Kyle Bradish was always going to face certain challenges in 2026 after having his 2024 and 2025 seasons so heavily compromised by the unnecessarily-delayed timi
Apr 26, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles pitcher Kyle Bradish looks on during the second inning against the Boston Red Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images | Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images Kyle Bradish was always going to face certain challenges in 2026 after having his 2024 and 2025 seasons so heavily compromised by the unnecessarily-delayed timing of his Tommy John surgery.and having them return from TJ surgery in any sort of standard timeline, so dealing with their staff ace coming off a 2024 campaign in which he threw just 32 innings and a 2025 that culminated in 39 1/3 innings pitched was going to stress them, if not confound them. No one should be surprised that Bradish, already at 73 1/3 innings logged this season, has been prone to extremes.
It’s a lot to ask him to navigate since commanding Cy Young votes in 2023, and even more pressure fell on him given that the alleged upgrades to the rotation have either already crashed out seems in order.
But for the second time already this season Bradish has fallen into a significant funk, and it always seemed like he might need some period where he was shutdown to get through the full season without ending up throwing five times as many innings this season as last. Bradish has now yielded more hits than innings pitched and has surrendered 11 homers already, back to the elevated rate that plagued him as a rookie .
The lack of control, coupled with all the hard contact, bears serious monitoring and if it continues, backing off him could make sense .
He has failed to pitch into the fifth inning in his last two outings, and if he gets pounded by the Mariners again this week like he did last week, Elias best not be asleep at the wheel. Bradish has allowed six homers in his last five starts and ranks in the bottom 17th percent in overall pitching run value and bottom three percent in breaking-ball value; for someone who needs a curve and slider to offset a fastball he only wants to throw 20 percent of the time, that seems like a cry for help.
While Bradish doesn’t lean on the fastball, he has seemed to be hunting strikeouts with elevated velocity lately and it’s not working out for him. He has appeared over-amped at times throughout this season, like he is trying to make up for lost time or do too much; leaning into his full repertoire and being craftier rather than overly aggressive would work better for him.
It seems like he’s trying to throw the fastball less frequently – just 19% of the time versus 22% in his 2023 season – but harder. Bradish is throwing the curve considerably more than his breakout season , but it probably merits more looks in two-strike counts. In 2023, his slider and curve and two-seamer were all elite offerings. Here’s how his pitches are faring now:The swing-and-miss rate from the curveball this season is noteworthy.
It’s not been unhittable but compared to the sinker he is throwing nearly a third of the time it points to a rethink being in order. Bradish is getting crushed the second and third time through the lineup second time to .871 on third . Switching things up could help.
Changing curveball use worked wonders for Baz and the It also just might be that this was always going to be an awkward, helter-skelter season for Bradish, and the remnant of the naïve and sophomoric way in which this front office handled his original elbow injury. He’s hardly alone in that group, with the inability to develop a consistent starting pitcher one of countless blight’s on Elias’s eight-year reign.
Jason La Canfora has covered the NFL and MLB for decades and currently covers the Ravens and Orioles for On SI.
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