26 August 2023
When Aaron Hicks joined the Orioles after several years with the New York Yankees, the veteran outfielder was grateful for the opportunity a new organization would give him. He was also thankful he no longer had to step in the batter’s box against Kyle Bradish.
“He looked at Bradish,” Baltimore catcher James McCann recalled, “and he’s like, ‘That’s the guy that I don’t want to face. There’s a lot of good arms on this team, but that’s the guy.’
“The weapons he has to put you away with, it’s safe to say he’s a No. 1.”
The Orioles fell short in their pursuits of an ace this offseason and at the trade deadline, but it turns out they did acquire a top-of-the-rotation starter — in 2019.
Bradish was considered the centerpiece among the four minor league pitchers Baltimore acquired in the December 2019 deal that sent starting pitcher Dylan Bundy to the Los Angeles Angels. But there were doubts in the industry about his starting potential; Baseball America didn’t have Bradish among the Orioles’ top 30 prospects entering 2020.
But at their alternate training site amid the coronavirus shutdown that year, Bradish showed that he was on par with top young arms Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall. Three years later, he’s shown he can stand among the best pitchers in the game.
Bradish will enter Saturday’s start against the Colorado Rockies a third of an inning shy of ranking second among all qualified American League starters in ERA, with the 26-year-old right-hander posting a 3.03 mark thus far in his second major league season. By one advanced metric that measures the quality of a pitcher’s repertoire, there is no nastier pitcher in the AL. He’s positioned himself as the favorite to be the Orioles’ Game 1 starter come the postseason.
“His stuff is insane,” Baltimore first baseman Ryan Mountcastle said. “Just even watching it from the field, it just looks super nasty, and he’s throwing it all for strikes. He’s got a bunch of different pitches that move all different sorts of directions and velocity. I feel like he’s got it all.”
Bradish said he hasn’t made massive adjustments to fuel this year’s success. Most came last season as his major league career got off to a troublesome beginning. Through his first 10 major league starts, Bradish had a 7.38 ERA with opposing hitters batting .339 and slugging .566 against him before he landed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.
He used that downtime as a “reset,” both mentally and physically. Bradish had a 3.28 ERA in 13 starts after rejoining Baltimore’s rotation, along the way beginning to pitch exclusively out of the stretch, moving across the pitching rubber to the first-base side and integrating a sinker into his repertoire.
That pitch has become a vital part of Bradish’s mix. No AL pitcher’s slider of similar velocity moves horizontally as much as Bradish’s does, and with his mid-90s four-seam fastball having natural cut, his two main offerings moved away from right-handed hitters. The sinker breaks in, preventing batters from looking to one side of the plate when facing him, and last month, Bradish added more arm-side horizontal movement to the pitch by switching from a two-seamer to a one-seam grip. Since he introduced the sinker last September, righties are hitting .218 against him.
“It just gives me more confidence,” Bradish said. “Adds another weapon that I know I can throw, and if I locate it, usually going to get the result that I want from it.”
It’s one of several ways Bradish’s challenging 2022 has helped him excel in 2023. He’s been able to reflect on those experiences and grow from them, a mindset McCann said will continue to benefit him going forward. McCann also noted the value provided by Bradish’s ability to work both east-to-west and north-to-south; almost 70% of Bradish’s pitches to right-handed batters have been his slider or sinker, while he emphasizes his four-seamer and curveball when facing lefties, though his slider and changeup still have solid usage against them.
Perhaps most notably, as the Orioles’ other young starters have surpassed their career highs in innings, Bradish is still approaching the mark he set last season, leaving him confident in his ability to pitch deep into October.
“When I take the ball, I expect to finish the game,” Bradish said. “Just trying to go out there and throw as many innings as possible.”
Fellow starter Dean Kremer bonded with Bradish at the alternate site, and the two of them have trained together in Arizona the past two offseasons. Kremer also had success after adding a sinker last year, but he offered Bradish’s knack for “skill acquisition” as one of his top traits among a bevy of others.
“He’s got the stuff to definitely put up the numbers he’s putting up,” Kremer said. “Am I surprised? No, not at all. He has incredible work ethic, and he’s never satisfied, and so he’s always hungry for more. He’s one of the best competitors I’ve ever come across.”
Kremer said that competitive side generally only shows on the mound, though Rodriguez, a rookie starter with a locker next to Bradish in the Orioles’ clubhouse, said he hears plenty of trash talk from his teammate.
Still, Bradish saves his best for opposing hitters, especially of late. While averaging more than six innings across his past 12 starts — a run dating to mid-June — Bradish has a 2.17 ERA with a 0.92 WHIP while limiting opposing batters to a .189 average allowed and a .558 OPS. He leads the AL in each of those four metrics in that span.
Through Thursday, the physical characteristics of Bradish’s pitches this season, collectively measured with Stuff+, grade as the best in the AL and third among all qualified pitchers. Among individual offerings, his slider trails only San Diego Padres veteran Yu Darvish’s changeup as the filthiest pitch from any starter. It’s become his most-used offering this season, though that’s mainly a product of Bradish cutting his four-seam usage and more often throwing his sinker and curveball, the latter also rating as the best in the AL by Stuff+.
“When you’ve got all those different pitches, moving all sorts of directions, it’s tough to really stay on something,” Mountcastle said. “A guy like him, you’ve just got to almost pick a spot and just pray he maybe leaves one over the middle.
“I watched one of his live bullpens the other day, and I felt like I would have struck out in the live bullpen, and he wasn’t even trying that hard.”
But the addition of his sinker aside, Bradish’s stuff isn’t all that different than it was climbing up Baltimore’s farm system, minor league teammates such as Rodriguez and catcher Adley Rutschman said. To manager Brandon Hyde, it’s improved command that has taken Bradish to the level he’s at now.
After ranking in the lower third in the majors in walk rate as a rookie, he’s in the upper third in 2023. Paired with Bradish’s repertoire, that growth has turned him into Baltimore’s top starter.
“So impressed with the progress he’s made,” Hyde said. “You just don’t see the arm-side up misses. You don’t see the spray misses to [raise] the pitch count. Everything’s around the strike zone with cut or with sink.
“He’s been wonderful this season.”
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