Baltimore’s top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez is being promoted to the Orioles and is expected to make his major league debut Wednesday in his home state of Texas against the Rangers, according to multiple reports. (Karl Merton Ferron, Baltimore Sun)
Grayson Rodriguez is back home.
Baltimore’s top pitching prospect was promoted to the Orioles and will make his major league debut Wednesday in his home state of Texas against the Rangers, the club announced. He’ll wear No. 30.
Rodriguez, a consensus top 10 prospect in baseball, was expected to make the Orioles’ rotation to open the season, but he instead began the year in Triple-A Norfolk after struggling in spring training.
In a corresponding move, the Orioles placed starting pitcher Kyle Bradish on the 15-day injured list with a bruised right foot. Bradish took a 104 mph line drive off his foot during his start Monday. The right-hander threw one warmup pitch before exiting the game in the second inning.
While Tyler Wells’ five-inning relief outing led the Orioles to a 2-0 win Monday and saved an already-fatigued bullpen, it didn’t change the calculus that the Orioles would need a different starting pitcher for the series against the Rangers now that Wells, originally scheduled to start Tuesday, couldn’t start. Kyle Gibson was pushed up to start Tuesday (on regular rest) instead of Wednesday, and now Rodriguez will get the ball Wednesday against Jacob deGrom, a two-time Cy Young Award winner with the New York Mets who signed a five-year, $185 million deal with Texas this offseason.
Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias repeatedly said this offseason that he wanted the 6-foot-5 right-hander to break camp in the majors. But when spring training ended, and the team announced that Rodriguez would go back down to Norfolk, Elias said Rodriguez hadn’t earned a spot in an Orioles rotation hoping to make a push for the playoffs. Wells was instead given the No. 5 spot in the rotation.
Rodriguez, the Orioles’ first-round draft pick in 2018, allowed 17 hits and 12 earned runs while walking seven and striking out 19 in 15 1/3 innings this spring. He displayed the pitch repertoire — “elite” stuff that is major league ready, according to veteran catcher James McCann — but he struggled with his command and had one blowup inning in each of his final three starts.
“I think he needs to look like himself and get some longer outings,” Elias said when asked what he wants to see out of Rodriguez in Triple-A. “[He] was not ready to jump into a major league rotation, not getting past the fourth inning. We know what he’s capable of. I wasn’t expecting this. We were hoping that he would show up as a better version of himself than I think we got here. We just had five other guys that were more ready at this point in time. I know what he’s capable of, I think he’s going to show it again very quickly. As soon as he does, we’re going to be all over it.”
Rodriguez, a Houston native, started opening day for Norfolk last week and had another up-and-down outing. He surrendered four hits and three runs (two earned) in four innings with twice as many walks (four) as strikeouts (two). The four walks were more than Rodriguez had in any start last season when he dominated the minor leagues.
In 69 2/3 innings in Triple-A last year, Rodriguez posted a 2.20 ERA and 97 strikeouts. In his minor league career, Rodriguez has allowed just 5.6 hits per nine innings with an eye-popping 35.9% strikeout rate.
As he logged one dominant start after another last season, it looked likely that he would receive his big league call-up as the organization did with catcher Adley Rutschman, outfielder Kyle Stowers, infielder Gunnar Henderson and left-handed pitcher DL Hall. But Rodriguez suffered a lat muscle strain while pitching for Norfolk on June 1 and missed three months.
Orioles at Rangers
Wednesday, 2:05 p.m.
TV: MASN2
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Originally published at Tribune News Service