Adley Rutschman Injury Update: When Will Catcher Return to Orioles?

The Baltimore Orioles were dealt a major blow in June when catcher Adley Rutschman went down with a left oblique strain. Orioles fans and fantasy baseball owners are now wondering when Rutschman will return and be back behind the plate. We will deliver a Rutschman injury update below, and look at a potential return date for the Orioles backstop.

🚑 When will Adley Rutschman return and be back with Orioles?

Rutschman is owned in 91 percent of Yahoo fantasy baseball leagues. Couple that with the fact that he is a catcher, and this has proven to be a brutal stretch for Rutschman fantasy owners.

Rutschman will likely return in the month of July, but it could very well be towards the latter half. The 27-year-old Oregon native just recently started playing catch again and will soon start swinging a bat again, barring any setbacks.

“Usually when you have an oblique [injury], when you have one of those, it’s usually the thing that caused it,” said Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino, via MASN. “So, if you’re throwing, it’s going to be hard to throw. If you’re hitting it’s going to be hard to hit. So it’s not abnormal to see him throw first and not bother it. The next step will be swinging a bat.

“I think it will probably slow down a tick once he starts swinging the bat, but I do think we’re pretty optimistic that this will be on kind of the front end of what the estimate was in terms of the return."

The injury looks to be a Grade 2 oblique strain, which has a typical recovery time of 4-6 weeks. Rutschman has already been out two weeks. Baltimore’s first game after the MLB All-Star break will take place on Friday, July 18 against the Tampa Bay Rays. That would be four weeks and one day from when Rutschman last played. 

One can bet that the Orioles will use an abundance of caution with this injury, so it’s more likely that we see Rutschman back the following week. Here is a look at the Orioles’ schedule around the time that we project Rutschman to return to the Baltimore lineup.

• Monday, July 21: Baltimore Orioles at Cleveland Guardians
• Tuesday, July 22: Baltimore Orioles at Cleveland Guardians
• Wednesday, July 23: Baltimore Orioles at Cleveland Guardians
• Thursday, July 24: Baltimore Orioles at Cleveland Guardians
• Friday, July 25: Colorado Rockies at Baltimore Orioles
• Saturday, July 26: Colorado Rockies at Baltimore Orioles
• Sunday, July 27: Colorado Rockies at Baltimore Orioles

⏳ How long will Adley Rutschman be out for?

There are some recent and decent comps for Rutschman and this sort of injury. Fellow MLB catchers Tyler Stephenson (Cincinnati Reds) and Shea Langeliers (Athletics) both suffered oblique strains earlier this season. Stephenson was out with the injury for 49 days, and Langeliers was out for 25 days.

If Rutschman returns on July 21, like projected above, he would be out for 32 days. That would be around the middle of the recovery times for Stephenson and Langeliers.

💰 Orioles betting odds

Our best MLB betting sites show the Orioles with long-shot +21000 World Series odds. This comes as no surprise considering that Baltimore resides in the basement of the American League East.

The O’s currently have a regular season win total projection of 74.5 wins, with juice on the Under.