Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish won his arbitration hearing over the Orioles, the Associated Press reports. He’ll be paid the $3.55MM that he and his camp at All Bases Covered Sports Management submitted rather than the $2.875MM figure submitted by the team.
The 29-year-old Bradish returned from UCL surgery late in the 2025 season and tossed 32 innings with a 2.53 ERA, 37.3% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. The sinker that sat 95 mph prior to surgery clocked in at a near-identical average of 94.8 mph. Bradish can’t be reasonably expected to continue punching out 37% of his opponents over a larger sample, but the former Halos fourth-rounder — acquired in the trade sending Dylan Bundy from Baltimore to Anaheim — has proven himself to be a high-end starter when healthy enough to take the ball.
Dating back to 2023, Bradish carries a terrific 2.78 ERA in 240 innings. He has a 3.47 mark in his 357 2/3 frames overall. Beyond those solid baseline run-prevention numbers, he’s set down just under 26% of his opponents on strikes and walked only 7.8% of the batters he’s faced. The right-hander’s 2025 success was buoyed by an outstanding 14.6% swinging-strike rate and a 30.5% opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate — both career-best marks.
As a Super Two player, Bradish earned $2.35MM in 2025, his first of four arbitration seasons. Today’s win secures him a 51% raise over his 2025 salary, as opposed to the team’s proposed 22% raise. Bradish will be eligible for arbitration twice more before qualifying for free agency in the 2028-29 offseason.
Heading into the 2026 campaign, Bradish currently projects as either the No. 1 or No. 2 starter in Baltimore. He’ll former a one-two punch with the resurgent Trevor Rogers, who rebounded from a nightmare 2024 season to record a dominant 1.81 ERA in 109 2/3 frames. Rogers’ 24.8% strikeout rate doesn’t stack up to that of Bradish over his past two seasons, and the former Marlins hurler was surely aided by a microscopic .226 average on balls in play. He still boasted better-than-average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates, just as Bradish has throughout his career. There are some health and workload questions regarding both pitchers, but they should form a high-end rotation pairing so long as they remain healthy.
Of course, the Orioles also remain in the market for further rotation reinforcements. They acquired righty Shane Baz from the division-rival Rays earlier in the offseason but continue to show interest in lingering free agents like Framber Valdez, Zac Gallen and Lucas Giolito. An addition at some point feels likely, but for now, Bradish will be in the mix to start one of Baltimore’s first two games of the 2026 season as the O’s try to shake off an ugly 2025 season and return to postseason play under new manager Craig Albernaz.
Definitely worth every bit of that and more. Just gotta stay healthy.
Nice, I hope he dominates this year.
Steve –
He was acquired by Baltimore in the Dylan Bundy trade, not the Alex Cobb trade.
Yeah, I was going to say the O’s got Jahmai Jones for Cobb not Bradish
Correct.
My ace! Cy Young season incoming if he can a) stay healthy and b) extrapolate from smaller sample of 2025 when he looked better than ever
Bradish 1-0 to start year.
Worth every single penny! Talk about an absurd value for the Orioles…were they really defeated?
Sucks to suck Orioles.
Despite liking Bradish and acknowledging he has good stuff. You have to question a raise given the injury and short season results.
Why? He rehabbed, came back, and provided outstanding results. Many guys miss their anticipated return timeline, but he didn’t. He projects to be their #1 starter. This isn’t a huge raise for those results.
The thing is that even though he only pitched 6 games last year he still provided excessive value for the Orioles. FA get 12M to get 1.2 WAR.
.2 WAR per start is elite. 8 pitchers got that last year.
29 years old. Time for both sides to explore buying out the control years in exchange for 1-2 FA years.
2027 7M
2028 11M
2029 15M
2030 19M
At least offer it Mike!
$20 & $22 for the last 2 and he might take it.
Rather risk that on Bradish than $15 on a Morton type.
Now extend him
Now that you’ve told him why you don’t think he deserves a raise, extend him. Good luck!
BRADISH: Winning in Arbitration (2026)
Just goes to show you what 6 strong starts will get you. Heaven forbid he got 15 starts
HALLELUJAH‼️
Idiotic for the O’s to risk alienating their best pitcher like this.
It really isn’t. He’s pitched a whopping 71 innings last 2 seasons and arb figures compound. Won’t be a UFA until 32.
It’s not about what he did last season. It’s about what you hope he does next season. If you want to keep him you don’t buckle and dime him in arbitration.
He’s an injury prone/under contract control starter for a few years that has to prove he can even hold up. His injuries also have domino effect of spending externally to backfill absence….also most clubs want to hit the eject button when an SP reaches 32.