There’s no way Grayson Rodrguez could know it at the time but an innocuous start in July 2024 would be his last for the Baltimore Orioles. Rodriguez would miss the rest of his sophomore season and the entire 2025 campaign with a string of lat and elbow injuries. After spending most of last season on the IL battling soreness, Rodriguez opted to undergo elbow surgery.
The procedure removed bone spurs that the pitcher believes had been causing his chronic injury issues. Feeling back to his old self and ready for spring training 2026, Rodriguez learned he’d been traded to the Los Angeles Angels. And, to his surprise, the team was confident in his health. So much so that the Angels didn’t require a physical before completing the trade.
Rodriguez is grateful to move forward with his new team. “Getting these bone spurs out has been a huge relief. Hopefully, this is all behind us and in the past,” Rodriguez said, per Foul Territory. “Obviously you don’t want to go through a season like I had last year where you don’t even throw an inning. But you can kinda just look back and reflect… and just move on.”
Grayson Rodriguez embraces move to Angles
After a promising rookie season in 2023, the Orioles thought they had a foundational top of the rotation starter for years to come in Rodriguez. But the pitcher’s career was derailed by a string of injuries involving lat and elbow soreness.
“I’ve tried to see just about every doctor there is to try to figure out [what’s causing the recurrence]. You know, there’s no surgery required for any of this… You’re just trying to figure out why it keeps happening…. And everybody we spoke with, we all kinda came back to the same conclusion of having the bone spurs in there and the elbow not being able to get to full extension,” Rodriguez explained.
“If you can’t get out there [and fully extend], you can’t slow your arm down quick enough, your lat’s firing twice as hard. It’s having to work just as much, so it all kinda comes back to the same conclusion.”
Fortunately, elbow surgery broke the vicious cycle Rodriguez was trapped in. Now the 26-year-old righty will get a fresh start with the Angels.
Los Angeles made the most of Taylor Ward’s expiring contract and traded the power-hitting outfielder for Rodrigez, who’s under club control until the 2028 season. It was a gutsy move by the Angles, but one that could pay off if the pitcher, now healthy, returns to form.