{"id":125024,"date":"2026-07-05T14:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T18:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=125024"},"modified":"2026-07-05T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T18:58:11","slug":"an-unexpected-orioles-ace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/07\/05\/an-unexpected-orioles-ace\/","title":{"rendered":"An Unexpected Orioles\u2019 Ace"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Baltimore Orioles ace and leader in ERA? Not Kyle Bradish<\/a>, who finished top five in AL Cy Young voting in 2023. Not Trevor Rogers<\/a>, who pitched to a sub-two ERA the second half of last season and could’ve been a serious Cy Young candidate with a few more starts. Not even one of the big offseason acquisitions<\/a> made by the Birds, Shane Baz<\/a> and Chris Bassitt<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nope, the man leading the charge in Baltimore’s rotation is none other than right-handed pitcher Brandon Young<\/a>. The man who started the season in Triple-A Norfolk, who was only called up due to an injury to make a spot start, is now the Orioles’ biggest statistical scheduled advantage on the mound. Due to a shortened 2020 MLB draft<\/a>, Young wasn’t even taken and instead signed with the Orioles as an undrafted free agent.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Orioles, as an organization, are spending about $37 million in total cash payroll on their starting rotation<\/a>. Less than a million of this is going to Young, who is still in his pre-arb years, tying him closer to a standard MLB rookie deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

An Unexpected Orioles’ Ace<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Breakdown<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Texas native is currently pitching to a 3.11 ERA in 13 starts, good for the best among Orioles’ starters. In company with others in the rotation, Young leads the team in wins with six, WHIP at 1.30, and is tied for the highest WAR, currently sitting at 1.2.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After a 6.24 ERA in 12 starts a year ago in Birdland, Young has completely flipped the switch and figured it out. While his pitching repertoire has hardly changed over the past year, he is dodging barrels and producing much weaker contact. <\/span>His barrel rate is down from 10.2% to 6.7%, and his wOBA<\/a>, which ranked in the bottom fifth percentile a year ago, is down almost one hundred points to .297.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Baltimore
Jul 4, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Brandon Young (63) pitches against the Cincinnati Reds in the first inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additionally, Young\u2019s pitching run value is up from the 10th percentile all the way to the 71st percentile, largely due to his fastball run value, which went from a bottom-third pitch in the league to an elite fastball he can rely on to retire batters. A slight uptick in the usage of the sinker and slider, and becoming a little less reliant on the curveball, has given Young a chase percentage in the 90th percentile.<\/span><\/p>\n

Young\u2019s success is split pretty evenly between pitching to both righties and lefties, and he is doing a ton of damage early in the inning, pitching to a 0.91 WHIP with zero outs, limiting early traffic on the base paths, which is so crucial for any pitcher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Weather Gets Warmer, Young Gets Better<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Judging the righties’ first three starts of April, it didn\u2019t seem like a mistake that Young was in Norfolk to open the season, to continue to develop and possibly be called on in an emergency. While that was the reason for his call-up, his play is what has kept him at the major league level and thriving in a rotation so desperate for high-level arms.<\/span><\/p>\n

In ten starts since April, five in both May and June, Young has pitched to a 2.81 ERA in almost 60 innings, holding opponents to a batting average under .230. His WHIP has ducked all the way under 1.20 in the month of June,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can He Keep It Up?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While it might be a stretch to call him the Orioles’ ace as the underlying metrics don\u2019t point toward linear success, there is not necessarily an obvious sign of Young\u2019s breakout season coming to a halt. The xERA, average exit velocity, and whiff percentage aren\u2019t eye popping, but the Louisiana Lafayette alum is relying on pitching to contact and trusting his defense to one of the most unexpected great seasons across the league.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Frank Bowen IV\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Baltimore Orioles ace and leader in ERA? Not Kyle Bradish, who finished top five in AL Cy Young voting in 2023. Not Trevor Rogers, who pitched to a sub-two ERA the second half of last season and could’ve been a serious Cy Young candidate with a few more starts. Not even one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5888,"featured_media":125198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1071,35],"tags":[29646,4223,3251,1333,1376],"class_list":["post-125024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orioles","category-mlb","category-news","tag-brandon-young","tag-chris-bassitt","tag-kyle-bradish","tag-shane-baz","tag-trevor-rogers"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5888"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125024"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125200,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125024\/revisions\/125200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}