The news isn’t surprising after Bradish’s second IL stint, but it still sucks.
It’s official: Kyle Bradish is out for the year and a lot of next year. Orioles GM Mike Elias announced prior to Wednesday’s game against the Yankees that Bradish underwent Tommy John surgery earlier today. You can start the 12-month clock and spend the 12 months hoping that it doesn’t end up more like a 14- or even 16-month recovery, which effectively takes him out of the whole 2025 season planning as well.
This is disappointing, if not surprising, news to receive. It’s not completely out of the blue because, after all, Bradish is on the injured list for the second time this year with a UCL sprain. This outcome is the one that seemed to be the most likely as soon as we heard again that his elbow was sore and he went onto the injured list the next day.
The combination of a platelet-rich plasma injection and rest when he was first hurt back in January got him all of eight big league starts. They were good starts, with Bradish working to a 2.75 ERA and 1.068 WHIP, with a strikeout rate that greatly exceeded what he did a year ago.
Ultimately, attempts to build Bradish into a regular workload in hopes of avoiding the more severe tear that requires surgery did not prove successful. I don’t think that means it was pointless to try. For anyone, if you can avoid major surgery, you avoid the surgery. It’s not like we saw a diminished Bradish when he was in action this year. It does seem like this was a ticking time bomb situation, though, and the bomb went off during Bradish’s start against the Phillies. The Orioles will have to do without their 2023 ace for the remainder of the season and a lot of next year.
In a separate, though less severe, bit of bad Orioles pitching news, Elias also said that reliever Danny Coulombe, who has been on the injured list with “not the one you are thinking,” had bone chips removed from his elbow. The team is hopeful Coulombe will be back in September. They will have to contemplate getting by without him for a couple of months as well.
Trades that could bolster both the 2024 playoff roster and 2025 regular season roster (and maybe even beyond) are ones that the Orioles will need to consider more than they might have a week ago.