SARASOTA, Fla. — Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez received a cortisone shot and is being shut down for seven to ten days with inflammation in his throwing elbow, according to manager Brandon Hyde.
Rodriguez told reporters he felt “sluggish” following his outing against the Twins in Fort Myers on March 5, when his fastball velocity was down and he allowed one run on three hits, a walk and a hit batter. Hyde announced on March 7 that Rodriguez had discomfort in his elbow/triceps area and that the right-hander would begin the season on the injured list.
Now, the hope is that the cortisone shot will speed up the healing process for Rodriguez.
“We are shutting him down for a week to 10 days and then start a throwing progression from there, so the timeline after a week I’m not really sure at this point,” Hyde said. “We’re going to see how it goes, but we’re going to give him a week to not throw and let the cortisone take and do what it does.”
Rodriguez, 25, spent time on the injured list in 2022 and 2024 due to a right lat/teres strain. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound right-hander was hoping to make a full complement of starts in 2025 after posting a 3.86 ERA and striking out 130 hitters in 116.2 innings (20 starts) in 2024.
Cade Povich and Albert Suárez are competing to fill out the rotation behind Zach Eflin, Charlie Morton, Dean Kremer and Tomoyuki Sugano.
“His goal was to make 30-plus starts this year and that’s going to be challenging at this point,” Hyde said of Rodriguez. “He wants to pitch. We need to get him healthy, that’s the bottom line. He’s really important to us and hopefully he comes back as soon as possible.”
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