Orioles' Adley Rutschman, baseball's top prospect, shut down 2-3 weeks with triceps injury
The odds are now greatly against Rutschman making Baltimore's Opening Day roster

Some relatively depressing news from Orioles camp: Top prospect Adley Rutschman has been shut down, due to a triceps strain, and is expected to miss 2-3 weeks of action, per manager Brandon Hyde (via Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun). It seems Rutschman woke up Saturday after some work on Friday with a sore right elbow (his throwing arm).
As noted, this is a bummer.
With some items in the new collective bargaining agreement being designed to discourage service-time manipulation, the hope across baseball was some of the top prospects -- like Rutschman, Spencer Torkelson of the Tigers and Bobby Witt of the Royals -- would be in opening day lineups and possibly get a full season of work at the MLB level.
Rutschman is the top prospect in baseball. CBS Sports prospect guru R.J. Anderson ranked him No. 1 this past offseason and said the following:
Rutschman, the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft, is on the precipice of stardom. Evaluators have maintained that he would someday feature four plus or better tools (everything but the speed), as well as an excellent feel for the strike zone and field-general qualities. Rutschman, a switch-hitter, has lived up to expectations. He batted .312/.405/.490 in 43 games at Triple-A, suggesting the only thing standing between him and the majors is the Orioles' desire to suppress his wages. Even they won't be able to hold down Rutschman for long; he's the future of the catcher position.
Opening day for the Orioles is three weeks from Friday, so it's extremely unlikely Rutschman makes that start now, if it was really ever on the table. Perhaps Orioles fans can hold out hope for three days later on April 11, the home opener, though that seems almost as unlikely.
At some point in 2022, we'll see Rutschman debut with the big-league Orioles, but Wednesday's news was a setback.
















