Rotation, Bullpen, or St. Paul: Analytically Breaking Down Taj Bradley’s Arsenal

[Lucas Seehafer PT]

Taj Bradley might have been the best-known name acquired by the Minnesota Twins during the 2025 trade deadline fire sale. A former top 100 prospect, Bradley’s performance plateaued during his third season with the Tampa Bay Rays, who shipped him to the Twins in exchange for the highly coveted Griffin Jax.

Bradley’s first run with the Twins was mediocre. He finished the 2025 campaign with a 5.05 ERA in a career-high 142 ⅔ innings, though, as has been consistent throughout his young career, his 4.37 xFIP suggested that he got a little unlucky.

Entering his first full season with the Twins, the question of whether or not Bradley would be more effective as a reliever has been swirling through many minds. However, unlike my analysis of Zebby Matthews, I think there is sufficient data to suggest that Bradley’s role as a starter is clearer, at least in the short term.

Read Previous Entries:

• David Festa's Arsenal
• Zebby Matthews' Arsenal

Taj Bradley’s Stuff and Pitch Arsenal

Bradley’s arsenal primarily consists of four pitches—a four-seamer, cutter, splitter, and curveball—though he occasionally throws a sinker (or at least some of his four-seamers get labeled as such). Like most pitchers, his offerings vary depending on the handedness of the hitter; in 2025, he primarily deployed his fastball, cutter, and curve against righties (515, 347, and 146 pitches, respectively) and his fastball, splitter, and curve against lefties (565, 246, and 189). (Of note: Baseball Savant labeled 192 of Bradley’s fastballs against righties in 2025 as sinkers compared to only 10 against lefties. This suggests that Bradley will alter his grip on occasion against same-handed hitters to induce more horizontal run into the batter.)

On paper, Bradley’s fastball should play well. It sits in the mid-90s and can touch near 100 mph on occasion with 18.5 inches of induced vertical break (IVB) and 6.2 inches of horizontal break. His fastballs, categorized as sinkers, feature a similar velocity profile, though with 15.4 inches of IVB and 10.5 inches of arm-side run. His four-seamer’s IVB is well-above average, meaning it should fare well at the top of the zone, where its ability to create a rising illusion should cause it to induce whiffs.

Notice how many “shoulds” are in the previous paragraph. In practice, Bradley’s fastball is arguably his worst pitch. In nearly 3,000 offerings across 385 ⅓ major league innings, the fastball has produced an .896 OPS. According to FanGraphs, since making his MLB debut in mid-April 2023, Bradley’s fastball ranks 371st out of 419 in OPS against, while throwing it with the 29th-highest volume (minimum of 500 pitches). (His sinker provides much too small a sample size to make any grand conclusions, but Pitch Info Solutions, which provides its pitch data to Savant, has Bradley producing a .756 OPS across 192 pitches.)

What should—there’s that word again—be heartening to Twins fans, though, is that the rest of Bradley’s repertoire has performed quite well. Nearly 1,500 cutters have produced a .711 OPS (14th volume, 27th OPS, out of 103); his splitter has produced a .597 OPS (10th volume, 26th OPS, out of 171; 1,216 offerings); and his curveball, undeniably his best pitch, has produced a miniscule .454 OPS (39th volume, 6th OPS, out of 100; 844 offerings).

Seemingly, the easiest fix to make Bradley a more effective pitcher is to alter his pitch mix, namely, throwing many more curveballs. Bradley’s curve features a significant vertical break (55.8 inches with gravity, four inches more than average) at 82 mph on average. It’s truly one of the best curves in the game and plays well off his high velocity, high IVB fastball. He’d also do well to throw more cutters. It features below average velo (89.6 mph) and a relatively poor movement profile (4.0 inches of glove side break is good but 5.6 inches of IVB is quite poor), but a .711 OPS is much better than a .896; even if it were to perform worse at higher volume (and it almost undoubtedly would based on its movement profile), it almost couldn’t perform worse than the fastball.

