Processing yesterday's update on Rodriguez

The news was good in the way that Orioles manager Brandon Hyde presented it yesterday.

How high you choose to raise your hopes is up to you.

Grayson Rodriguez sought additional opinions after undergoing imaging on his sore right shoulder, which always leads to the worst assumptions. I said it, too. Athletes don’t normally contact other physicians or surgeons if the first appointment brought positive results.

Hyde told the assembled media yesterday in D.C. that Rodriguez has a “mild lat strain,” and that he improved “quite a bit this last week.” He also described Rodriguez as “symptom-free.” Sadly, I’ve become optimism-free based on the number of times that mild has led to months-long absences from the active roster.

Rodriguez won’t begin throwing again for a couple of weeks, so the Orioles aren’t getting him back anytime soon. He’s starting over again with flat ground tossing, bullpen sessions, live batting practice and a rehab assignment in the minors. Meanwhile, the rotation must hold up with Zach Eflin also sidelined by a lat strain.

What is it with lats these days? It’s like the trendy injury. Even Zach Fruit is on the Double-A Chesapeake injured list with one. My kingdom for a groin pull.

It could have been a lot worse for Rodriguez. He’s on the injured list with right elbow/triceps inflammation and had his bullpen session last Thursday halted due to soreness in his shoulder. He apparently began to throw and had to stop, which led to the MRI and lat strain diagnosis.

There were understandable concerns that he could be facing season-ending surgery. Your mind automatically goes there. So hearing that he’s starting to throw again in May, and early in the month, allows you to exhale.

Right?

Maybe?

Eflin’s injury also is considered mild and he’s been playing catch from distances of at least 120 feet. Hyde told the media that Eflin will have a bullpen session Friday or Saturday. We don’t know whether he’ll go on a rehab assignment. Eflin had no answer for that one recently.

The IL move with Eflin was backdated to April 8. He was eligible to return yesterday but hadn’t even been on a mound. So, you see, the news is good with him, too, because he’s approaching a side session, but his next start isn’t imminent.

Rodriguez will be gone longer. He hasn’t pitched since March 5 against the Twins in Fort Myers, when the drastic drop in velocity raised red flags and he talked about feeling fine except for being sluggish. I think that’s the last time he spoke with the beat crew.

The last time that Rodriguez appeared in a regular-season game was July 31. He warmed for a start in Toronto and was scratched. The latest diagnosis confirms a third lat injury, including the one in 2022 that prevented the Orioles from bringing him up to make his debut.

He missed three months.

Apparently, we’re not talking Grade 2 this time. But Rodriguez had shoulder inflammation last season prior to the lat injury. He had elbow/triceps inflammation earlier this season. His ceiling says he should be a No. 1 starter and a stud, but his body isn’t allowing it to happen.

The Orioles will know more about Rodriguez’s timetable after he plays catch.

“I’m trying to stay optimistic,” Hyde said.

He ain’t the only one.

The rotation has five starters again because Brandon Young is getting the ball Friday night in Detroit. The team didn't have any updates on when Kyle Gibson would join the Orioles. Gibson couldn't get off the free agent market and now he's looked upon to come to the rescue.

Maybe Tomoyuki Sugano could work every third day. He surrendered three runs in the first inning last night and nothing else, making it through the seventh in back-to-back starts. No one else has gone more than six.

Just protect that lat.

* High-A Aberdeen's Michael Forret allowed one run in five innings last night, with no walks and seven strikeouts, and has a 0.92 ERA in four starts.

MLB Pipeline ranks Forret, 21, as the organization's No. 8 prospect.