The Angels activated Grayson Rodriguez on May 17, 2026, and cleared the right-hander to make his long-awaited return against the Dodgers on Sunday. In the corresponding move, the team optioned Alek Manoah to Triple-A.
Rodriguez’s first major league appearance since July 31, 2024, has been a long time coming. The Angels announced him as their scheduled starter on May 16, but his debut was delayed by a shoulder inflammation and dead arm soreness that sent him to the 15-day injured list to open the 2026 season.
The 26-year-old arrived in Anaheim carrying much more than a brief spring setback. He missed all of the 2025 season because of a lat strain, multiple episodes of elbow soreness and elbow debridement surgery last August, leaving the Angels to wait through a year in which he did not pitch in the majors or minors.
When Rodriguez was healthy in the 2024 season, he gave a reminder of why the Angels pursued him. He posted a 3.86 ERA with a 26.5 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 percent walk rate over 116 2/3 innings for the Orioles, a workload that made him one of the more intriguing young starters available. Baltimore traded him to Los Angeles last November in a one-for-one deal for Taylor Ward, and the Angels control him through 2029.
His return also comes at a time when the rotation still has holes. Yusei Kikuchi remained sidelined at least through May because of shoulder inflammation, leaving the Angels short on depth even as Rodriguez comes back into the mix. That made the timing of Sunday’s start more important than a simple roster move; it was a chance to see whether a club that has spent months patching together innings could finally get one of its more important arms back on the mound.
There is still a layer of caution around the pitching staff beyond Rodriguez. Ben Joyce’s rehab assignment was slowed by discomfort in his surgically repaired right shoulder, though an MRI came back clean. Joyce said they got a little flare-up and that it is part of the process after shoulder surgery, adding that the results were positive and that nothing structurally was wrong, only that he was working through some soreness.
For Rodriguez, the first test is simple and immediate: whether he can stay on the mound after nearly two years without a major league game. For the Angels, the bigger question is whether his return can finally give a thin rotation some stability, starting Sunday against a rival that does not leave much room for warmup innings.
