Just weeks after adding an ace to the top of their starting rotation, the Baltimore Orioles had to put one on the injured list. Right-hander Kyle Bradish, one of the breakout stars of Baltimore’s run to an AL East title last season, suffered a UCL sprain in his throwing elbow and will begin the 2024 campaign on the injured list.
Kyle Bradish will start the season on the IL with a sprained UCL. He got a PRP shot and will begin throwing progression tomorrow
— Danielle Allentuck (@d_allentuck) February 15, 2024
The fact that Bradish has already received a platelet-rich plasma shot — basically, an injection of a patient’s own blood cells to stimulate healing in a given area — and is far enough along in his recovery to begin a throwing program suggests that the strain occurred at some point in December or January, although the team wouldn’t confirm when exactly he suffered the injury.
The first question with elbow injuries is always whether or not they’ll eventually require Tommy John surgery. The O’s don’t expect Bradish to go under the knife, but his timeline for return appears to be very much up in the air — with GM Mike Elias saying only that the plan was for Bradish to still pitch this season.
“Our plans are to get him pitching for 2024,” GM Mike Elias told the Baltimore Banner on Thursday. “Pitching is a dangerous business nowadays. You never like to hear anybody have elbow or shoulder or wrist injuries, or what have you, but there are a lot of people who have them and never have to get surgery and rest and other treatments do the trick. So, hopefully that’s where we’re at with this one.”
Elias added that the team wanted to bring Bradish along “as expeditiously and responsibly as possible,” and that while he refused to put a specific timetable on the process, “there’s going to be some time involved.” A cautious throwing program figures to keep Bradish out of spring training games for at least the time being, and he’ll need ramp-up time before returning to the rotation even if all goes well.
No matter how much of the regular season he misses, it’ll be a big blow to the Orioles’ hopes of repeating in the East: After showing flashes of brilliance in 2022, Bradish came into his own as a frontline starter last year, pitching to a 2.83 ERA with a 1.043 WHIP in 168.2 innings. He and Grayson Rodriguez were penciled in as the team’s No. 2 and 3 starters behind the newly-acquired Corbin Burnes, forming among the most talented rotation trios in the AL.
Of course, Burnes and Rodriguez are still a formidable duo, but losing Bradish hampers the team’s pitching depth considerably — as does the news that John Means is a month behind schedule in his recovery from Tommy John complications, throwing his status for Opening Day in doubt. Baltimore has options to turn to, from the returning Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells and Cole Irvin to prospects like Chayce McDermott, Seth John and Cade Povich. But none of them have Bradish’s upside, and Wells and Irvin struggled mightily down the stretch of 2023. The O’s have the talent, in both their rotation and their lineup, to weather the storm for a few weeks while Bradish and Means get healthy. If their long-term status is thrown into doubt, however, it’s hard to imagine them making a deep run in the postseason.
