NEW YORK – The Orioles almost have become numb to the injuries ravaging their roster again in 2025.

Catcher Adley Rutschman won’t return until after the break due to a strained left oblique, marking his first career trip to the IL. Infielder Jordan Westburg is day-to-day with a sprained left index finger, but he's going to join Rutschman if he isn’t available later this week.

Backup catcher Maverick Handley came out of yesterday’s game in the bottom of the second inning after colliding with Jazz Chisholm Jr. Ten players are on the IL, and Westburg and Handley are trying to keep it under a dozen.

Twenty-one Orioles have spent time on the IL this season, including 10 of the position players on the Opening Day roster. And that doesn’t include shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who stayed back in Sarasota with an intercostal strain.

The Orioles keep testing the next-man-up philosophy that’s preached in the clubhouse.

What happens when you begin to run out of men?

“It’s nothing you can really put your finger on,” said center fielder Cedric Mullins. “Even I had my share on the IL and was able to avoid something that was bigger than what it could have been. You want guys to stay healthy, you want guys to be able to play at their best and not have to deal with injuries throughout the season. It’s just unfortunate.”

Interim manager Tony Mansolino isn’t lamenting it or searching for a sympathetic ear. He’s geared more toward reacting.

“I try to find solutions, to be honest with you,” Mansolino said. “I won’t allow myself to think about it. Doing this and being in this situation in an interim role and kind of what this whole thing entails, there’s a lot of things you could think about every morning when you wake up, the injuries included.

“But for me, and I think I gravitate this way toward all phases of my life is, it’s not about the problem at hand, but it’s about what the solution is. And sometimes you find them and sometimes you don’t. … We have a lot of injuries. There are some solutions out there. We just have to figure out what they are.”

It must be done with a sense of urgency.

The trade deadline is July 31 and the Orioles fell 11 games under .500 with yesterday’s 4-2 loss to the Yankees. They want to keep this club together. Pending free agents could be on the table rather than on future charter flights.

“I think it just boils down to kind of where we stand when we get to that point,” said Mullins, who’s in the final year of his contract. “I think inside the clubhouse it’s pretty obvious that we’ve got to be shooting for a Wild Card spot, that’s what we’re aiming for every single day. We’re focused on series wins moving forward.”

The Orioles could repeat their 2022 deadline approach, when they dealt Trey Mancini and Jorge López, and their status as fringe contenders didn’t prompt the front office to stand pat or buy. Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias flew into Dallas to meet with the club and explain his reasoning.

“Similar vibes in that, you want to stay with the group as much as you can,” Mullins said. “It’s a great group of guys. You come to get to know these guys, their families, things of that nature. You build those relationships that you want to last. We understand the business side of things. It doesn’t stop us from fighting.”

Reliever Bryan Baker tries to block it out of his mind. 

“I personally don’t think about that stuff too much,” he said. “I know we’re not out of playoff contention by any means. There’s still a lot of baseball left, and it’s a game of momentum, so I think we’re going to get rolling and turn things around and look back in a few months and laugh kind of at where we’re at right now.”

Improved health could give the Orioles a fighting chance, but they got knocked down again yesterday. They can’t make a run while on their backs and reaching for the ropes.

“I think that’s just kind of, it happens year-to-year. You never know how guys’ bodies are going to react throughout a season,” Mullins said.

“It is frustrating to have guys come back, having some success, and then they go back down for whatever might be going on. But you know at the end of the day, the next man could step up. It’s just a matter of them doing just that.”

* Coby Mayo registered his second career two-hit game Friday night and was out of the lineup the next two days. He pinch-hit for Westburg Saturday afternoon.

Opposing right-handed starters keep shoving Mayo to the bench. Ryan Mountcastle’s Grade 2 hamstring strain appeared to open a door, but the hinge also allows it to close.

“We talked about this a lot recently,” Mansolino said. “Right now, you have to make a choice a little bit with kind of where we’re at in the season. Are you winning, are you developing, are you trying to do both? So my choice is both. We’re trying to win and we’re trying to develop.

“I think if we want full-boat development right here in June when that third Wild Card spot is floating around .500, I don’t know if that’s the right decision for the Baltimore Orioles and the city of Baltimore and the fans. So with Coby, we’ve played him against lefties so far, we’ve mixed in some righties.”

Mansolino had another decision to make yesterday: Concentrate on full development or try to win a series in the Bronx.  

“So for me, we put out what we thought was the best lineup to win Game 3 in New York,” Mansolino said, “and I do know that going forward as we write out the lineup every single day, the question is, how do we win the game today? That’s got to be No. 1. But you also do have to think development, as well. But I also think like, the Yankees are thinking about development every day. Everybody is, most people around the league, and we’re not unique to that.

“We’ll try to balance that the best we can.”

The Rangers are starting veteran left-hander Patrick Corbin tonight at Camden Yards, which probably puts Mayo in the lineup at first base or as the designated hitter. Texas isn’t listing its other starters in the series.

* Yaramil Hiraldo came back to the bullpen yesterday after appearing in his only game May 27 against the Cardinals and tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings. He had a 3.71 ERA and 1.412 WHIP in 12 games with Triple-A Norfolk, striking out 26 batters in 17 innings, but his stay could be brief again.

The Orioles are known to swap out relievers.

Yennier Cano was a new move, however. The 2023 All-Star fell victim to an uneven season, the need for a fresh arm and his flexibility. Cano, Félix Bautista and Keegan Akin are the only relievers with options.

Cano struck out the side in the seventh inning Saturday after tossing a scoreless sixth the previous night, but the Rays torched him for four runs in two-thirds of an inning in Tampa and he’s lugging around a 4.73 ERA and 1.388 WHIP in 32 games. He’s allowing 9.8 hits per nine innings.

Asked whether he’s confident that Cano can get back on track, Baker replied, “I think he already did.”

“He struck out the side yesterday,” Baker said. “When he’s right, he’s a ground ball machine and a really good big league reliever. I think everybody knows that, including him. So I expect to see him very soon.”

Another interesting factor hurting Cano is the team’s growing reliance on Scott Blewett to provide multiple innings. Blewett earned the win Friday night after retiring all six batters faced. Zach Eflin’s short start forced him into action again the following day and he allowed a run in a blowout loss, but the Orioles made it clear that they’d rather not expose him to waivers.

They selected him on waivers, traded him to the Braves for cash and acquired him from the Braves for cash. They don’t seem eager to go through another transaction with him.