{"id":638236,"date":"2026-03-23T02:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T02:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/638236\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T02:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T02:32:14","slug":"orioles-injury-notes-akin-kjerstad-vazquez-beavers-kittredge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/638236\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles Injury Notes: Akin, Kjerstad, Vazquez, Beavers, Kittredge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orioles are suddenly dealing with a flurry of injury concerns less than a week before Opening Day, as left-hander Keegan Akin<\/a>, outfielder Heston Kjerstad<\/a>, and utilityman Luis Vazquez<\/a> will all undergo imaging on Monday.\u00a0 (MLB.com\u2019s Jake Rill<\/a> and Paige Leckie<\/a> were among those to report the news.)\u00a0 Akin suffered an adductor issue while warming up in the bullpen on Saturday, Kjerstad has been sidelined with right hamstring tightness for a few days, and Vazquez was hit by a pitch on his right thumb in today\u2019s game with the Nationals.<\/p>\n

More will be known once the testing takes place, and of the trio, Akin was the only one assured of a place on the Opening Day roster.\u00a0 With the exception of an injury-marred 2023 season, Akin has become a valued member of the Orioles\u2019 pen over the last four years, able to both eat innings and deliver in high-leverage situations.<\/p>\n

The 2024 season was Akin\u2019s most effective campaign, and while he still had a 3.41 ERA over 63 1\/3 innings in 2025, Akin\u2019s strikeout rate (22%) and walk rate (12.3%) both declined from his previous season.\u00a0 Akin\u2019s 4.44 SIERA was over a run higher than his real-world ERA, and the lefty might\u2019ve benefited quite a bit from a .267 BABIP.<\/p>\n

These concerns notwithstanding, Akin was still projected to be the top left-handed option in Baltimore\u2019s relief corps.\u00a0 Dietrich Enns<\/a> and Grant Wolfram<\/a> are the team\u2019s other left-handers, though if Akin has to miss time on the injured list, the Orioles wouldn\u2019t necessarily replace Akin with another southpaw.<\/p>\n

The bullpen already took a significant hit this spring with the news<\/a> that Andrew Kittredge<\/a> would be starting the season on the 15-day IL due to some shoulder inflammation.\u00a0 Though it has been almost a month since the righty\u2019s lone game of Spring Training, Kittredge told the Baltimore Banner\u2019s Andy Kostka<\/a> that he believes he\u2019ll miss just the minimum 15 days, as a rehab stint with Triple-A Norfolk will hopefully be enough to get Kittredge fully ramped up.<\/p>\n

Kjerstad was expected to start the season in Triple-A, though naturally a possible stint on the IL doesn\u2019t do him any good in terms of cost development time, as Kjerstad is still struggling to establish himself as a big leaguer.\u00a0 The second overall pick of the 2020 draft had a promising .248\/.336\/.411 slash line over 147 plate appearances with the O\u2019s in 2023-24, but he took a step back with a .192\/.240\/.327 slash in 167 PA last season.<\/p>\n

Vazquez has only a .404 OPS over 67 career PA in the majors (with the 2024 Cubs and 2025 Orioles), but his ability to play all over the infield and at least hold his own as a corner outfielder was putting him in the running to win a backup job on Baltimore\u2019s bench.\u00a0 With Jackson Holliday<\/a> and Jordan Westburg<\/a> starting the season on the injured list, the Orioles\u2019 infield depth has already been stretched, opening the door for Vazquez to potentially break camp with the team.<\/p>\n

A thumb injury, of course, would make Vazquez\u2019s endeavors all for naught.\u00a0 Even if the x-rays are negative, Vazquez may need a few days or even a 10-day IL stint to fully heal up, so bench candidates like Jeremiah Jackson<\/a>, Weston Wilson<\/a>, or others may stand a better chance of making the 26-man roster.<\/p>\n

The position-player mix could be shaken up further if Dylan Beavers<\/a>\u2018 right knee discomfort becomes anything serious.\u00a0 Beavers was a late scratch from Friday\u2019s lineup due to his sore knee, but both Beavers and manager Craig Albernaz told Rill the outfielder was feeling improvement yesterday, so there doesn\u2019t seem to be any concern yet that Beavers will miss any time during the regular season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orioles are suddenly dealing with a flurry of injury concerns less than a week before Opening Day,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[1516,143,47,2538,5,13462,1752,11038,13461,4,125],"class_list":["post-638236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-andrew-kittredge","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-dylan-beavers","tag-heston-kjerstad","tag-keegan-akin","tag-luis-vazquez","tag-mlb","tag-orioles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116276150087348203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638236","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=638236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}