BALTIMORE (AP) — Grayson Rodriguez’s rise toward the majors is now on hold.
The top Orioles pitching prospect has a strained lat muscle, Baltimore general manager Mike Elias said Thursday. It’s not clear how long the right-hander will be out. Elias said Rodriguez came to Baltimore for an MRI, which confirmed the strain.
“I think it’s safe to say that he’s going to miss some time, probably a decent amount of time, at a minimum,” Elias said. “Certainly a very disappointing development in terms of the 2022 calendar and our hopes and his, but it’s something that we’ll ultimately get through.”
Rodriguez, the top pitching prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, seemed on the verge of reaching the majors soon, but he left Wednesday’s start for Triple-A Norfolk with discomfort in the lat area.
“The timing of this stinks,” Elias said. “We were watching every start of his very carefully, and carefully building him toward readiness, from a workload standpoint, from an everything-you-can-think-of standpoint, to what’s going to be a very long and fruitful pitching career. Obviously, this is a delay.”
The 22-year-old Rodriguez is 5-1 with a 2.09 ERA in 11 starts for Norfolk this season. He’s a big part of Baltimore’s rebuild, along with catcher Adley Rutschman, who was recently promoted to the majors.
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