Rodriguez, Kjerstad and Webb placed on Orioles' injured list

The Orioles made the predictable roster move this afternoon by placing starter Grayson Rodriguez on the 15-day injured list retroactive to Sunday with right lat/teres discomfort, the reason why he didn’t pitch last night.

The unexpected also happened with outfielder Heston Kjerstad going on the 10-day injured list with concussion symptoms.

Kjerstad was optioned Thursday to Triple-A Norfolk, ending his third career major league stretch, but he didn’t report to the club. He’s dealing with the lingering effects of the Clay Holmes pitch that slammed into his ear flap and led to his placement on the seven-day concussion injured list on July 13.

The Orioles activated Kjerstad on July 20 and he went 2-for-18.

Today’s move, retroactive to Thursday, basically is a reversal of the option. He’s on the major league injured list.

“He has persistent concussion symptoms, not uncommon for those to go unreported by the athlete and persist,” said executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias. “We had him checked out by team doctors and then had him referred to a concussion specialist and it was agreed by the physicians that he’s to remain under concussion protocol.

“We will back off on his activities. He’ll be able to do some controlled level of activities, and hopefully this isn’t too long, but that’s where it lies right now.”

Rodriguez felt the discomfort while warming last night and was scratched from his start. Albert Suárez tossed five scoreless innings in an emergency role.

The concern is that Rodriguez has the same strain that cost him three months with Norfolk in 2022 and delayed his major league debut until the following year.

“I don’t have my arms around it yet to responsibly talk about it publicly,” Elias said. “We all saw what happened yesterday. He didn’t think it was a good idea to go out and pitch obviously at that point. We’re not going to let him do it. We’re in the process of getting it checked out that involves imaging, multiple opinions usually, and it usually takes some time. So we’ll have to let all the dust settle before we can sprinkle any information out there publicly. Even I don’t know at this point, the length of the IL stint.”

Rodriguez is making his second trip to the injured list. He missed 2 ½ weeks with right shoulder inflammation.

The rotation takes another hit. Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells underwent elbow surgeries, putting Elias deeper in the pitching market at the deadline. He traded for Zach Eflin and Trever Rogers and lost Rodriguez again.

“I see it everywhere and it’s easy to get frustrated and I’m sad for the individuals involved and the team, but this is an enormous part of our sport right now, especially on the pitching side,” Elias said. “It happens to others. Maybe we’re getting a little more than our fair share now, but last year we had pretty good luck. We’re going to keep working and fighting and trying, and try to get all these guys back healthy. But this gives opportunity to the new players, and fortunately we have quantity and depth in our organization and I think we can get through it.”

Left-hander Keegan Akin was recalled from Norfolk. The Orioles optioned him Thursday during a flurry of moves made to accommodate deadline acquisitions, but he’s eligible to return because he’s replacing an injured player.

Akin has a 3.34 ERA and 0.971 WHIP in 47 appearances. He could provide some length tonight with Suárez unavailable.

The bullpen underwent another change this afternoon with Jacob Webb going on the 15-day IL with right elbow inflammation. Bryan Baker was recalled.

Webb has a 3.08 ERA and 1.168 WHIP in a team-leading 53 appearances. He tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings Friday in Cleveland after surrendering two runs in an inning the previous night.

Baker has registered a 4.58 ERA and 1.075 WHIP in 14 games with the Orioles.