Another Oriole has been bitten by the injury bug.
Another day, another Orioles injury. We are so far past ridiculous at this point. The dark comedy continues nonetheless. Ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Rangers, the Orioles placed Keegan Akin on the 10-day injured list with left shoulder inflammation. Returning to replace him on the roster is Yennier Cano, recalled from Triple-A Norfolk.
This was one of two moves affecting the Orioles roster on Wednesday afternoon. The team also designated reliever Matt Bowman for assignment, again. In his place, righty reliever Corbin Martin had his contract selected by the Orioles. Martin was on the O’s 40-man roster last year but didn’t stick around on the 40-man; he’d been on a minor league invite to spring training this season.
Akin is now the 14th Oriole to be on the injured list right now, and the second in as many days in the month of July. MLB beat writer Jake Rill notes that Akin makes the 24th Oriole who has been placed on the IL this season. That’s nearly a full roster worth of players and we haven’t even made it to the All-Star break yet.
With other pitchers either getting hurt or falling apart around him or both, Akin has been increasingly pitching key innings for the Orioles. Everyone’s most recent memory of him is when he blew the three-run tenth inning lead, but take that aside and he’s been doing a good job this season. The team will have a tougher time without him around, particularly missing any even remotely reliable lefty reliever.
The only lefty reliever on the roster now that Akin is on the injured list is the erratic Gregory Soto. Will that matter? I guess we’re about to find out.
Cano returns from Norfolk after about a two-week absence. He’d only pitched twice for the Tides during that time, allowing one run across those two outings. It’s probably too much to hope that this has fixed him. He’s back because things are desperate, not because he’d definitely demonstrated that there has been improvement.
The 34-year-old Bowman made a nice impression on Orioles fans towards the end of last season. That magic has not carried over to 2025. Bowman has a 5.79 ERA and 1.500 WHIP through 19 outings. Even the messy, chaotic 2025 O’s should be able to do better than that. Should is not the same thing as will, of course. Martin, who last appeared in MLB in 2022, has had a 5.29 ERA across 29 outings with the Tides this season.