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Grayson Rodriguez is probably sitting at home wondering how he got dragged into another trade.
Rodriguez has one of his own, with the Orioles sending him to the Angels a month ago for power-hitting outfielder Taylor Ward. The former top pitching prospect is gone but far from forgotten.
Rodriguez’s name keeps coming up in discussions and analysis of the Shane Baz deal with the Rays. Similar ceilings and injury histories, though Baz returned from ligament-reconstructive surgery on his right elbow to make 31 starts last season.
The last Rodriguez start happened on July 31, 2024. His record improved to 13-4 after he allowed three earned runs (four total) in six innings and struck out eight Blue Jays in a 10-4 win.
Craig Kimbrel and Burch Smith covered the last two innings. James McCann was behind the plate. Cristian Pache was a defensive replacement in right field. Times were good.
Smith hasn’t appeared in a major league game since 2024. Rodriguez didn’t pitch again after the 31st because of discomfort in his lat/teres that prevented him from starting an Aug. 6 game in Toronto. An elbow impingement, sore triceps and biceps, sore lat/teres, you name it, kept him on the injured list this year.
Surgery to remove a bone spur from Rodriguez’s right elbow might have solved the recurring lat issue. The Orioles couldn’t count on it. They needed starters capable of making it through an entire season and handle a heavier workload. Baz turned into that guy after multiple procedures in 2022, the first in March to remove loose bodies from the elbow.
Rodriguez might, as well. In the meantime, a team determined to upgrade its rotation was willing to part with the former 11th-overall draft pick from 2018. Baz could slot where Rodriguez was expected to pitch.
They both have high heat and secondary stuff that can elevate them to another level. The other similarity is their controllability, with Baz needing three more years to reach free agency and Rodriguez four.
“I think I had to hope that we would find a trade like this, but it's very hard to hang your hat on that happening,” said president of baseball operations/general manager Mike Elias. “The availability of these kind of guys is fleeting, and then you have to line up on trade. We knew we'd be out in the market for starting pitching, that was something that we were very confident in. And yeah, this is a trade that's going to benefit us for years with Shane, but 2026 and 2027, the first couple of years, they're a big part of that equation.”
Surrendering four prospects and a Competitive Balance Round A pick spoke again to the commitment to immediately contend again. Other teams were dangling major league players in exchange for Baz. The Orioles wanted to hold onto them.
“If we're bringing him in to help the team, and then in the trade return we're losing other parts of the team, it definitely takes away from the logic,” Elias said. “Not saying it's impossible to do a trade like that and maybe we do something later, but in our view, we were willing to put a lot of value on the table given that it was a few years off, in our eyes, from impacting the 2026 scene.”
* Baz might miss facing the Orioles.
The right-hander has allowed one earned run and four hits over 16 innings in three career starts against them, all at Camden Yards. His final appearance with Tampa Bay came against the Orioles on Sept. 24, when he tossed four scoreless and hitless innings.
The current roster is 4-for-41 against Baz. Gunnar Henderson is 2-for-5 with a home run. Adley Rutschman is 1-for-7 and Leody Taveras 1-for-3.
Among other newcomers, Pete Alonso is 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and Taylor Ward is 0-for-6 with two strikeouts, which wouldn’t have influenced manager Craig Albernaz’s lineups if Baz stayed with the Rays.
Neither would Tyler O’Neill being 0-for-6 with four strikeouts.
Baz won’t miss pitching in minor league ballparks. As I’ve mentioned, he posted a 5.90 ERA and 1.457 WHIP last season in 16 starts at George M. Steinbrenner Field. He also made a start at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, temporary home of the Athletics, and allowed four earned runs and five total in seven innings.
* MLB Pipeline had to adjust its Top 30 prospects list for the Orioles after outfielders Slater de Brun and Austin Overn, catcher Caden Bodine and right-hander Michael Forret were traded to Tampa Bay.
Catcher/first baseman Ethan Anderson, infielder Griff O’Ferrall, shortstop José Peña and catcher/first baseman Creed Willems enter the rankings. Anderson was a second-round pick in 2024 out of the University of Virginia. O’Ferrall was the 32nd-overall pick in the same class and the same school. Peña was the Orioles’ top international signing in January, receiving $1 million, and was ranked 47th in the 2025 class. Willems fell out of the Top 30 but is back.
