Elias offers updates on Rodriguez's "mild" shoulder strain and other injured Orioles

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Grayson Rodriguez will be shut down for at least 10 days and undergo more imaging on his right shoulder in about three weeks after receiving the diagnosis of a strain that executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias described today as “pretty mild.”

Elias met with local media in the visiting dugout at Tropicana Field and provided an update on Rodriguez, who’s the No. 2 starter in the rotation with a 13-4 record, 3.86 ERA and 1.243 WHIP in 20 games.

Rodriguez was scratched from Tuesday night’s start in Toronto after experiencing discomfort in his right lat/teres while warming in the outfield. Albert Suárez replaced him and tossed five scoreless innings.

The immediate concern centered on the possibility of a similar absence to 2022 with Triple-A Norfolk. Rodriguez missed three months with a lat/teres strain, ruining the Orioles’ plans to promote him.

His current injury isn’t as serious and he’s expected back in the rotation by late September. The discomfort is centered more in the region of the teres major muscle but also involves his lat.

“He’s got a strained shoulder muscle, basically,” Elias said.

“I think, No. 1, we’re optimistic that the strain appears relatively mild and much less severe than the one that he had in 2022 in a similar region, and we’re also hopeful that we will be able to get him back up and running before the end of the regular season and position him and us for playoff baseball, which obviously he would be an enormous part of for us.

“We won’t have a real definitive timeline until later but we’re optimistic at this point that we have a good chance to get him back before the end of September.”

The sigh of relief is shared throughout an organization that can't take many more shots to the roster.

“We’re optimistic he can help us at some point,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “You never want to see a young starter get scratched right before a start like he did in Toronto. I think he’s starting to feel better already, so it’s a good sign.”

Rodriguez went on the IL earlier this season with right shoulder inflammation, unrelated to his present injury, that cost him 2 ½ weeks. He made it back, but the Orioles had to proceed without Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells, who underwent elbow surgeries that prevent them from pitching again in 2024.

Elias traded for Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers but didn’t expect Rodriguez to leave the rotation. Suárez is taking Rodriguez’s turn again Sunday against the Rays.

Asked whether he’s confident that the Orioles have sufficient rotation depth, Elias replied, “I hope we do. We’re testing it the hard way.”

Elias mentioned Cade Povich and Cole Irvin at Norfolk and also said the Tides’ Brandon Young is “on the radar screen.”

“I think that we do (have depth), but the way this is going, I can’t make that proclamation with any confidence because anything can happen,” Elias said. “Getting two starting pitchers at the trade deadline was big. We not only traded for those guys at the deadline, but we traded for Corbin (Burnes) over the winter. Without those trades, it would be really scary for sure. But that’s all part of it. We’ve got to keep the pitching coming and it takes multiple moves over a long period of time to keep a full rotation.

“I don’t think there’s enough starting pitching to go around baseball right now, so it’s not easy.”

Reliever Jacob Webb is on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation, but tests didn’t reveal any structural damage.

“Basically, his elbow is barking,” Elias said. “It’s been a long year. … Hopeful at this point that it’s just kind of like a two-week blow and a short IL stint. You never know, but pretty good news on him overall.”

The Orioles certainly did not need Rodriguez and Webb joining the group of pitchers who are out for the rest of the season.

“I’m just glad for their sake that we don’t see these as career-threatening or serious injuries,” Elias said, “but they just need some time and some rest, but you still have to go through the rehab process, and timelines, they can change over that. It’s been a tough injury year for us, but it’s like that all around baseball and it’s part of it and we just keep trucking along.”

Rodriguez was wise to alert to club to his discomfort rather than attempt to pitch through it and risk a longer absence.

“Thankfully,” Elias said. “From what I saw, he wasn’t even doing his full-tilt warmup yet. He was just playing catch in the outfield, so I imagine it could have been worse had he kept going. So we’re really glad that he caught it and reported it immediately.”

“I don’t know what would have happened if he tried to,” Hyde said, “but that was a pretty mature move by him knowing that something didn’t feel right and let us know right away. It was a scramble once he let us know, but he definitely did the right thing.”

Infielder Jordan Westburg and left-hander Danny Coulombe are expected to assist in the playoff push in late September. Westburg has a fractured right hand and Coulombe underwent surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow.

“We think there’s still time,” Elias said regarding Westburg, “but anybody who gets injured right around now, it’s kind of a close call.”

Closer Félix Bautista, who underwent Tommy John surgery last October, will throw off a full mound next week. However, he won’t pitch this year.

“Everything I’m hearing is it’s going really well,” Elias said.

“We’re ruling out October. We’re just going to steer things for next spring training and make sure we get everything right to get him ready for 2025."

Outfielder Heston Kjerstad had his option nullified and was placed on the 10-day injured list with concussion symptoms that he relayed to the club.

“As soon as that happened, we immediately took him back to our doctor and then an outside doctor that the league uses for concussions, and there were still some persistent issues that he was reporting,” Elias said. “We backed off baseball activities but he is doing some to tolerance. It’s pretty mild but obviously we take that really seriously once somebody says that they’re experiencing concussion symptoms again.

“He got hit pretty dramatically in the head against the Yankees and these things often linger. This stuff happens, but hopefully he’s not out for too much longer. But it’s going to be a little while we make sure we’re totally out of the woods again.”

The Orioles are in the process of gathering more information and opinions on Triple-A starter Chayce McDermott, who’s on the IL with a scapula stress reaction in his right shoulder.

“The diagnosis is the same as when we put him on the IL,” Elias said. “He’s going to be down for a while. I don’t have a timeline on him. It may be a close call with the end of the major league and minor league regular season, but not at a point yet of having landed the plane on the timeline outlook with Chayce.”