth like Povich and Young, and also Kremer who will undoubtedly return here soon. But man, what do you do with so many injuries? Pitcher or position player wise. You have guys like Suarez and Wells who have proven capable starters but also have injuries in there history. Damn tough time with all of the injuries going around.