O's Grayson Rodriguez: "Definitely going to pitch this year"

Righty has a 3.35 ERA his last 33 MLB starts

BALTIMORE – O’s pitcher Grayson Rodriguez, in his first interview with the Baltimore media since March at spring training, said today he is confident he will pitch in the second half of the 2025 season.

He began the year on the injured list due to right elbow inflammation and while going through rehab had a setback with a right lat issue, a problem he has had at times over the past few seasons.

But when asked today if he expects to pitch in the second half of 2025, he said yes.

“Absolutely. Yeah absolutely,” Rodriguez said in the O’s clubhouse pregame today. “I’m pretty confident with that. I don’t have a week or anything specific. Definitely going to pitch this year.

“Throwing. Throwing every day. Right now feeling good. Here in the next week probably get on the mound and starting throwing some (bull)pens.”

Rodriguez has not pitched in a big league game since July 31, 2024.

But the Orioles know what they are missing here.

From about the midpoint of the 2023 season through his last start of 2024, Grayson made 33 starts. In those 33 games, he had gone 18-6 with a 3.35 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. He has 18 quality starts allowing a .237 batting average and .664 OPS in that span.

There was more good news from Rodriguez today in that he is no longer dealing with elbow issues.

“Right now it’s just the lat. We’re past the elbow stuff,” he told reporters. “We were able to get that handled. Right now just focusing on the lat, kind of figuring out what exactly might be causing it. Whether it’s mechanical or something I’m doing in the weight room, or something prep-wise. Right now just trying to figure out exactly what’s causing it.

“This (lat issue) is similar to last year. Very minor. But then again, you don’t want it to happen again and turn into something bigger. Right now, like I said, trying to figure out why it keeps happening and how I can eliminate it in the future.

“This is the third time I’ve had a lat issue in four years. So, we’re trying to just eliminate and figure out why it keeps happening. That is a hard thing to figure out. Hard to put your finger on it.”

The mental aspect of missing time, said Rodriguez, have been as challenging as the physical.

“It’s tough. Mentally, that is probably the hardest part, not being able to be out there with the guys. You show up every day and you want to play. And then we’re you’re on the IL, it’s just the worst thing. We have a lot of good guys in this clubhouse that want to help me through it. But yeah, it’s definitely tough. Mentally, it’s pretty hard showing up and knowing you are not going to pitch this week, something like that. Grinding through it is all you can do and just focus on getting better to get back out there.”

Rodriguez latest injury issues came at a time he had been pitching really well for the Orioles. At a time, he said, he felt like he was becoming the pitcher he wanted to become all along after being selected No. 11 overall in the 2018 MLB Draft.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I think that is one of the tough parts about it. You can’t ever figure baseball out and if you say you figured it out it will humble you real quick. But my confidence was really high. Think that was something I have to struggle to deal with, knowing I am where I want to be right now, but not being able to pitch every five days really just kills me.”