A Tuesday night trade took away one Angel in the outfield.
The Angels added right-handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez in a deal with the Orioles in exchange for outfielder Taylor Ward.
Rodriguez missed all of the 2025 season due to an ongoing elbow injury that eventually led to him having surgery in August.
The righty pitched in 43 games — all starts — for the Orioles after making his big league debut in 2023.
In that span, he’s registered a 4.11 ERA and struck out 259 batters while compiling a 20-8 record. Rodriguez, a former top prospect, is still under team control through 2029.
From the sounds of Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias last week at the GM meetings in Las Vegas, it didn’t appear that Baltimore envisioned big plans for Rodriguez in 2026.
“You miss a year and two months, we’ve got to be realistic about that, and it’s not something that we’re planning around very heavily. But he’s a guy that provides a real wild card for us talent-wise,” Elias said, according to MLB.com’s Jake Rill.
“Planning around that is something that we’ve got to hedge against,” Elias added. “But it would be awesome to have him show up and pitch for us the way that he’s capable of, and I think there’s a really good chance that that happens.”
Rumors circulated about Ward possibly being moved by the Angels, with the outfielder entering his final year of team control.
Ward hit .228/.317/.475 with 36 home runs and 103 RBIs in 157 games with the Angels in 2025.
