Baltimore Orioles: Grayson Rodriguez impressive in MLB debut

For the last few weeks, I have had tickets for yesterday’s game in Arlington, Texas, featuring the Texas Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles. When the Rangers announced their rotation to start the season, I knew that it was likely that I would get to see Jacob deGrom pitch. What I didn’t know until Tuesday night unofficially, and officially Wednesday morning, was that top 10 prospect in all of baseball, Grayson Rodriguez, would be making his MLB debut for the Orioles.

This was like hitting the Cy Young champ, meets top prospect lottery. Neither of the pitchers disappointed. Rodriguez could have easily been intimidated by the task of matching up against deGrom, but he didn’t back down one bit. Why should he, when he boasts a fast ball that sits at 97mph with movement and a plus plus slider, along with a solid changeup and an improving curveball?

The fact that Rodriguez is from Nacogdoches, Texas (located about three hours from Arlington), meant that there was a large crowd of family and friends. The majority of them were sitting a few rows in front of me and slightly closer to the visiting dugout. There was much excitement and nervous energy among the group.

Grayson Rodriguez made his major league debut for the Baltimore Orioles

The 23-year-old, 6-foot-5, 230-pound Rodriguez seemed a bit off to start the game and was having some issues with his command. He walked the first batter he faced in Marcus Semien after going to a full count. The inning had the feeling of what was going to be a quick debut for the young hurler. A hard double by Adolis Garcia and a well-placed single by Josh Jung scored the first two runs of the game. Not only did Rodriguez find himself in an early 2-0 hole, but all three outs of the inning were recorded on hard contact, and he had to use 30 pitches just to get through the first.

A lessor competitor could have folded and cashed it in. That is not what Rodriguez did. The 11th pick of the first round of the 2018 draft, was not giving in that easily. Over the course of the next four innings, Rodriguez only gave up two more hits, struck out five, walked none, allowed no more runs, on only 53 pitches.

Particulary impressive was how he handled the third inning. With the top of the order up, Marcus Semien had an ‘excuse-me’ infield hit to third baseman Gunnar Henderson. Henderson should have stuck the ball in his pocket, but instead threw the ball away allowing Semien to advance to second with nobody out. Rodriguez stayed composed and quickly struck out Corey Seager before getting both Nathaniel Lowe and Garcia to ground out and end the inning unscathed.

Grayson Rodriguez is a name that we have been hearing for a while now and to be able to witness his MLB debut was a treat. It is fun to watch young prospects and their families that have sacrificed so much to get to that point, be able to celebrate that first big-league game. It is one start, but there is no reason that Rodriguez can’t become a fixture in the Orioles rotation for many years to come.