Orioles reminded yet again why they traded Grayson Rodriguez when given the chance

Most Rockies vs Angels games are not that interesting to the average fan of the Baltimore Orioles. The Rockies are in the National League, and the Angels are perennial basement dwellers, so there's really no reason for an Orioles fan to be tuning into a late-night Rockies and Angels matchup. However, Tuesday night's game in Anaheim featured a pitching matchup that caught the eyes of many Orioles fans: Tomoyuki Sugano vs Grayson Rodriguez.

Sugano and Rodriguez were teammates on the Orioles last season, and both represent different frustrating parts of the last few years of Orioles baseball. In the offseason, it wasn't surprising when the Orioles let Sugano walk out the door, but trading Rodriguez for Taylor Ward was a big surprise and was seen as a very controversial move.

Grayson Rodriguez just isn't the kind of pitcher the Orioles can afford to have in their rotation right now

Even though Rodriguez had just missed an entire season, he was supposed to be back healthy for 2026 and had four more years of control. With that much team control, it felt like a pitcher who had shown the promise that Rodriguez showed in 2023 and 2024 could have gone for more than just a rental corner outfielder. Especially considering how much the Orioles have struggled to acquire pitching.

To cope with the confusion, many people assumed that the Orioles knew something about Rodriguez medically and that they were getting rid of him before anyone realized that he may never pitch again. When it came out that the trade was an "as is" trade with no physical, that certainly seemed like a possibility. When Rodriguez failed to make it out of spring training healthy, and Ward was leading the league in OBP and doubles to start the year, that seemed like the only reasonable explanation.

Since then, however, Rodriguez has returned from the IL and made four starts with the Angels, so it's clear that his elbow is not irreparably damaged to the point where he can't pitch at all. However, the more he pitches, the easier it is to see why the Orioles were so eager to move on from him this winter.

Rodriguez might be healthy enough to throw pitches in the big leagues, but he is nowhere near the level of pitcher he was pre-injury, and the Orioles could not afford to put him on the mound and have him get shelled every five days in the name of helping him find himself.

Through four starts, Rodriguez's ERA sits at exactly 10.00. He's not getting whiffs, he's not getting hitters to chase, he's hardly striking anyone out, and he's not inducing ground balls. That means that an absurd amount of plate appearances against Rodriguez are ending with either a walk or hard contact in the air, which are two of the worst things that can happen for a pitcher.

The Rockies, of all teams, lighting up Rodriguez on Tuesday, highlights just how bad things have gotten for Rodriguez. He walked three and gave up three home runs in three innings. That's bad against any team, but especially against the 29th-ranked offense by wRC+. They weren't even in Colorado; he basically couldn't have gotten an easier opponent to face, and they blasted him out of the game.

Four years is a long runway and there is a chance that sometime in the next four years Rodriguez will look like the pitcher he was for the Orioles in 2023 and 2024 or maybe even better but the Orioles need to win now and are much better off with Taylor Ward and knowing that they need to bring in more arms for the rotation than every year hoping that this will be the year it all comes together for Rodriguez.

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