An abdominal problem closes a difficult season
Baltimore placed Kyle Bradish on the 15-day injured list earlier today with lower abdominal discomfort. A 15-day absence starting now runs almost to the end of the regular season, which is why the club framed it the way it did. The Orioles recalled right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo from Triple-A Norfolk to fill the roster spot.
Bradish leaves the rotation at 7-14 with a 4.12 ERA across 29 starts. The volume mattered to Baltimore after two lost years, even if the run prevention never settled where the front office wanted it.
The closing stretch was the hardest part. Over his last nine outings he gave up five earned runs or more three times and failed to complete five innings on five occasions. For a starter whose job description begins with absorbing innings, that second number is the damaging one.
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A $90 million bet placed in July
Baltimore signed the 30-year-old to a five-year, $90 million extension two months ago, a contract built on the pitcher Bradish was before his elbow gave way. He had Tommy John surgery in June 2024 and made only six starts last season. The 2026 campaign was the first honest test of whether the arm had come all the way back.
His career file reads better than this year’s line: 26-29 in 96 starts with a 3.67 ERA over 512 2/3 innings since debuting in 2022. The Los Angeles Angels drafted him in the fourth round in 2018 and sent him to Baltimore a year later, which still ranks among the quieter wins in recent Orioles trading history.
Measure the extension against that 3.67 career mark rather than this season’s 4.12 and the logic holds. Baltimore paid for the pitcher who threw 512 innings of mid-three ERA baseball, not the one who laboured through August and September.
Hiraldo takes the spot
Hiraldo, also 30, has made seven relief appearances in the majors this season and sits at 1-0 with a 5.87 ERA. In 2025, his first year in the big leagues, he posted a 4.58 ERA across 18 outings. He arrives as bullpen depth rather than as any kind of replacement for what Bradish was meant to provide down the stretch.
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