Year	Pitch Type	#	# RHB	# LHB	%	MPH	PA	AB	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	SO	BBE	BA	XBA	SLG	XSLG	WOBA	XWOBA	EV	LA	Spin	Ext.	Whiff%	PutAway%
2025	Sweeper	34	17	17	33.3	82.0	10	8	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	.000	.078	.000	.087	.138	.197	86.1	14	2416	6.7	40.0	18.2
2025	Four Seamer	27	22	5	26.5	93.2	6	6	1	1	0	0	0	2	4	.167	.093	.167	.123	.147	.093	90.2	52	2247	6.8	27.3	22.2
2025	Sinker	27	8	19	26.5	92.9	9	6	2	2	0	0	0	1	5	.333	.277	.333	.455	.430	.442	85.2	32	2040	6.7	10.0	20.0
2025	Changeup	11	11	0	10.8	88.9	2	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	.500	.448	1.000	.633	.626	.456	98.1	5	1891	6.8	0.0	0.0
2025	Cutter	3	3	0	2.9	89.4	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	1.000	.889	4.000	3.536	1.380	1.257	107.1	29	2393	6.7	0.0	0.0
2024	Sweeper	128	95	33	32.1	80.6	25	21	4	3	0	0	1	8	15	.190	.135	.333	.232	.245	.190	86.0	21	2497	6.7	34.5	19.0
2024	Sinker	97	79	18	24.3	92.5	27	27	6	6	0	0	0	2	25	.222	.268	.222	.318	.196	.262	87.1	6	2043	6.7	17.6	11.8
2024	Four Seamer	80	70	10	20.1	93.3	35	33	7	7	0	0	0	4	29	.212	.250	.212	.298	.217	.268	83.1	20	2183	6.7	14.6	10.8
2024	Changeup	57	56	1	14.3	87.9	16	15	5	4	1	0	0	1	15	.333	.299	.400	.419	.319	.321	82.2	2	1985	6.7	17.2	20.0
2024	Cutter	37	32	5	9.3	88.4	11	10	6	5	0	0	0	1	10	.600	.379	.900	.607	.587	.411	93.3	17	2430	6.7	20.0	11.1

What Should Taj Bradley’s Role Be In 2026?

From an aresenal standpoint, Bradley has enough juice to remain a starting pitcher. He possesses three pitches—the cutter, splitter, and curve—that have performed at an above-average to well-above-average clip throughout his three years in the bigs. Altering his pitch mix to feature fewer four-seamers and more curveballs and cutters against righties would be prudent (and would likely improve his rather poor career 15.2% K-BB% and .754 OPS against same-handed batters; for reference, lefties, who should be much better against the right-handed Bradley, have produced a 17.4% K-BB% and .730 OPS. That’s weird.)

However, at a certain point, the results speak for themselves. Bradley has largely been an underwhelming starting pitcher, especially when you take into account his hype as a prospect. He has seen his strikeout rate drop from 28.0% as a rookie to 21.0% in 2025, while his walk rate has increased, from 8.5% (an already high number) to 9.3%. It’s possible that 2026 marks his last run at a starting pitching role, unless he improves his ability to miss bats and avoid freely placing runners on base.

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[Whitey333]

Oh my!  Imagine that another player, Pitcher even, that is built around hope and hype.  Twins way.

[bean5302]

Bradley's problem isn't pitch selection or quality. It's meatballs. 

[bunsen82]

This really comes down to making the fastball more effective.  They have experience with a rising fastball with Ryan.  I am sure they will work on the shape.  All players that effectively come over are hype and hope @whitey333.   

https://www.mlb.com/twins/video/taj-bradley-s-nine-strikeouts-x4204

They made some significant mechanical changes with Bradley.   He averaged 96.9 mph on the fastball - the highest for a month he has his entire career.  He increased strikeout rate while decreasing his walk rate and ended on a really strong note.  There were also thoughts he would increase the splitter use with the Twins.  He kind of stated that hadn't used as much, and part of the reason he didn't have much control when he came over. 

What are the knocks I see.  In his career he has too many blowups.  When things are not going his way he really struggles to limit damage.  I do think with better stuff and more confidence the performances would go up. I got roasted a bit for this take,  Personally I think Taj hadn't put in the effort necessary to be successful at the big league level - more so on the homework or mental side.  Prior to coming over to the Twins he had never gone over scouting reports of the opposing team.   He effectively relied entirely on the catcher. But even with that - he never knew to say avoid the inside fastball on on a player or always miss away.  He rose up the system purely on talent,  at this level he is going to have to work more on his craft to be a successful pitcher.   I really want him and SWR best buddies,  as SWR has an incredible amount of knowledge for his age, and puts in a ton of work on the research, history, analytics and report side.  Next to Lopez he is probably #2 in our organization.   

There is quite a bit of low hanging fruit in my opinion to improve Taj this year.  As of now my baseline is a a #3 pitcher with upside to be a #2.  I think the Twins will make that fastball a pretty effective pitch just like they did with Joe Ryan.   Throw in the splitter, slider and finish with the elite curveball.  That can be a pretty dang effective pitcher.  

[nicksaviking]

Tampa, who was NOT in contention, straight up traded four more seasons of a 24-year-old Bradley for two seasons of 30-year-old Griffin Jax.

Tampa doesn't do that if they think Bradley's future is to remain in the rotation. I'd move him to the pen now and hope he's a lights out closer come 2027. Making that move mid-season never ends with good results.

[sweetmusicviola16]

To me Bradley is the easiest choice of all of the options. He's failed time and time again as an SP. Make the move to the pen and don't look back and if he can't do relief then move on. Festa is the other easiest choice but I could at least get the rational of giving him one more chance at starting though I'd make the transition. 

[bunsen82]

13 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Tampa, who was NOT in contention, straight up traded four more seasons of a 24-year-old Bradley for two seasons of 30-year-old Griffin Jax.

