O's get positive news on Grayson Rodriguez

TORONTO - O's right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, scratched from his start last night at Rogers Centre, went on the 15-day injured list today, retroactive to Sunday with right lat/teres discomfort. But today O's skipper Brandon Hyde was optimistic he will return this season.

“It’s a mild strain," Hyde said of Rodriguez, who is 13-4 with a 3.86 ERA. "So, he’s going to miss some time. Shut him down for a little while. Get him some rest and recovery, get him some rehab. But I think we’re optimistic about it. Hopefully he is going to join us sometime soon. That has yet to be determined. We’re going to let him rest for a little bit before we crank him back up."

Is this situation less serious than in 2022 when Rodriguez missed three months at Triple-A with a lat strain?

“It seems to be. Seems to be,” said Hyde. “Diagnosing right now as a mild strain. Never know what the timetable is going to be. But hope that he can miss just some time and then rejoin us."

Right-hander Albert Suárez, who pitched five scoreless in the series opener is the strong candidate to stay in that rotation spot.

“We had Albert throw in his space last night. So he’s obviously a great candidate for us to fill a spot in the meantime. This just happened, so we haven’t solidified what we are doing rotation-wise, but Albert is definitely a good candidate," said Hyde.

The O's today also lost a second pitcher from their staff to the injured list as righty reliever Jacob Webb went on the 15-day IL with right elbow inflammation, retroactive to Aug. 4.

A valuable relief arm, Webb has a 3.08 ERA and leads the club with 53 appearances.

“He was unavailable for the game yesterday," said Hyde. "His elbow, playing catch yesterday before the game, felt some elbow soreness. Reported it. Obviously I wasn’t going to pitch him last night. Showed up to the park today, we had him here early to play catch and he’s got some inflammation.

“We’re going to fly him back to Baltimore, get some further tests and then you know hoping for the best there."

Hyde now has to navigate around pitchers no longer active, headed for the IL and also those active but struggling. Like lefty Gregory Soto, who has allowed eight runs and nine hits in three games with the Orioles, over just 1 1/3 innings. He has allowed nine hits in 12 at-bats as an Oriole.

"I mean, this guy has been an All-Star twice. Tried to put him in a spot yesterday where he's gonna face the lefty. Just didn't work out. It's a huge arm, a guy that has had success up here. Love to try and get him going, honestly. He'd be a huge weapon for us in our bullpen with that second lefty and now we have Ake (Keegan Akin back). That would be really, really big. Try to get him going somehow," he said

Hyde talked further today about pinch-hitting in the eighth last night for both Jackson Holliday and Colton Cowser. 

"You know, our pinch-hitting numbers this year, we're the best in baseball and it's not even close. We are also 13th in pinch-hit appearances. We are not pinch-hitting just to pinch-hit. We are middle in the pack in pinch hits and when we do it, we are top of the league.

"Last night's situation. you know Austin Slater throughout his career has handled lefties well. Jackson only has a handful of at-bats against lefty pitching. We felt that was a good matchup for Austin and it worked out. The Mayo pinch hit for Cowser didn't work out. And you know, our guys have done an unbelievable job all year of being ready in those spots and coming through. They are not going to be perfect," he said.

The Orioles do in fact lead MLB with a .370 team pinch-hit batting average and Arizona is a distant second at .297. 

The Orioles announced in the last hour the signing of J.D. Davis to a minor league contract. He has a career .764 OPS, which is .631 this year between the A's and Yankees over 46 games. 

Click here for more on today's roster news and comments from executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias.