{"id":537261,"date":"2026-01-25T06:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T06:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/537261\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T06:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T06:21:12","slug":"al-east-injury-notes-rodon-henderson-kjerstad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/537261\/","title":{"rendered":"AL East Injury Notes: Rodon, Henderson, Kjerstad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Rod\u00f3n<\/a> seems to be progressing well from the surgery he had in October to remove loose bodies from his elbow. In an appearance on Foul Territory\u2019s livestream<\/a> of the New York Baseball Writers\u2019 Gala, Rod\u00f3n said he was back throwing eight weeks removed from the surgery. He\u2019s been recently doing mound work as well.\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really feel like much of a rehab,\u201d Rod\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n

The most recent timeline<\/a> from the team had Rod\u00f3n returning in late April or early May. That would put him slightly ahead of\u00a0Gerrit Cole<\/a> and well ahead of \u00a0Clarke Schmidt<\/a>. Cole and Schmidt are coming back from Tommy John surgery. Rod\u00f3n stressed the improved mobility he had following the surgery. \u201cI couldn\u2019t really bend my elbow,\u201d he said of his pre-surgery movement.<\/p>\n

Rod\u00f3n set career highs in starts (33) and innings (195 1\/3) last season. He finished top 10 in strikeouts. A forearm strain cost him a few months to begin his Yankees tenure in 2023, but he\u2019s been largely healthy since then.<\/p>\n

The strong 2025 campaign for Rod\u00f3n fell apart in the postseason. He was rocked for nine earned runs over 8 1\/3 innings between the ALDS and ALCS. Rod\u00f3n posted an uninspiring 8:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his two starts.<\/p>\n

New York will open next season with a rotation consisting of Max Fried<\/a>, postseason breakout Cam Schlittler<\/a>, Luis Gil<\/a>, Will Warren<\/a>, and trade acquisition Ryan Weathers<\/a>. It\u2019s a relatively unproven group (outside of Fried) with a lengthy injury history. Veterans Paul Blackburn<\/a> and Ryan Yarbrough<\/a> are on hand to eat innings. The unit will try to hold down the fort as Rod\u00f3n, Cole, and Schmidt work toward their returns.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere around the division, the Orioles received some positive news on a pair of young left-handed bats. Gunnar Henderson<\/a> says he\u2019s fully healthy after dealing with a shoulder impingement for much of last season, as relayed by Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports<\/a>. Henderson revealed<\/a> the injury earlier this month. He reiterated at this week\u2019s fanfest event that the problem is behind him. \u201cFeel great, shoulder feels great, so I feel like I\u2019m in a great spot right now. Swing\u2019s been feeling awesome so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henderson delivered a solid all-around season in 2025, though his power numbers fell precipitously from the heights he reached the previous year. After slugging 37 home runs in 2024, he hit just 17 this past season. Henderson\u2019s slugging percentage dipped from .529 to .438, and his ISO went from .248 to .165. It\u2019s hard to complain about a 120 wRC+ and a career-best 30 steals, but the final result was a bit of a letdown after Henderson finished fourth in AL MVP voting the prior year. He should be a threat for 35+ homers once again with the shoulder injury cleared up.<\/p>\n

Heston Kjerstad<\/a> is also expected to be good to go heading into 2026. Manager Craig Albernaz told reporters, including Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun<\/a>, that Kjerstad will be a \u201cfull participant\u201d in Spring Training. There hasn\u2019t been a clear explanation for the outfielder\u2019s absence to end last season, but it appears to be in the rearview. Kjerstad was shut down in late July while dealing with fatigue. Reports in September were that he was seeing doctors about an unspecified medical condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s itching to get back to where he can get back to,\u201d Albernaz told reporters, including Kubatko. \u201cHeston\u2019s pedigree, he had to prove how good he was in the minor leagues, and going to the Fall League (in 2022) and winning MVP, like, that\u2019s not an easy league to do that in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kjerstad was the second overall pick in 2020. He\u2019s struggled to gain a foothold in the majors, slashing .218\/.284\/.365 in sporadic playing time over the past three seasons. Baltimore trading for Taylor Ward<\/a>, signing Pete Alonso<\/a>, and retaining Ryan Mountcastle<\/a> make it tough to see Kjerstad cracking the roster to open 2026.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Rod\u00f3n seems to be progressing well from the surgery he had in October to remove loose bodies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,2004,916,1752,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-537261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-carlos-rodon","10":"tag-gunnar-henderson","11":"tag-heston-kjerstad","12":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115954299225416705","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}