The Baltimore Orioles' already dismal 2025 season has taken another hit. Right-handed starter Grayson Rodriguez will undergo season-ending elbow debridement surgery, interim manager Tony Mansolino confirmed Monday. The procedure, expected to take place early next week, is intended to relieve impingement issues and is not related to the ulnar collateral ligament, meaning it is not a Tommy John operation.
Rodriguez, once one of the most highly touted pitching prospects in all of baseball, will miss the entire 2025 campaign. He hasn’t thrown a pitch in the majors this season, and the surgery comes after a cascade of injuries over the last two years. After dealing with shoulder issues that limited him to just 116 2/3 innings in 2024, Rodriguez began this season on the injured list with elbow inflammation. While attempting to rehab, he suffered a lat strain in April, and elbow discomfort returned in July, shutting him down again.
“He’s been through a lot this year,” general manager Mike Elias said last week when he first floated the possibility of surgery. “The goal here is to get him healthy for the long haul.”
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The Orioles’ rotation has struggled mightily without Rodriguez’s presence. After making his MLB debut in 2023 and improving across the board in 2024—going 13-4 with a 3.86 ERA and 10 strikeouts per nine—Rodriguez was expected to anchor the rotation alongside Zach Eflin. That never materialized, as Eflin has battled injuries of his own and owns a 5.93 ERA.
Baltimore’s rotation woes have piled up. Kyle Bradish is still recovering from Tommy John surgery, and trade acquisition Charlie Morton was flipped to the Tigers at the deadline. Dean Kremer and Tomoyuki Sugano have been the club’s most stable arms, but even they have combined for only 2.0 WAR. The lack of reliable starting pitching has sunk the Orioles to the bottom of the AL East with a 51-61 record and essentially no shot at a postseason berth.
The long-term concern is Rodriguez’s growing injury history. While this latest procedure is not expected to sideline him into next summer, it adds yet another question mark heading into 2026. He will turn 26 before next season and may rejoin a very different Orioles rotation. Eflin and Sugano are set to hit free agency, and Bradish’s availability remains uncertain.
Baltimore’s front office will face serious pressure this offseason to stabilize the rotation, especially after opting for short-term deals with veterans like Sugano and Morton instead of making a major investment ahead of 2025. That approach has clearly backfired.
Still, the organization remains hopeful that Rodriguez can return healthy for the start of spring training in 2026. If he does, he’ll once again be a key part of Baltimore’s long-term plans—assuming the team builds a better foundation around him.
