Injury Update: Orioles’ Pitcher To Start 2024 Season On IL With Sprained UCL, Orioles Injury News puts Rotation in Precarious Situation
The Baltimore Orioles have suffered a huge blow with news that Kyle Bradish will miss the beginning of the 2024 season due to injury. Orioles general manager Mike Elias announced the news on Thursday. Bradish is sidelined with a sprained UCL and will start the year on the injured list.
Elias did not provide a definitive return date but remained optimistic about Bradish’s rehabilitation.
“Right now, we’re prepping him for a lot of action in 2024,” said Elias.
In only his second year in the majors, Kyle Bradish showed tremendous progress to finish with a 12-7 record and a 2.83 ERA. The 27-year-old righty had 168 strikeouts, a 1.04 WHIP and held opposing hitter to a .215 average. He allowed just 14 home runs over 168.2 total innings.
Bradish’s exemplary season did not go unnoticed with the starting pitcher finishing fourth in the American League CY Young vote behind only Gerrit Cole, Sonny Gray and Kevin Gausman. It was a major milestone for a player who has only started 53 games in his young major league career.
The Orioles looked to starters Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer to eat up a chunk of innings early in the year as they look to make another playoff push. The team is littered with talent on the offensive side with stars like Adley Rutschman, Austin Hays, Gunnar Henderson, Jorge Mateo and Ryan Mountcastle all set to return.
Baltimore qualified for the postseason for the first time in seven years last season after finishing with an 101-61 record to win the AL East.
Orioles injury news puts rotation in precarious situation
Baltimore Orioles fans were dealt some rough injury news on starting pitchers Kyle Bradish and John Means on Thursday, putting the rotation in a precarious situation.
The Orioles have a new ace after landing former NL Cy Young award winner Corbin Burnes in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers at the beginning of February, but after that, there are some question marks in the starting five.
Bradish was arguably Baltimore’s best starter last season, going 12-7 with the top ERA (2.83) of the unit and recording the most strikeouts on the team (168).
Bradish also posted a 1.04 WHIP across 168 2/3 innings pitched (30 starts) and per ESPN’s Jeff Passan, had the best second-half ERA among AL starters (2.34). He finished fourth in the league’s Cy Young voting in what was only his second season.
Means was limited to just four starts at the end of the 2023 regular season as the team’s former ace made his long-awaited return to action in September after not having pitched since April 2022.
The southpaw suffered an elbow strain early in the 2022 campaign and subsequently underwent Tommy John surgery. Means went 1-2 with a 2.66 ERA, 0.71 WHIP and registered 10 strikeouts over 23 2/3 innings pitched in 2023.
The former 46th-round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves was stellar in his 2019 rookie season, going 12-11 with a 3.60 ERA and 1.13 WHIP while striking out 121 batters across 155 innings pitched. Means made his lone All-Star team that year and finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.
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