{"id":66745,"date":"2024-02-15T12:45:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T17:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=66745"},"modified":"2024-02-15T12:45:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T17:45:07","slug":"orioles-bradish-means-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/02\/15\/orioles-bradish-means-injuries\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles Kyle Bradish, John Means Out With Elbow Injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Baltimore Orioles gear up for Spring Training workouts, they face a significant challenge. Two of their key starting pitchers, Kyle Bradish and John Means, will not be joining the season’s start due to injuries. Bradish, diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, and Means, who experienced an elbow flare-up after returning from Tommy John surgery last season, are crucial to the team’s performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Orioles Kyle Bradish, John Means Out With Elbow Injuries<\/h2>\n

Kyle Bradish<\/a> has received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow and is expected to begin a throwing program on Friday. With UCL injuries, the fear is that they will ultimately require Tommy John surgery. However, the team hopes the young right-hander can avoid surgery with rest and rehab. Bradish posted a 2.83 ERA over 30 starts for the Orioles in their breakout season in 2023. He finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting and had the fourth-best ERA across the league last season. His impressive season earned him a spot on MLB Network\u2019s Top 100 Players Right Now.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for John Means<\/a>, he was activated from the injured list in September after Tommy John surgery in 2022. Means had a flare-up shortly after his return, which forced him to miss the American League Division Series. He began his offseason throwing routine a month later to give himself time to recover. The setback is expected to keep the veteran leftie off the Opening Day roster.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who Will Step Up In The Rotation?<\/h3>\n

In their absence, Tyler Wells<\/a> and Cole Irvin<\/a> will likely slide back into the Orioles rotation. Both pitchers were seemingly pushed out of the Orioles rotation after the team traded for Corbin Burnes<\/a> earlier this month. Wells posted a 3.64 ERA over 20 starts last season, while Irvin had a 4.42 ERA over 12 starts.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Orioles are no stranger to UCL injuries. The Orioles\u2019 All-Star closer F\u00e9lix Bautista had Tommy John surgery in September and will miss the 2024 season. Bautista also underwent an elbow debridement and ulnar nerve transposition<\/a> on February 9th.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Orioles have had their fair share of UCL injuries, and the recovery time can vary greatly. A sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament, like the one Bradish is dealing with, can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to heal. More severe injuries that require Tommy John surgery, like the one Means underwent, have a recovery timeline of 12-18 months. This context underscores the potential impact of these injuries on the Orioles’ season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: \u00a0Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Baltimore Orioles gear up for Spring Training workouts, they face a significant challenge. Two of their key starting pitchers, Kyle Bradish and John Means, will not be joining the season’s start due to injuries. Bradish, diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, and Means, who experienced an elbow flare-up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":66777,"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":[3,2,1071,35],"tags":[2924,2231,5662,895,1233,5554],"class_list":["post-66745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orioles","category-featured","category-mlb","category-news","tag-cole-irvin","tag-corbin-burnes","tag-felix-bautista","tag-spring-training","tag-tommy-john-surgery","tag-tyler-wells"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66745","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\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}