Around seven years and five months ago, the Orioles drafted Grayson Rodriguez No. 11 overall in the 2018 MLB Draft out of Central Heights High School. He entered the Orioles top 30 prospect list at No. 5, and quickly rose to become the No. 2 prospect in the system, trailing only Adley Rutschman.
Rodriguez was a part of the elite Orioles’ prospect core in the early 2020s, and was highly regarded as one of, if not the best pitching prospect in all of baseball. You had fans bringing gas cans to the stadium on his start nights, and the hype surrounding Rodriguez continued to build as he dominated at every minor league level.
Gas can policy:
Fans can bring a new, empty, plastic, gas can to games. Must be open when they arrive for inspection. Also must be new. Nothing ever in it.
— Chesapeake Baysox (@BaysoxOfficial) June 11, 2021
In 2022 he pitched to a 2.20 ERA in 69.2 innings at Norfolk. Rodriguez was on the cusp of a major league call-up, but he suffered a lat strain that would keep him out of action for around three months.
He finally got his chance in the bigs in 2023 after eight starts to open the year in Norfolk, and ended up tossing 122 innings with the Orioles to a solid 4.35 ERA. High expectations followed Rodriguez into 2024, but they were never quite met. He dealt with some shoulder tightness early in spring, but was still ready for the season’s open. He was having the best stretch of his young career, pitching five innings or more in 15 straight starts, but was ominously scratched before his start in Toronto on August 5. He ultimately didn’t pitch the rest of the season due to yet another lat strain. Unbeknownst – and unimaginable, frankly – to any of us at the time, he had thrown his last pitch as an Oriole.
Knee-Jerk Reactions: O’s Trade Grayson Rodgriguez for Taylor Ward
Many hoped this past 2025 season would be the one where Rodriguez finally stayed healthy, but injuries plagued him from Spring Training to the end of the season. He had noticeably decreased velocity during an early Grapefruit League outing, and the old familiar feeling fell over Birdland, despite the front office and coaching staff saying all the right things. It was revealed to be an elbow issue at the time, but that was followed by another lat flare up in April, and then another problem in his elbow in July that eventually required surgery. As a result of all that, Rodriguez pitched not a single inning in 2025.
The thing that makes the Taylor Ward-Rodriguez trade so hard to assess is just how talented Rodriguez can be. There is no doubt the potential is still there to become a top-end starter. When he toed the rubber in the major leagues, the flashes were there. His fastball touched 100, and he threw some true gems once he figured out how to get past the fifth inning.
The huge question is if Rodriguez can finally get healthy. The Orioles don’t seem to think so, but the Angels saw the upside in acquiring Rodriguez for a rental outfielder coming off of a career high 36 homer season who will be a pending free agent after this year.
Mike Elias was non-committal on Rodriguez’s status just a few days ago at the General Manager meetings November 12. “You miss a year and two months, we’ve got to be realistic about that, and it’s not something that we’re planning around very heavily,” Elias said, per Jake Rill of MLB.com
Rodriguez, on the other hand, was very confident in his return for the 2026 season, citing his August 2025 surgery to remove bone spurs as a necessary fix. “That was something that’s kind of lingered with me for about three or four years now,” Rodriguez said during his introductory press conference with the Angels. “There’s really no question for me to be ready for Spring Training.”
It’s safe to say that no one truly knows what will happen next with Grayson Rodriguez. He follow the Jake Arrieta route and win a Cy Young after departing Baltimore, or he could pitch no more than 100 innings in any of the next four seasons before he becomes a free agent in 2029.
It’s truly que sera, sera for Grayson Rodriguez; what will be, will be.
