Orioles: Grayson Rodriguez Set to Make His Return

On Monday morning, Baltimore Orioles fans got some fun news to start off the week. After being out for three months, Orioles top pitching prospect, (number two overall prospect, number four prospect in all of baseball, and top pitching prospect in all of baseball) Grayson Rodriguez will make his return to pitching on Thursday in the Orioles minor league system.

Rodriguez will make his return three months to the date of suffering a right lat strain that had kept him out through the summer. Rodriguez begins his rehab assignment with High-A Aberdeen when they play the Hickory Crawdads on Thursday, the High-A team of the Texas Rangers.

Orioles top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez set to return to action after shoulder strain

The workload for Rodriguez in his first rehab start is not currently known, and it is also unknown how many rehab starts Rodriguez will make before returning to action with Triple-A Norfolk. One would figure the Orioles want to take it easy on their prized prospect, as it will be his first game action in three months, and they want him to be as healthy as possible when they decide to promote him to the big club.

The timing of the injury was particularly bad for Rodriguez, as he appeared on the cusp of a big league callup before going down. He has a 5-1 record with a 2.09 ERA, 0.839 WHIP, and 80 strikeouts over 56 innings with Norfolk prior to the injury.

Rodriguez makes his return following great progress in his recovery. After a sim game and live batting practice thrown, the Orioles felt comfortable with letting him return to pitch in real game action. Given the injury and the current state of the Orioles rotation, Rodriguez might miss out on a callup this season, but the return is great news, and 2023 sure looks bright.