Doing a health check on some Orioles

The Orioles had a late start last night due to the threat of rain, with the actual precipitation lighter than anticipated before the downpour in the fifth inning.

The injury talk started much earlier, and it was heavier than expected.

Let’s take a stroll through yesterday’s updates and try not to roll an ankle.

Grayson Rodriguez

The “sluggish” start on March 5 in Fort Myers turned into an elbow/triceps issue, which turned into a lat issue that kept the projected No. 2 starter from pitching this season.

Rodriguez broke his silence with the local media yesterday, initiating a conversation at his locker. He was ready to talk, and the group was ready to find out more about his progress.

The big revelation was the resumption of his bullpen sessions next week. Rodriguez was scratched from the last one, a mid-April setback that pretty much ruined his chances of returning in the first half.

A switch from the 10-day to 60-day injured list came with a new designation – lat instead of elbow. It didn’t go unnoticed.

Rodriguez confirmed yesterday that his arm issues are over and he’s building it back up while also working with the medical and training staffs to avoid another lat strain. The concern, of course, is that it’s happened three times for no obvious reason.

Didn’t Rodriguez tweak his mechanics over the winter to lessen the pressure on his lat/teres?

“This is the third time I’ve had a lat issue in four years, so we’re trying to just eliminate and figure out why it keeps happening,” he said. “I think it’s a very hard thing to figure out, whether it’s mechanics or it’s some type of lifting program in the weight room. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but being able to kind of navigate through it and figure it out along the way I think is something that we’re doing well right now.”

Rodriguez sounded confident that he’d pitch after the break, though no one can speak to it with absolute certainty.

“I think there is optimism in the building that we’re going to see him in the second half, without a doubt,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino.

But there’s also this:

“Rehabs aren’t super perfect,” Mansolino continued. “The expectation that every injury is going to go perfect and every rehab is going to go perfect, it’s unrealistic. The human body heals differently. In Grayson’s case, he had the elbow. He was cooking. He was moving. Here comes the lat. It’s another kind of wrench in the plans.”

Rodriguez hasn’t given up on a playoff run this summer and he praised the atmosphere around the team.

“Obviously, we got off to a slow start, but this clubhouse hasn’t changed,” he said. “It feels like the same clubhouse we had in ’23 or last year. There’s no tensions, there’s no drama.

“I was talking about this yesterday with Scott (Barringer), our head trainer. This is probably one of the one clubhouses in baseball where there isn’t a guy that you don’t like, or somebody that’s causing a lot of issues. When you can have a good clubhouse like this, you expect to win games, and right now we’ve been playing a lot better, so I think we’re going to really get on a hot streak here and I think we’re going to finish the season how we want to.”

Gary Sánchez

Sánchez was missing from Triple-A Norfolk’s lineup last night after getting two at-bats the previous day and coming out for a pinch-hitter.

Mansolino said we’d see Sánchez “soon,” and that points to later today. The club wanted to rest him yesterday.

Maverick Handley caught veteran Charlie Morton last night for the eighth time, more than anyone else on the team. He’s the expected corresponding move for Sánchez.

Handley went 0-for-3 last night, flying to the left field track with two runners on base in the fifth, and is 3-for-40 in his first major league action. Sánchez has three hits in 30 at-bats.

Handley's ball would have been a home run in 18 ballparks.

"Eighteen," he said. "I don’t know if that makes me feel better.”

The main point in signing Sánchez for $8.5 million was to make the lineup more threatening against left-handed pitching, but he’s 0-for-16 with seven strikeouts. He’s got more chances coming “soon.”

Tyler O’Neill

The injured list will be down to eight players when Sánchez is reinstated, and that includes reliever Cody Poteet, who would have been optioned except for his right shoulder inflammation.

O’Neill accompanied the team to Seattle before reporting to Norfolk for his rehab assignment. It figured to be brief, but soreness returned to his left shoulder. The impingement is impeding his progress.  

O’Neill remained out of Norfolk’s lineup last night to rest the shoulder. Mansolino confirmed the soreness.

When does rest become a shutdown?

Check back later today.

O’Neill signed a three-year, $49.5 million contract with an opt-out clause after the first season. He’s appeared in only 24 games due to neck inflammation and shoulder discomfort, and he’s 15-for-80 (.188) with a .605 OPS. His two home runs were hit against the Blue Jays on Opening Day (of course) and April 13.

The Orioles are fortunate that Colton Cowser and Cedric Mullins are back, and the club is getting contributions from Ramón Laureano and Dylan Carlson. Laureano homered last night.

Colton Cowser

He makes this list because he crashed into the center field fence chasing a home run ball Thursday and wasn’t in last night’s lineup.

“Some soreness, so we’re gonna sit him out today,” Mansolino said. “Possibly available for the game and we’ll kind of reassess for tomorrow. He’ll go through some further examinations later, but there’s been a little bit of baseball activity already. We’re feeling good about it. But we’ll kind of see where this trends the rest of the day.”  

Mansolino didn’t specify where Cowser was sore, but the shoulder appeared to take the brunt of the impact as he began his leap. Cowser missed a little over two months after fracturing his left thumb diving into first base in Toronto. The Orioles can’t afford to lose him again.

“I am concerned,” Mansolino said. “I give Moo a hard time because he’s one of these athletes that when he’s running in the outfield, he’s kind of long and lanky. Long and lanky guys don’t look like they’re running fast, and as I watched him hit the wall, my initial reaction was, he’s fine. But then as D.C. (Carlson) kind of waved his hand, we went out there. He hit the wall hard, like, really hard. It knocked the wind out of him really good.

“So initial concern, not a lot. As the game kind of went along, after the game, yeah, you’re concerned. He’s a tough kid, man. He’s a tough kid. He probably wants to be in there, but we’ve got to be smart about this.”

Mansolino doesn’t want Cowser to pull back on the aggression, whether on the bases or in the outfield.

“No,” he said. “Give me ‘em all, give me 26 guys like that. You don’t want the opposite.”