{"id":50523,"date":"2025-04-24T08:40:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T08:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=50523"},"modified":"2025-04-24T08:40:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T08:40:41","slug":"update-orioles-rodriguez-has-strained-lat-weeks-from-throwing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=50523","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Orioles’ Rodriguez has strained lat, weeks from throwing…."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

WASHINGTON —\u00a0Baltimore Orioles\u00a0right-hander\u00a0Grayson Rodriguez, who has been rehabbing from elbow inflammation, has a strained lat muscle and is a “couple of weeks” from resuming his throwing program, manager Brandon Hyde said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez started the season on the injured list because of the elbow issue, and a bullpen session scheduled for last week was canceled when he developed a sore shoulder. A second medical opinion sought after an MRI revealed the mild lat strain, Hyde said.<\/p>\n

\"Orioles'<\/p>\n

It’s a familiar injury for the 25-year-old Rodriguez. In 2022 while in the minors, Rodriguez missed three months with a lat strain, which delayed his major league debut until April 2023. In 2024, he was placed on the IL with a lat strain in August, finishing with 20 starts. He has made only 43 starts in two seasons, going 20-8 with a 4.11 ERA.<\/p>\n

“I’m trying to stay optimistic about it,” Hyde said. “He’s had a tough time staying healthy the last few years with lat strains. We were hoping that he starts throwing in a couple of weeks and (in) his progression that he stays healthy.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Right-hander Zach Eflin, the O’s opening day starter, also has been dealing with a lat strain. Eflin, who hasn’t pitched since April 7, has been cleared to return to the mound and will throw a side session Friday or Saturday, Hyde said.<\/p>\n

Coming off consecutive postseason appearances, Baltimore has had numerous injuries to starting pitchers:\u00a0Kyle Braddish\u00a0(Tommy John surgery) and\u00a0Tyler Wells\u00a0(UCL repair surgery) also started the season on the injured list and were joined by\u00a0Albert Suarez (right shoulder).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n
\n
\n

MLB 2025: Pitchers share stories of failed new pitches<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
\n
<\/picture><\/div>
Every ace wants to add something filthy to their arsenal. But even for elite pitchers such as Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, sometimes it just doesn’t work out.\u00a0Jeff Hanisch\/Imagn Image<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

BY ALL MEASURES<\/strong>, Detroit Tigers\u00a0left-hander\u00a0Tarik Skubal\u00a0throws a good slider. Particularly when complementing one of the best fastballs and changeups in the game, the pitch serves as an effective third offering with the velocity and movement profile to stand on its own. There’s just one problem with it, according to the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner.<\/p>\n

It’s not the slider he wants.<\/p>\n

That version belongs to\u00a0Clayton Kershaw, the future Hall of Famer whose tight, late-breaking slider has propelled him to the best career ERA of any starting pitcher in more than a century. Skubal reveres Kershaw’s slider, coveting it to the point he will spend entire offseasons fiddling with grips, finger pressure, wrist positioning and every other trick of the trade in hopes that the movement profiles spit out by a Trackman unit mirror Kershaw’s.<\/p>\n

They never do.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been trying to get Kershaw’s slider for four or five years and I can’t get it. I just can’t get it,” Skubal said. “So it’s frustrating. But at the same time, the beauty of the sport is you’re just one cue away from getting the pitch shape you want or getting the velocity.”<\/p>\n

Every spring, dozens of pitchers arrive at camp with new pitches, eager to take the seedling they planted in a pitching lab and hope it blossoms against live hitters as the season beckons. A new pitch can alter the trajectory of a player’s career, turning him into, well, someone like Skubal. New-pitch success stories are now almost a rite of spring training, the upshot of a data-driven pitching world in which players A\/B test their capability to replicate the pitches they admire most before bringing them to a game already tipped in their favor.<\/p>\n

Pitchers are perhaps the most talented and capable movers in all of sports, aligning their bodies to project a five-ounce ball 60 feet, 6 inches to a box 17 inches wide and around 24 inches tall. Their awareness of where their limbs are in space, their feel for the ball and its seams, their ability to capably manipulate everything such that they can marry velocity, spin and deception — it’s like a chef who finds perfect balance among saltiness, sweetness and spiciness.<\/p>\n

The only taste left on Skubal’s palate by his slider is bitterness. It’s not just the Kershaw slider that vexes him, either.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been trying to throw a sweeper for three years,” Skubal said, “but I can’t get the ball to sweep.”<\/p>\n

Stories like these, of the pitches that don’t work out, are told far less often than the successes that permeate Pitching Ninja’s sizzle reels. These failures are the banes of pitchers’ existence, nemeses that invite fury and frustration.<\/p>\n

Skubal’s coaches remind their ace that he’s doing just fine. The 28-year-old was the best pitcher in Major League Baseball in 2024, and so far this season his stuff is grading out even better by pitching metrics. Skubal could spend the rest of his career throwing his current slider and remain among the elite, a true ace in a game with few.<\/p>\n

“I’m like, dude, I know. But I’m so f—ing close to getting something really good,” Skubal said. “I’m just waiting for the right grip and the right cue to come through. And I’m going to get it.”<\/p>\n

COLLECTING NEW PITCHES<\/strong>\u00a0isn’t just about having a trick to pull out and impress the rest of the staff or to earn social media notoriety. It’s a requisite for modern success. Gone are the days of the two-pitch starter. The three-pitch starter is an endangered species. Even four pitches are often no longer enough. With rare exceptions, the best starting pitchers in 2025 throw at least five pitches. To understand the proliferation of pitchability, one need only look at the number of pitches thrown by the 10 starters with the lowest ERAs since 2024.<\/p>\n

Paul Skenes: 6
\nSkubal: 5
\nHunter Greene: 4
\nZack Wheeler: 6
\nShota Imanaga: 5
\nChris Sale: 4
\nMichael King: 4
\nMax Fried: 6
\nBryce Miller: 5
\nCorbin Burnes: 5<\/p>\n

It goes far beyond the best pitchers in the sport. Almost every pitcher (Burnes is the outlier) throws four- and two-seam fastballs. Each has at least one pitch that bends, and in some cases multiple. There’s usually a changeup of some variety — and often two, with different grips and movement profiles.<\/p>\n

Seth Lugo\u00a0has taken the process of adding pitches to an unmatched extreme. The\u00a0Kansas City Royals\u00a0right-hander estimates he throws 11 different pitches and has three unique sliders. Behind him, the six-pitch club includes\u00a0Yoshinobu Yamamoto,\u00a0Spencer Schwellenbach,\u00a0Nathan Eovaldi\u00a0and\u00a0Sonny Gray. Among the five-pitch cohort:\u00a0Cole Ragans,\u00a0Framber Valdez,\u00a0Logan Gilbert,\u00a0Aaron Nola,\u00a0Zac Gallen, Mackenzie Gore,\u00a0Nick Pivetta\u00a0and\u00a0Garrett Crochet, who as recently as two years ago threw only a fastball and slider.<\/p>\n