CHICAGO — Baltimore Orioles right-hander Zach Eflin, who is sidelined with right elbow discomfort, is getting a second opinion and has been transferred to the 60-day injured list, the team said Tuesday.
“The way it’s trending, 60-day makes a ton of sense,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said before Tuesday’s game at the Chicago White Sox.
Eflin, who turns 32 on Wednesday, was abruptly pulled after 3⅔ innings in his first start against the Texas Rangers on March 31.
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He was part of an injury-riddled Orioles rotation in 2025 and re-signed with the team for $10 million in the offseason. He landed on the injured list three times in 2025 because of lat and back ailments and finished 6-5 with a 5.93 ERA in 14 starts.
In other moves, the Orioles optioned right-hander Brandon Young to Triple-A Norfolk and also acquired left-hander Nick Raquet in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals.
The 27-year-old Young pitched five scoreless innings in Monday’s 2-1 win over the White Sox. He was brought up from Norfolk to fill in for Eflin after Cade Povich, Baltimore’s first option for the start, worked 5⅔ innings in long relief Sunday at Pittsburgh.
“B.Y. stepping up, giving us five innings of shutout baseball was exactly what we needed,” Albernaz said. “It just speaks to our starting pitching depth.”
The addition of the 30-year-old Raquet, who was designated for assignment by the Cardinals on Sunday, gives the Orioles another lefty in the bullpen. Baltimore sent minor league second baseman Brayden Smith to the Cardinals for Raquet, a third-round pick in the 2017 amateur draft.
“You can never have enough left-handed pitching, especially relievers,” Albernaz said. “You love the strike-throwing ability he has shown. … So the biggest thing for us right now is to get him acclimated. He hasn’t thrown in a little bit, so we want to make sure that he gets outside, plays catch and touches the mound and we’ll kind of go from there.”
Raquet made his major league debut last year, tossing two scoreless innings for the Cardinals in September. He was 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in two relief appearances for Triple-A Peoria this season, last pitching on Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
