3 questions the Orioles still have to answer about their rotation now that they've extended Kyle Bradish

The Baltimore Orioles announced that they had signed starter Kyle Bradish to a five-year extension during the second game of their series against the Houston Astros. With Bradish and Baz both signing extensions this season, there is a new level of certainty as to what the Orioles' rotation will look like for the next half-decade. Two of the five spots in the Orioles rotation are now spoken for for the next four to five years.

The Orioles have consistently struggled to put together a competitive rotation during this contention window, so having two high-floor arms like Bradish and Baz under control long-term is going to be very helpful in the Orioles' quest to finally figure out how to build a rotation. Now the questions the Orioles need to answer about their rotation become much clearer. What pitchers do the Orioles need to put around Bradish and Baz in order to have a competitive rotation? And do they have those kinds of pitchers in-house, or do they need to acquire them either in free agency or via trade?

The Orioles still have to figure out the best way to build around their recently extended starters

As far as what kinds of pitchers the Orioles need to put around Bradish and Baz. Bradish has peaked as a Cy Young vote-getter, but as the Orioles have seen this year, that's a lot of pressure to put on a starter to just have his best season over and over again on command. Bradish is probably best served as a very good #2 arm in the rotation.

Baz at his best is a nice #3 option in the rotation, but if you start the season with Baz as your #3 starter, he's an injury away from being your #2 starter, which feels like a lot for him. Ideally, you'd have a similar-level arm to put next to him in the rotation, and whichever of them is pitching better can be your third-best starter, and whichever is struggling can be your fourth-best starter.

The Orioles still need that bona fide top-of-the-rotation arm to pair with Bradish at the top of the rotation, another solid middle-of-the-rotation arm, and a handful of back-end starters and depth arms.

As for the back-end starter and depth arms part of the equation, the Orioles are pretty well set there. Dean Kremer is under team control for 2027, and if the price is right, the Orioles would likely bring him back to continue being their #5 starter, as Kremer is pretty much a perfect fifth-best starter. He wants to eat innings; on his best nights, he can give you six scoreless, and he's been mostly very durable.

If the Orioles don't want to keep Kremer, then Trey Gibson is an arm that should be able to fit into that fifth starter role very easily. He still needs to finish developing, but a year and a half from now he should have a better idea of how his wide arsenal of pitches plays at the big league level and should be able to do a pretty good Kremer impersonation and pitch to about a 4.00 ERA.

Alongside Gibson, the Orioles have several other interesting arms in their system that are not necessarily top prospects but could be solid back-end starters and depth arms. Nestor German is a name that could debut at some point this season. Levi Wells had an injury setback this season but will be MLB-ready at some point in 2027.

There are even some arms in Double-A with a higher ceiling that could potentially be middle-of-the-rotation arms or better. Joseph Dzierwa is flying through the Orioles system and looks really polished despite being drafted just last year, and Luis De Leon is the Orioles' best pitching prospect according to some rankings. Both should factor into the Orioles' pitching staff in 2027 and beyond.

The answer to what middle-of-the-rotation arm the Orioles could find might even be staring them in the face with Trevor Rogers, who was on the mound when the Bradish extension was announced. Rogers has bounced back after a slow start to the season and looks like he's found a nice balance between his untouchable 2025 self and his very touchable early 2026 self. He has spoken very highly of the Orioles organization and could be a prime candidate for their next extension.

The hardest part of that equation is the top of the rotation arm. The Orioles don't have anyone with an ace ceiling in the minors. Those kinds of pitchers are rare; they are coveted, and they are expensive. The Orioles couldn't manage to trade for one when they had the best farm system in baseball; now their farm system is middling. They couldn't sign one when they had zero big contracts on the books; now they have several large contracts.

The Orioles have tried for the last couple of years to build a rotation entirely out of middle- and back-end of the rotation caliber arms, and it has been a struggle. Pitchers that they have brought in, hoping to get predictable high-floor production, have been worse than that, and they have clearly missed having a stopper the way that they did in 2024 with Corbin Burnes. This is a problem that the Orioles are going to have to get out of their comfort zone to solve.

Even though the Orioles have a lot of work to do to flesh out the rest of their rotation, the fact that they've locked down two building blocks in Bradish and Baz is a great step in the right direction.

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