Kyle Bradish Stands Out

As the Orioles keep filtering young pitchers onto the major league roster, Kyle Bradish is waiting his turn and is unfazed by the lack of attention coming to him.

The Orioles recognize the 24-year-old righthander’s talents and potential. They aren’t ignoring him in favor of more highly-rated prospects. 

The hype is more intense for first-rounders Grayson Rodriguez and D.L. Hall, the system’s top two pitching prospects. Lefthander Zac Lowther made his major league debut in April. 

Righthander Michael Baumann also is on the clock, with his debut expected later in the summer for a rotation that already debuted Keegan Akin, Dean Kremer and Bruce Zimmermann in 2020.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound Bradish has impressed the Orioles through his past results in the Angels’ organization prior to the Dylan Bundy trade and his work in the Bowie alternate training site, where he emerged as one of the top pitchers, and at minor league spring training.

Bradish, a 2018 fourth-rounder from New Mexico State, went 6-7, 4.28 with 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings at High-A Inland Empire in 2019. After the season he was traded to the Angels as part of the return for Bundy.

The Orioles will introduce Bradish to Double-A this year.

“Bradish in particular is somebody that I have liked dating back to the 2018 draft,” Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said after the trade. “He went straight to the (High-A) Cal League, which is a nasty place to pitch, and pitched (101) innings and struck out 120 hitters.”

Elias gives Bradish extra credit for coming so far, so fast from the small Western Athletic Conference.

The compliments increased for Bradish after the Orioles placed him on their alternate site roster in early August. Multiple people in the organization singled him out as a standout performer, based largely on the quality of his low-90s cutting, riding fastball that touches 96 mph.

“It was fun to watch,” said Justin Ramsey, one of the camp’s pitching coaches. “First time for him in the organization and it was nice to work with him.”

 

 

BIRD SEED

— Outfielder Heston Kjerstad, the second overall pick in last year’s draft, reported late to the alternate training site. Kjerstad received medical clearance after being shut down through 2020 and missing spring training while recovering from myocarditis.

— The Orioles won’t use six-man rotations with their affiliates, but intend to use a piggyback system with two starters pitching in the same game. The method allows the organization to more easily control the innings of its young starters after the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season.