Another O's contract extension: Team locks up RHP Kyle Bradish with five-year deal

Bradish now under team control through 2031

The Orioles have locked up another top young talent and bought out several of his free agent years.

This time it was right-hander Kyle Bradish and it was announced early during the O’s game Saturday afternoon at Houston.

The O’s got Bradish for a five-year extension worth $90 million. They bought out three of his free agent years.

Last August, the O’s signed young catcher Samuel Basallo for eight years and $67 million with team control though 2033. This year in March they added a new deal for pitcher Shane Baz that runs five years for $68 million through 2030 and they bought out two of his free agent years.

Group those deals with money spent over the winter and clearly the O’s have become more aggressive under the David Rubenstein ownership group – both in extensions for their own players and free agent deals.

Last December they signed free agent first baseman Pete Alonso away from the Mets for five years and $155 million. The only bigger deal is O’s history was signed by Chris Davis in 2016 for seven years at $216 million.

When the O’s extended Baz in March, Rubenstein spoke of doing more such deals.

“We are open for business of course. For sure we have the resources to do this with others. It has to make sense for the player and it has to make sense for the team. But we’re all ears,” he said then.

This is just a partial list of current O’s team control:

Thru 2027 – Adley Rutschman, Felix Bautista, Tyler Wells, Dean Kremer

Thru 2028 – Gunnar Henderson, Yennier Cano

Thru 2029 – Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser

Thru 2030 – Pete Alonso, Shane Baz, Blaze Alexander, Jackson Holliday, Rico Garcia

Thru 2031 – Kyle Bradish, Brandon Young, Dylan Beavers

Thru 2033 – Samuel Basallo (team option for 2034)

Bradish, who underwent Tommy John surgery in June of 2024, topped Baz to become the highest-paid pitcher in franchise history.

Four of the O’s seven biggest deals ever have been completed in the last 11 months.

No matter how this season ends for the Orioles – in the playoffs or not – clearly there is not another rebuild on the horizon. The team is locking up some talent for years and years down the road.

“Keeping players of Kyle’s caliber in an Orioles uniform is an important part of our long-term vision,” said Rubenstein. “We are grateful to Kyle for his commitment to our organization and to Baltimore. Thanks to Mike Elias and the entire baseball operations department for their dedication throughout this process.”

Per Ryan Ripken’s twitter feed, the Bradish deal breaks down this way:

2027: $10 million
2028: $13 million
2029: $17 million
2030: $22 million
2031: $28 million

In 2026, Bradish is 6-9 with a 3.61 ERA and 1.351 WHIP. Over his past five games, Bradish has three quality starts, a 2.12 ERA and has gone seven innings or more three times.

Since 2023, when Bradish finished fourth for the AL Cy Young Award, he is 21-17 with a 3.03 ERA and ERA+ of 135. For pitchers with 300 or more innings in MLB since 2023, Bradish ranks 11^th in ERA.

During the 2023 year, when the O’s won 101 games and a division championship, Bradish pitched to an ERA of 2.83 in 30 games. That ERA was the best by an O’s starter since Mike Mussina posted a 2.54 in 1992.

“We have believed strongly in Kyle since he first joined the organization as a minor leaguer in 2019,” said O’s president of baseball operations and general manager, Mike Elias.

“He has worked hard, with the support of our entire development team, to become one of the best starting pitchers in the league. He’s an exemplary member of our team and our community, and we are thrilled that he and his family are here to stay. This extension reflects the continued dedication of our ownership group, led by David Rubenstein, to build and sustain a team that our fans and Baltimore can be proud of,” he added.

The Orioles will hold a press conference for Bradish next Friday at Oriole Park.

My take is that Bradish signed a team friendly deal when you consider what he could get on the open market. But he would not have been a free agent until the end of 2028 and with his injury history, he and his agent might have felt it’s best to take this deal now while they had it in hand.

Bradish, as O’s fans can see, when at his best is an ace-type pitcher, whether the pundits consider him that or not.

From 2021 through 2024, the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole had a 132 ERA+. Coming into this year, Bradish was at 146 his last 240 innings.

We know how good he is.

Now he’ll be pitching for the O’s barring a trade, at least through the 2031 season.

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ANOTHER REMARKABLE WIN

Tied 1-1 and headed to the tenth inning today, the Orioles pulled out a crazy 4-2 win in 11 innings at Houston.

The O’s were on the verge of losing with bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth of a 2-2 tie. But with his team playing a five-man infield, Tyler O’Neill fielded a fly ball in center and threw a runner out at home with catcher Samuel Basallo making a nice play on the backend. Then pitcher Andrew Kittredge’s solid play on a bunt ended the inning and kept the game tied and still going.

In the O’s 11th, in the 2-2 tie, O’Neill beat out an infield grounder with two outs and Gunnar Henderson scored from second for the 3-2 lead. A Leody Taveras RBI single followed and the O’s held on for the 4-2 win.

Cam Sanders got the final three outs for a win and save this weekend in his first two O’s appearances.

The Orioles have won six in a row, are 9-3 in July and are 11-9 their past 20 road games. For the first time in 2026 they have won two straight road series.

At 48-51, the O’s can go for a three-game sweep on Sunday.

The last time they were two games under the .500 mark was on June 5 at 31-33.