SARASOTA, Fla. — Brandon Hyde said one of Grayson Rodriguez’s goals in 2025 was to make more than 30 starts for the Orioles. The news Hyde relayed Sunday all but confirmed that goal won’t be achieved.

The Orioles are shutting down Rodriguez from throwing after he recently received a cortisone shot in his throwing elbow. The right-hander’s hiatus will be between seven and 10 days, after which he will begin a throwing program, Hyde said.

Rodriguez will begin the season on the injured list, but when he’s able to return depends on how his elbow responds to the cortisone shot and the throwing progression.

“The timeline after, I’m not really sure at this point,” Hyde said. “We’ll see how it goes. We’re going to give him a week to not throw, let the cortisone do what it does.”

What the cortisone does is reduce inflammation. Hyde said again it’s the back of Rodriguez’s elbow — rather than the medial part — that is causing the pitcher discomfort after his spring training start last week.

“We’re hoping he responds well to it and he’s able to start throwing again here in a week to two weeks,” Hyde said.

Rodriguez, 25, opened camp with a plan to dial back his velocity during his first few starts, but the radar gun readings from his outing Wednesday still raised concern.

He averaged only 93.2 mph on his fastball — down about 3 mph from his 2024 average — and even threw one at 89.5 mph.

After the start, Rodriguez said he felt “sluggish” and “flat,” but he didn’t report having an injury until the next day when he told the club he was dealing with triceps soreness. After testing, it was determined he had inflammation at the back of his elbow near where the joint attaches to the triceps muscle.

While anything is possible with pitchers and elbow injuries, Rodriguez’s situation appears to be different from what Kyle Bradish dealt with last spring.

Bradish received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow to help heal a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament. After making his way back in May, Bradish started only eight games before eventually injuring his elbow again and receiving Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery. Exactly what Rodriguez is dealing with in his elbow remains unclear, but Hyde said Friday it was “not a ligament issue.”

The injury is the latest for the former top prospect whose early part of his career has been slightly derailed by ailments. His big league call-up in 2022 was delayed because of a lat muscle strain. After a healthy 2023, he spent time on the IL in May 2024 with shoulder inflammation and then missed the final two months of the season with a teres major muscle strain.

Either Albert Suárez or Cade Povich will replace Rodriguez in the Orioles’ rotation to begin the season. But Rodriguez’s tantalizing upside will once again have to wait, this time at least a few months.

“We need to get him healthy,” Hyde said. “That’s the bottom line. He’s really important to us. Hopefully he comes back as soon as possible.”

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