As he spoke, Bryan Baker practiced what he preached. The Orioles have already lost two pitchers to season-ending injuries, and Kyle Bradish this weekend suffered an elbow injury that could be serious. “It sucks,” Baker, a relief pitcher, said.
“I feel for those guys because you know how much work they put into it.” As he thought about the devastation that arm injuries present for pitchers, who work year-round for a few dozen chances to perform, Baker took 15 seconds to gather his thoughts, hold back his tears and finish his answer. “We feel for ’em,” Baker said softly.
“But you just got to keep moving.” The news about Bradish — that he is on the 15-day injured list with a sprained elbow ligament , perhaps a harbinger for worse news to come — is gut-wrenching for the 27-year-old and a potential hindrance to Baltimore’s World Series aspirations. The severity of the sprain (technically a partial tear) to the right-hander’s ulnar collateral ligament is unknown, but the worst-case scenario involves going under the knife, missing the rest of 2024 and perhaps most of 2025.
For however long he’s out, Bradish’s absence means Baltimore’s rotation is less fearsome. But it also makes the Orioles’ acquisition for ace Corbin Burnes in the offseason all that more consequential. Burnes proved Sunday — as he has all season — that he is the stabilizing force Baltimore needed this season, a quintessential big-game pitcher.
The stoic and sharp right-hander s.