A day that saw the Orioles release their 2026 schedule ended with Birdland going to sleep dreaming about Kyle Bradish leading the rotation next year.
It’s been a mostly gloomy, disappointing season from the hometown nine — yes, injuries were of huge factor. But Bradish’s return stands out as one of the brightest moments of the season, as does every Trevor Rogers start.
We all know what Bradish meant to the 101-win team in 2023 and what his elbow injury meant to the club in the second half of 2024 and most of 2025. It all made for a highly anticipated return start against the Red Sox for No. 38.
Bradish was amped up to be back on a major league mound for the first time in 14 months. But aside from two bad pitches hit out of the park by Trevor Story and David Hamilton, Bradish’s six innings were top-notch stuff.
All told, Bradish threw 81 pitches (51 strikes). He did not walk a batter and struck out 10. Even though he threw 90 pitches in his last rehab start, there was a thought before the game that the club might play it safe and give him a five-inning limit.
Asked after the game if he wanted to come back out for the sixth, Bradish was emphatic.
“I felt great, even after the sixth inning,” he said. “I feel like I responded every inning. Arm felt really good throughout the outing. Definitely wanted that sixth inning and felt really good after it.”
Asked if he felt he had any things to work on, he answered, “There’s always room to improve no matter who you are or what you’ve been doing. Like we saw today, there were two ambush pitches. They put good swings on two bad pitches, so it kind of put it in perspective that you can’t really take a pitch off up here.”
Battery mate Alex Jackson was asked if he would have thought Bradish was making his first start back from Tommy John surgery if he didn’t know any better.
“The stuff he has is unbelievable,” Jackson said. “For his first start back, that’s really impressive what he was able to do.”
Not to put the cart before the horse but suddenly the idea of the club acquiring a top-tier starter to go along with Bradish and Rogers certainly has us all thinking about the opening of the 2026 season on March 26 at Camden Yards.
In due time we’ll know how GM Mike Elias is going to plot to get this overall pitching staff up to the task of competing for a deep playoff run next season.
But right now, no matter who Elias adds to the top of his rotation and hires as manager, there is very good reason to believe that Bradish has put his hand up for wanting that ball against the Twins in next year’s opener.
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