Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but the Orioles need everything to go right in order to compete this season, and their rotation’s most promising arm has been shut down with shoulder tendonitis. So… that’s fun.
The injury could be devastating, or it could be much ado about nothing. The club is pointedly optimistic. Manager Buck Showalter, who initially said he hoped Kevin Gausman would avoid the Disabled List (DL), now says a more realistic timetable is the second week of the season. The Orioles compare this injury to the one that sidelined Gausman for six weeks, early in the 2015 season.