Orioles fans should not sleep on this sleeper ace breaking out in 2026

The Baltimore Orioles are still eyeing potential additions to the starting rotation, and depending on who they target, that could be welcome news for fans. The prevailing sentiment is that the group still needs a leader. An ace like Framber Valdez would look great on paper, but his baggage might ultimately cause the Orioles to shy away.

Meanwhile, Justin Verlander might ultimately be more the front office's speed, but would ultimately be underwhelming to fans who desire a true top-of-the-rotation arm.

There are even candidates among the existing group who could ascend to front-line status. Baltimore didn't pay a high price to trade for Shane Baz for no reason. On top of that, just imagine if Trevor Rogers could provide anything close to what he did in 2025, but extend that sort of performance over a 30-start workload.

However, the most likely candidate to ascend is the most overlooked, and that is Kyle Bradish, who finally looks to be healthy after a long journey back to the mound.

A healthy Kyle Bradish could break out in 2026 and become the Orioles' ace

Bradish underwent Tommy John surgery in June of 2024, making him easier to forget. Due to the injury, the right-hander has thrown just 71.1 innings over the past two seasons, though when he has been on the mound, he's been ridiculously effective.

In the limited time that bookended his injury and subsequent recovery, Bradish put up a 2.65 ERA, 2.48 FIP, and 2.5 fWAR in just 14 starts. In that sample, he posted an out-of-this-world 34.6% strikeout rate, while walking batters at just an 8.7% clip. Batters hit just .192 against him.

His performance was more or less equal in the months leading up to his injury and the time he logged last year post-recovery, showing that that admittedly small sample isn't influenced one way or another.

Take that and consider it against the 29-year-old's performance in 2023. In the only season of his career where he logged a full 30 starts, he recorded 168.2 innings pitched and posted a 2.83 ERA. His solid 25% strikeout rate was paired with an 80th percentile ground ball rate (49.1%) and a stellar 6.6% walk rate.

The capability to combine above-average strikeout numbers with few walks and a high rate of grounders, and suddenly, you can see the makings of an ace. Theoretically, now another year removed from surgery, he should be even stronger in 2026 and ready to get back to where he was when he got hurt.

The key will be staying healthy, but if he can, the Orioles might have had the ace they've been searching for all along; they just needed him to heal up first.