Why the O’s Still See Superstar Potential in Nacogdoches’ Own Grayson Rodriguez

The MLB regular season is over with and the playoffs are set to begin on Tuesday with the Tigers v Guardians and Padres v Cubs. However, while some teams and fan bases are geared up for a World Series run, others are disappointed after a long season of failure.

Maybe the team with the most disappointed fanbase is the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles made the playoffs in back to back seasons, then things just kind of fell apart for them in 2025. One of the biggest things holding them back were injuries - including to Nacogdoches, TX star Grayson Rodriguez.

Can the Central Heights Star Bounce Back in 2026?

Grayson Rodriguez is a former 1st Round pick for the Orioles and was set to be a staple in the O's starting pitching rotation this season. However, an injury forced Grayson to miss all of 2025.

His first 3 season as a big leaguer have been marred by injury. He only made 20 starts in 2024 and none in 2025. However, when he has been available, he's pitched well. He's 20-8 over his first 43 career starts. So, if he can bounce back and stay healthy in 2026, he could help push the Orioles back to the top of the AL East.

READ MORE: Grayson Rodriguez Undergoes Surgery

O's Haven't Given Up on Grayson Rodriguez

I would imagine after dealing with injury after injury, Grayson has to be feeling not great right now from baseball perspective. The guy, in my opinion, has exactly what you want out of a starting pitcher: great work ethic, bulldog mentality, killer fastball. But, unfortunately, his body hasn't held up during his first 3 seasons.

But, if there's one silver lining here, the Orioles haven't given up on him. In fact, during today's end of season press conference, the O's President of Baseball operations had a lot of positive things to say about Grayson:

While Elias is still looking at and hoping for a healthy season out of Grayson, it does feel like he's set to lose his position at the front of the rotation.

During the same press conference, Elias said that he wants to add a "strong front half of the rotation guy" to add to Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers.

But, this may not be the worst thing in the world. Gives time for Grayson to fully recover from his injury and build back up instead of being thrown out there in high leverage spots where he's expected to go 6 or 7 innings. Putting him in the back end of the rotation could take some of the pressure off while he tries to get back to where he was in 2024 before the injuries piled up on him.