BALTIMORE — For the Orioles sake, lets hope us fans don't rue the day they traded Grayson Rodriguez to the Angels.
Granted, Rodriguez has been injury prone during his short big league career.
The 26-year-old missed all of last season with shoulder inflammation and a lat strain.
Shoulder problems sidelined him for a chunk of the 2024 campaign as well.
Lets not forget that same season, in the 20 games he did start, Rodriguez notched a 13-4 record with a sub-4 ERA.
Assuming Rodriguez would be ready to go at the start of 2026, he would've been part of a formidable 123 punch atop a starting rotation that includes Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish.
Not to mention, Rodriguez was under team control through 2029, whereas Taylor Ward, the 31-year-old outfielder the O's got in return, is entering his final year of arbitration, meaning he'll become a free agent years before Rodriguez.
While there's no dispute Ward provides much needed pop at the plate, his .228 batting average and 175 strikeouts last season are highly concerning.
Personally, I'm skeptical why the team would sacrifice homegrown starting pitching, which is hard to come by, to acquire a player that's five-years older, whose likely already hit his ceiling, and quite possibly won't even be here after next season.
In my humble opinion Ward sounds like another Tyler O'Neill type of situation.
O'Neill was signed to a three-year, nearly $50 million deal for his power. Unfortunately the injury plagued outfielder had a disastrous 2025 season, batting under .200 with just nine home runs.
Although Ward's proven to be a lot more durable than O'Neill, he could still cost the team nearly $14 million in 2026.
Why not allocate that money towards a more proven talent like Kyle Tucker?
I guess giving up on a 2018 first round draft pick like Rodriguez, just a few years removed from being ranked one of baseball's best prospects, seems a bit premature.
That's my two cents. Here's to hoping I'm wrong!
