BALTIMORE—The Orioles have eight players on the injured list, and two top minor league prospects are also out. Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias provided injury updates on them on Tuesday.
Starting pitchers Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez are out with a right lat strain and a sore triceps/elbow injury, Elias said. They were counted on to be at the top of the starting rotation. Eflin was injured on April 7th, throwing only 73 pitches while winnings his second game.
“He continues to feel really good after coming out and hitting the IL with what we hope is a very mild lat strain,” Elias said. “He’s going to start playing catch in a few days. We’ll have to see how that goes and kind of take it from there. But so far encouraging with the way he’s felt since being injured and I’m hopeful at this point that his stay on the IL will be measured more in weeks than in months. But again, kind of see how he responds. He’s starting to play catch.”
Rodriguez has yet to pitch this season.
“Recuperating from the sore triceps/elbow injury that he had in spring training,” Elias said. “He’s thrown two bullpens now. His most recent one had off-speed pitches, spins as we say, and he’s got another bullpen day after tomorrow. So far he is tolerating everything well physically, so that’s good news, but we still have a lot ahead of us in terms of bullpens, buildup, live BP, ultimately rehab assignment, and I’m not ready to assign a timetable to his recovery yet.
“I know that he’s doing everything he can to strengthen up and get back to help the team as soon as possible, but we’re not at the point yet of kind of ballparking when that’s going to be. But he continues to feel pretty good.”
Relief pitch Albert Suárez is on the 60-day injured list.
“[He] had a strain the first couple days of the season. Subscapularis muscle region in the front part of his shoulder. It’s a large muscle strain [in the rotator cuff area],” Elias said. “Fortunately, it’s not anything that portends sort of negatively long term. This is something that’s gonna take a while to heal. He is still in the healing phase. He’s a few weeks away from testing out playing catch. We’ll just kind of let him rest and heal up. Not at the point yet of assigning a return ballpark date for him yet, but it’s going to be much later in the season, consistent with what we said originally.”
Reliever Andrew Kittredge, who also hasn’t pitched for the Orioles, had cartilage removed from his left knee during spring training. Elias is optimistic.
“Andrew Kittredge coming off the knee surgery, continues to fly along with the rehab. He is throwing bullpens,” Elias said. “We could get him into a live BP the week after next, and once you’re at that stage you start to talk about rehab assignments a few weeks after that. So all said, there is a possibility that he puts himself in position to be activated before the end of May, but there’s a lot of time left there. But so far it’s moving along at the front end of the window from recovery from his knee surgery.”
Starting pitchers Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells had season-ending elbow surgeries in June 2024.
“I don’t have a lot to report there. He threw a bullpen the other day, went great, feels great,” Elias said of Bradish. “Knock on wood this is kind of flying along in terms of what you hope for from a Tommy John surgery. He’s still another guy that with everything we’d want to do to get him back in game shape and build him up and return to skill that we’d be thinking about any sooner than kind of the later half of the summer, but he’s very much on track.
“Tyler Wells is in a similar boat. He has not started his mound progression yet, but that’s going to come within the next two weeks, so he’s a little behind Kyle in that regard, but everything moving along well in terms ofhis Tommy John recovery, but somebody we expect back well before the end of the season. In all hope and likelihood, in the latter part of the summer.”
Starters Chayce McDermott (lat) and Trevor Rogers (dislocated knee) “are on similar timetables, so I’m kind of lumping them together, but they’re both multiple bullpens deep. Got their velocity built up. They’re getting ready to face live hitters in Florida next week. We’ll take it from there. These are also guys that are potentials to put themselves in the conversation for activation before the end the month of May.”
Outfielder Colton Cowser broke his left thumb on March 30th on a dive into first base.
“He’s got a broken bone in the tip of his thumb,” Elias said. “Got to let that heal up. He’s working hard. He’s staying in game shape. He’s conditioning, but there’s not a whole lot you can do when your thumb is broken. I can’t predict exactly how quickly a bone is going to heal, but kind of hopeful for a late May, early June target for him, but we’re going to have to take that as it comes with how quickly he heals.”
Outfielder Enrique Bradfield and catcher Samuel Basallo, two top prospects, both have left hamstring injuries.
Elias says Bradfield’s is mild, and he could be back by mid-May. Basallo, who also sustained an elbow injury in spring training, could be back as a designated hitter in a few weeks and catching during May.
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