The Orioles are shutting Zach Eflin down for a week after he was diagnosed with a low-grade lat strain, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters following tonight’s loss in Arizona (relayed by Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner). The righty will land on the 15-day injured list.
Eflin felt the discomfort during Monday evening’s start. He tossed six innings of one-run ball before departing at 73 pitches. Baltimore announced that he was battling shoulder fatigue and sent him for imaging. A one-week shutdown is far from the worst case scenario, but the O’s will go at least a couple weeks without their Opening Day starter.
Baltimore is now operating without arguably their three best pitchers. They knew they wouldn’t get much, if anything, from Kyle Bradish this year after he underwent Tommy John surgery last June. Grayson Rodriguez went down in Spring Training with elbow inflammation. He’s throwing but hasn’t progressed to a minor league rehab assignment.
The O’s have Charlie Morton, Dean Kremer, Tomoyuki Sugano and Cade Povich in the rotation. They brought back Kyle Gibson on a one-year contract late in Spring Training. He isn’t yet ready for major league action. Gibson agreed to begin the season with Triple-A Norfolk to continue his build-up. He’ll make his first start there on Thursday.
Aside from Gibson, the O’s have prospect Brandon Young as their only depth starter on the 40-man roster. Young has only allowed two unearned runs while striking out 11 over his first two Triple-A starts this year. Thaddeus Ward, who made 26 relief appearances as a Rule 5 pick for the Nationals two seasons ago, is also working out of the Norfolk rotation. Cody Poteet and Roansy Contreras are working out of the bullpen in Triple-A but have some starting experience in the majors. The O’s have off days on Thursday and Monday, so they could get by with four starters into the second half of next week.
None of those pitchers can be expected to match Eflin’s production, of course. The 31-year-old righty managed an earned run average around 3.50 in both 2023 and ’24. He’d posted an even 3.00 ERA while working six innings per start over his first three appearances of this season.