It’s not a clean bill of health, but nothing like the total surprise of the Kyle Bradish/John Means injuries of 2024.
As Orioles spring training got under way a year ago, O’s fans were given an unpleasant surprise when GM Mike Elias revealed an offseason injury to Kyle Bradish as well as continuing caution with John Means. Those two things ended up having a serious impact on the 2024 O’s season. Today, with pitchers starting their workouts, Elias appeared to deliver this year’s round of updates. It’s not a perfect bill of health, but there are no major surprises like what we got a year ago.
The one surprise injury that was not being factored into anyone’s roster consideration is that Trevor Rogers has suffered a subluxation of his right knee cap. That’s pushed him several weeks behind schedule, according to Elias, and has made him unlikely to be an Opening Day roster candidate. I already considered him an unlikely candidate for the Opening Day roster even if he was a full spring training participant.
Elias also offered updates on closer Félix Bautista and infielder Jorge Mateo, each of whom is working back from elbow surgery. Bautista is apparently not going to be pitching in any Grapefruit League games until late in the spring schedule. Elias described Bautista as having a “very good chance” of being on the Opening Day roster.
That’s good, but on the other hand, I never thought this was any question at all. We’re now 16 months out from Bautista’s Tommy John surgery and I had taken it for granted that he should be able to fully participate in this spring training. Elias’s update is not an unpleasant punch, but I will be a bit more wary about this than I was. The recent example of Means is a reminder that a lasting return to form after TJ is not automatic.
For Mateo, the update was positive overall but fairly definitive in shutting down his chances of being ready for Opening Day. Elias indicated that Mateo is progressing well but won’t be game-ready until quite late in camp and this means that he is “unlikely” to end up on the Opening Day roster. As Mateo only suffered the injury in late July, it would have taken a kind of Wolverine-like regeneration to have him ready to play at this juncture. Since he is my wife’s current favorite Oriole, I tried to stay positive about this possibility.
Two Orioles pitchers are absent from the very beginning of camp for reasons unrelated to any injury. Elias indicated that pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano has yet to get his visa, but should be into camp this weekend. Somebody having a visa issue is a regular feature of spring training, it just usually ends up being some non-roster pitcher instead. Also, Zach Eflin is not there because his wife just gave birth, so he’ll arrive soon.
This is much better news than the day 1 update that came out of the 2024 Orioles camp. Now we can move on from worrying whether there were any secret offseason injuries to worrying about whether the O’s can get through spring training without any new injuries.