Orioles’ Bradish reflects on extension: ‘This is where I want to spend my future’

BALTIMORE—Kyle Bradish didn’t expect the Orioles to offer him an extension.

“Obviously, surprised, you’re not thinking about this, especially during the season,” Bradish said on Friday.

Last Saturday, the Orioles’ 29-year-old starter signed a five-year, $90 million extension with the Orioles.

In Bradish’s first start since the extension, he allowed one run on four hits in six innings in a 5-1 win over Boston, snapping the Red Sox’s 15-game winning streak on Wednesday night.

This season, Bradish is 7-9 with a 3.49 ERA. In his five years with the Orioles, Bradish is 26-24 with a 3.48 ERA. He was obtained by the Orioles from the Los Angeles Angels in December 2019 in a trade that sent Dylan Bundy to California.

“I might not have been drafted by the Orioles, but I felt like this is where I’ve spent my whole career, and this is where I want to spend the future,” he said.

In the past 11 months, the Orioles have signed catcher Samuel Basallo and starting pitchers Shane Baz and Bradish to long-term extensions, and handed out a five-year, $155 million contract to free-agent first baseman Pete Alonso.

“When my ownership team took over the team a number of years ago, we said we were prepared to put in money for longer-term relationships with players,” Orioles control owner David Rubenstein said. “This is, I think, the fourth one that we’ve done and we are prepared to do others if people want to do them with us. We want to make sure our best players are with us for quite some time, and we have the resources to do this.”

Bradish had Tommy John surgery in June 2024, and returned for six starts with the team late last August.

“I haven’t really had a chance to reflect,” Bradish said. “It’s been a pretty busy past couple of weeks, but going back to when I had surgery, I knew I was capable to getting back to the pitcher I was before. It was going to take hard work. Thankfully, we have some of the best trainers and pitching coaches around. So I was very blessed to be able to deal with those guys every day, especially going through T.J. But now being up here, I can’t really put it into words.”

President of baseball operations Mike Elias rejected the contention that signing players to extensions lengthens the team’s time to contend.

“Overall, we want to limit the mindset of windows to where we’re running a really healthy franchise in the best way we can,” he said. “Just doing the bet we can to have a real high quality, healthy sustainably competitive franchise we could. That’s kind of the goal, I think of any front office.”

Notes: The Orioles signed North Carolina State outfielder Ty Head, their second-round draft choice. MLB.com reports Head signed for $2.43 million. … Last year’s top draft choice, first baseman/outfielder Ike Irish, suffered a torn left meniscus when he slid into second base in High-A Frederick’s game on Wednesday. He is likely to miss the rest of the season … Single-A Delmarva infielder Cobb Hightower had ACL surgery on his left knee. The surgery, which the Orioles say is successful, was performed in Baltimore by Dr. Leigh Ann Curl. … Left-handed pitcher Josh Walker was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk. … Dylan Beavers is leading off for the first time this season in Friday’s home game against Atlanta. Tyler Ward is hitting fourth for the first time this season.

Orioles-Braves lineups

Orioles

Dylan Beavers-LF

Pete Alonso-1B

Gunnar Henderson-SS

Taylor Ward-DH

Colton Cowser-CF

Leody Taveras-RF

Jackson Holliday-2B

Christian Encarnacion-Strand-3B

Chadwick Tromp-C

Trevor Rogers-LHP

Braves

Drake Baldwin-DH

Ozzie Albies-2B

Matt Olson-1B

Michael Harris II-CF

Mauricio Dubón-LF

Austin Riley-3B

Eli White-RF

Joey Bart-C

Jorge Mateo-SS

Grant Holmes-RHP

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