The Orioles are riding a hot streak into the summer, but the injury report is starting to look like a bigger story than the win column. Ryan Helsley, the two-time All-Star closer Baltimore is paying $28 million for, has been moved to the 60-day injured list with right elbow discomfort, officially shutting him down for the foreseeable future.
Orioles Transfer Ryan Helsley To 60-Day IL, Select Sam Huff t.co/wGWfIpX2cs
This isn't Helsley's first trip to the IL this year, either. He already missed time from May 1 through June 16 with elbow inflammation, came back, and then felt discomfort again warming up during a game against the White Sox in early July. The silver lining: an MRI showed no UCL tear, just inflammation around the ligament, so this reads as a shutdown-and-rest situation rather than a Tommy John scare. Still, the 60-day designation means Helsley can't return before August 29 at the earliest, which effectively wipes out most of the stretch run for Baltimore's bullpen boss.
The corresponding move was calling Sam Huff back up from Triple-A Norfolk, and that's where the story doubles up. Huff wasn't summoned to patch a bullpen problem, he was summoned because Baltimore's catching room caught fire on the same day. Adley Rutschman sat out with left wrist discomfort, and his fill-in, Samuel Basallo, exited early with a shoulder issue that reportedly had been lingering before it flared up.
Sam Huff returns to the active roster as the #Orioles are suddenly dealing with a banged-up catching corps: t.co/K17o8TAh4J
That leaves Baltimore's active roster looking a lot different than it did a week ago: a bullpen without its closer through most of August, and a catching depth chart that went from a 21-year-old rookie and an All-Star to a scramble in the span of one game against Houston. Andrew Kittredge and Yennier Cano figure to soak up high-leverage innings in Helsley's absence, while Huff buys time behind the plate until Rutschman and Basallo get clearance.
None of this derails a team that's been winning games, but it changes how the Orioles have to play down the stretch. Losing a closer for the better part of six weeks means every one-run game gets tighter, and thin catching depth is the kind of thing that quietly costs teams at-bats and framing runs nobody notices until the standings tighten up in September.