BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 Zach Eflin is looking forward to 2027, less than a week after having Tommy John surgery on his 32nd birthday.<\/p>\n
He left his March 31 season debut after striking out seven and allowing one run in 3 2\/3 innings against Texas. He had elbow reconstruction surgery Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in a lot better spot than I was a week, a week and a half ago,\u201d Eflin said Sunday. \u201cI knew something happened on the field. Really felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest. I was going through so much this offseason to come back on time and I honestly never felt better in my career before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eflin was 6-5 with a 5.93 ERA in 14 starts while making three trips to the injured list last season. Back trouble ended his season after a July 28 start.<\/p>\n
Baltimore re-signed Eflin to a $10 million, one-year deal in December that includes a $25 million mutual option for 2027 with a $2 million buyout.<\/p>\n
Baltimore hoped the 11-year veteran would be a steady rotation presence, and his 7 1\/3 scoreless innings in two spring training starts offered promise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had felt amazing for three games, and there in the fourth inning it took one pitch,\u201d Eflin said. \u201cIt was an up-and-away heater or cutter and it just felt like a hamstring cramp in my elbow. Literally out of nowhere. I\u2019d never felt anything in elbow before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eflin, 68-67 with a 4.28 ERA in 201 big league appearances with Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Baltimore, hopes to spend as much time as possible around the Orioles this summer as he works to recover and make it back to the majors next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s why I got it done so early,\u201d Eflin said. \u201cI want to be back as quickly as possible. I\u2019ve been through too much in my life to let this affect me and let this be the thing that brings me down. I\u2019m going to absolutely crush rehab and be back better than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also Sunday, the Orioles placed outfielder Tyler O\u2019Neill on the seven-day concussion injured list retroactive to Thursday and recalled outfielder Johnathan Rodr\u00edguez from Triple-A Norfolk. O\u2019Neill is hitting .241 with a homer and four RBIs in 10 games a year after injuries limited him to 54 games in his first season with Baltimore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 Zach Eflin is looking forward to 2027, less than a week after having Tommy John…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,85534,21472,4,125,9501,9496,39139,5971,591,96],"class_list":{"0":"post-674279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimoreorioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-eflin-tommy-john-surgery","13":"tag-johnathan-rodriguez","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-orioles","16":"tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","17":"tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","18":"tag-product-40779-ap-delaware-maryland-sports-only","19":"tag-tommy-john","20":"tag-tyler-oneill","21":"tag-zach-eflin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116393068723672527","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674279","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=674279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}