After replacing the injured Kyle Bradish in the Baltimore Orioles starting rotation, rookie and top O's pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez delivered a strong major league debut, going five innings while giving up four hits and two earned runs against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.
Per Alex Fast of MASN, Rodriguez had 14 swings-and-misses on the day, eight of which came on the fastball.
It was a promising debut for Rodriguez, who really struggled in spring training. He had an ERA of 7.04 in just over 15 innings of work, failing to make the rotation out of spring. He was sent to AAA Norfolk out of the gate but was recalled Tuesday night to replace Bradish, who was injured on Monday night by a comebacker.
Rodriguez allowed both of his runs in the bottom of the first inning, giving up an RBI double to Adolis Garcia and an RBI single to Josh Jung.
From that point forward, he threw four scoreless innings and delivered highlights like striking out Corey Seager twice, Mitch Garver and Jonah Heim. Ezekiel Duran was the first strikeout of his career.
Rodriguez is now the Orioles number one overall prospect, ahead of Jackson Holliday. Rodriguez was taken No. 11 in the 2018 draft out of the Texas high school ranks.
From his MLB.com player profile:
"Rodriguez has an outstanding four-pitch mix with the chance to have at least three plus pitches in his repertoire. His high-spin fastball touches triple digits, can sit easily in the mid-to-upper 90s deep into starts, and he throws the pitch with plus life. He might have the best changeup in the Minors, a mid-80s off-speed pitch that he tunnels well off his fastball to create deception and hard, late life. He misses bats with his mid-80s slider, and even his fourth pitch, a tighter low-80s curve, has improved."
At the time of this posting, the Orioles trailed 4-2.
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