Predicting when Orioles righty Braxton Bragg will make his MLB debut

If you're doing a quick Google search to find out who Baltimore Orioles pitching prospect Braxton Bragg is, you're going to mostly find searches pertaining to Confederate General Braxton Bragg, someone considered by many historians to be the worst general of his time. Unlike Civil War General Braxton Bragg, Baltimore Orioles right-handed pitching prospect Braxton Bragg is winning, a lot.

The 6'2" righty is off to a hot start this season, as discussed last week, but since that writing, the Orioles have promoted Bragg to Double-A and he's made his debut, which went quite well. With the Orioles clearly on the journey of needing to be on the constant look for pitching help as the 2025 season progresses, will they turn to Braxton Bragg at some point this season?

A 2023 8th-round draft pick out of Dallas Baptist, Bragg spent all of 2024 with Low-A Delmarva, striking out 30% of batters faced and walking a minuscule 5% with a 3.36 ERA (3.13 FIP/2.65 xFIP) across 96.1 innings pitched. He started 2025 with High-A Aberdeen, giving up a grand total of zero earned runs across 16.1 innings with a 30% strikeout rate and a .108 batting average against.

Orioles prospect Braxton Bragg is tearing up minor league hitters in 2025

In a bit of a shocking turn of events, the Orioles aggressively moved him up to Double-A this week after just three High-A outings, and Bragg proved he was ready from the jump. In relief of Trevor Rogers on Wednesday, Bragg tossed 4.1 scoreless frames, allowing three hits and walking two while striking out eight. The ERA is still sitting at 0.00 through his first 20.2 innings pitched now.

Bragg brings a deep pitch mix to the mound, featuring a four-seamer, two-seamer, cutter, sweeper, and kick-change. He regularly sits in the mid-90's and has touched 98 mph. Opponents are making contact against him at a 69.9% clip, about 3% lower than last season, while his swinging-strike rate has jumped from 14% to 15.8%, both are positive signs as he's seen these numbers improve as he's moved up and faced tougher competition.

Bragg already featured a lower arm slot, but he's reportedly lowered the arm slot a bit more. The lower arm slot with his good velo and high induced vertical break has created a tougher look for hitters and more swing and miss. Jumping on the kick-change train has also made an impact and is emerging as one of his better offerings.

It's been well covered recently by Orioles beat writers, but while the Orioles have a plethora of pitching prospects with notable upside, many of them are still in the lower levels of the system and another year or two away from potentially making an impact in the majors leagues. The immediate help down in Triple-A is limited, but if Braxton Bragg is going to continue pitching as he has through the first month of the season, he could end up leapfrogging a big group of pitching prospects and putting himself into the mix of possible big league contributors later this season.