Here are the updated rankings:
1 Samuel Basallo
2 Dylan Beavers
3 Ike Irish
4 Enrique Bradfield Jr.
5 Wehiwa Aloy
6 Esteban Mejia
7 Nate George
8 Boston Bateman
9 Trey Gibson
10 Juaron Watts-Brown
11 Nestor German
12 Braxton Bragg
13 Joseph Dzierwa
14 Colin Yeaman
15 Vance Honeycutt
16 Keeler Morfe
17 Stiven Martinez
18 Luis De Léon
19 Levi Wells
20 Patrick Reilly
21 Wilfri De La Cruz
22 Aron Estrada
23 Cobb Hightower
24 Jordan Sanchez
25 JT Quinn
26 Wellington Aracena
27 Ethan Anderson
28 Griff O’Ferrall
29 José Peña
30 Creed Willems
* Fix the college football playoff system and put the 12 best teams in it.
Outrageous concept, I know.
Blowout Saturday was more fun when I changed my daughter’s diapers on the weekends.
* Two of the biggest disappointments in the draft lottery at the Winter Meetings – the Orioles picking seventh, which kills any chance to select UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, the consensus No. 1, and the Rays finishing second.
Why the Rays? Because former outfielder Brett Phillips agreed to recreate his airplane celebration if they won the lottery. Phillies was repping Tampa Bay, while another former Oriole, low-key Hall of Famer Harold Baines, repped the White Sox.
Phillips, one of the funniest and most energetic personalities to ever wear a uniform, would have leaped out of his chair and circled the room with arms spread, just like he did the bases after his 2021 walk-off home run.
An opportunity lost.
* The Rockies reportedly have signed former Orioles infielder Vimael Machín to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.
Machín was a hitting machine in spring training and at Triple-A Norfolk, where he batted 286/.347/.476 with 28 doubles, 18 home runs and 79 RBIs in 124 games. He went 1-for-11 with a home run in four games with the Orioles, who didn’t have a position for him.
* The yearly reminder that I don’t care about your Hall of Fame ballot if you don’t have an actual vote. Go ahead and share it because it can spark some good debates. I’m just not that interested.
Don’t take it personally.
Also, no ballot is perfect. Not even yours.
* We also can expand that thought to include mock Orioles rotations. None of them are an absolute truth. It’s just opinion.
Except that I’m right when I say that Kyle Bradish is the No. 1 unless the Orioles go out and sign one of the top starters on the market. His overall body of work puts him ahead of Trevor Rogers’ 18 starts last season.
Baz is third behind Rogers, with Dean Kremer fourth and Tyler Wells fifth unless there’s some matchup-related reason to flip-flop Baz and Kremer.
It’s going to get real interesting when the Orioles bring in another starter to give them six. Wells will do whatever he’s told but prefers to start, and that’s how the Orioles will work him in camp, with the option to put him in the ‘pen after he’s stretched out.
* The best commercials are the Progressive Insurance ads with the backup quarterbacks summoned to replace an inept family member.
Teddy Bridgewater, Tyler Huntley, Tommy DeVito, Mitch Trubisky, Colt McCoy, Josh Dobbs. All of them are winners.
Bridgewater as the sensitive backup listener is my favorite.
“You need a partner, not a project.”
* Another piece of unfinished business for the Orioles involves left-hander Josh Walker, who was designated for assignment on Friday to make room for Baz on the 40-man roster.
Catchers Drew Romo and Maverick Handley brought opposite results. The Mets claimed Romo, and Handley cleared waivers and was outrighted.
Walker was designated for assignment on Nov. 6 and the Braves claimed him a week later. The Orioles claimed him Dec. 10 and went the DFA route again. They’d like to keep him around for lefty relief depth.
Continue to breathe normally.
* My favorite social media post of the weekend, from MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince:
“If I were a car salesman, I would push remote start as a good way to avoid getting blown up by the mob.”
