The Baltimore Orioles will be without starting pitcher Kyle Bradish for the start of the 2024 season as he will be placed on the injured list with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
Orioles general manager Mike Elias said that Bradish suffered the injury in January as he began his offseason throwing program. After receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his pitching elbow, he will start up his program again on Friday.
No timeline was given for a return to the mound but the team expects Bradish to be part of their rotation this season.
"Everything is pointed in the right direction and going well right now at this time," Elias said. "But I'm not at a point where I want to start putting a timeline on when we're going to see him in Major League action. Right now, we're prepping him for a lot of action in 2024, and we're getting him ready for that as expeditiously and responsibly as possible, but there's going to be some time involved."
The 27-year-old Bradish won 12 games last season and finished with a 2.83 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 30 starts. He finished fourth in the voting for the 2023 AL Cy Young Award.
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More injuries for O's
Bradish wasn't the only injury blow as Spring Training gets under way for the Orioles. Elias said that Gunnar Henderson is dealing with an oblique injury that will keep him out of the lineup for the 2-3 weeks. The 2023 AL Rookie of the Year is expected to be ready for Opening Day.
Potentially joining Bradish in the list of Orioles not ready to go come March 28 is John Means. The 30-year-old had a flare up of his surgically-repaired left pitching elbow and is a month behind the rest of the staff.
Means has made only six appearances over the last two seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2022. Elias did not rule out Means for Opening Day, but Orioles manager Brandon Hyde is not expecting the lefty to be available.
The Orioles bolstered their rotation in the offseason by acquiring Corbin Burnes from the Milwaukee Brewers on Feb. 2.
Despite these two blows to the pitching staff, Elias said he was not going to rush into making any moves.
"Certainly, this is a demonstration of why you need a lot of starting pitchers," Elias said. "These kinds of things will happen. We're very hopeful to get him back and get all of these guys out on the field together at some point in 2024. But some of them have some processes ahead of them and we've got to get through those first before we can talk about game action."