Tampa doesn't do that if they think Bradley's future is to remain in the rotation. I'd move him to the pen now and hope he's a lights out closer come 2027. Making that move mid-season never ends with good results.

No -  he has better stuff that Joe Ryan coming over.   Ryan averaged 91 mph on his fastball when he came to the Twins.  Bradley was averaging 93 and they increased it to 97 mph.   Just like Ryan the fastball has excellent ride.  If you want my personal opinion,  Tampa is not great at maximizing players that have a fastball that carries.   With the Fastball becoming more effective, utilizing the curve, and maximizing the use of the splitter and slider - he has a pitch mix that could be pretty dominant.   

I think the front office was just not seeing it with Bradley anymore.  Gave up on him for the Twins disgruntled Jax.   

[thelanges5]

Bradley will be a starting pitcher for Mexico in the WBC. Any conversion they would make with him would be after spring training. With Ryan, Lopez and Bradley all out for the WBC there are a lot of innings available to see what else we’ve got.

[bean5302]

30 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

...I really want him and SWR best buddies,  as SWR has an incredible amount of knowledge for his age, and puts in a ton of work on the research, history, analytics and report side...

...There is quite a bit of low hanging fruit in my opinion to improve Taj this year.  As of now my baseline is a a #3 pitcher with upside to be a #2.  I think the Twins will make that fastball a pretty effective pitch just like they did with Joe Ryan...

SWR was uncoachable until his last opportunity weeks before his career washed out in 2024 when he went to Twins coaches and asked for help. I don't know about his analytics knowledge. Your claim seems quite sensational, as if you're close personal friends with these players. In any case, if SWR can teach Bradley anything, it's to accept coaching.

The Twins didn't make Ryan's fastball effective. It was his only good pitch when we traded for him. The added velocity came from adding even more extension, which was designed to improve his other pitches' performance.

26 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Tampa, who was NOT in contention, straight up traded four more seasons of a 24-year-old Bradley for two seasons of 30-year-old Griffin Jax.

Tampa doesn't do that if they think Bradley's future is to remain in the rotation. I'd move him to the pen now and hope he's a lights out closer come 2027. Making that move mid-season never ends with good results.

Tampa was in contention. They were 1.5 GB from the Wild Card.

18 minutes ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

To me Bradley is the easiest choice of all of the options. He's failed time and time again as an SP. Make the move to the pen and don't look back and if he can't do relief then move on. Festa is the other easiest choice but I could at least get the rational of giving him one more chance at starting though I'd make the transition. 

Yes, there's reason to be concerned Taj Bradley will be a Brandon Pfaadt. Very good stuff, but it just doesn't seem to convert to the scoreboard. The fact Bradley continues to throw so many meatballs and locate his stuff in the middle of the zone to get crushed is concerning.

3 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

No -  he has better stuff that Joe Ryan coming over.   Ryan averaged 91 mph on his fastball when he came to the Twins.  Bradley was averaging 93 and they increased it to 97 mph.   Just like Ryan the fastball has excellent ride.  If you want my personal opinion,  Tampa is not great at maximizing players that have a fastball that carries.   With the Fastball becoming more effective, utilizing the curve, and maximizing the use of the splitter and slider - he has a pitch mix that could be pretty dominant.   

I think the front office was just not seeing it with Bradley anymore.  Gave up on him for the Twins disgruntled Jax.   

Tampa developed Joe Ryan, who didn't have exceptional "ride" on his fastball, it's performance was just attributed to being deceptive on his release point and arm angle. Aside from that, Tampa has a long history of developing high performing arms. I don't know why Tampa's front office was throwing in the towel on Bradley. Maybe he was uncoachable like SWR was for the Twins until his time ran out?

[jmlease1]

34 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Tampa, who was NOT in contention, straight up traded four more seasons of a 24-year-old Bradley for two seasons of 30-year-old Griffin Jax.

Tampa doesn't do that if they think Bradley's future is to remain in the rotation. I'd move him to the pen now and hope he's a lights out closer come 2027. Making that move mid-season never ends with good results.

TB isn't some mystical organization where if they move on from a player that player must not be capable of doing the job. I'm sure they didn't think Bradley was going to make it in their rotation doing things the way they do them. It's not a guarantee that Bradley will fail as a starter and should be moved immediately to the bullpen.

40 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

What are the knocks I see.  In his career he has too many blowups.  When things are not going his way he really struggles to limit damage.

This does seem to be the key, doesn't it? Part of the question is whether that issue is mental or physical, and whether or not different coaching and support can help him find the consistency he needs. 

Looking at his Game Scores is interesting: He'll put up games in the 60's or 70's and then roll in with a 22. (starts 10-14 in 2025). Same kind of deal in his last 3 starts with TB. (CWS, of all teams, had his number last season: 3 starts, 3 bad results. But he handled Houston great both times he faced them. You  never know with this stuff.)

He's a fascinating case and to me seems like the one you'd most likely give another run at the rotation first, out of the three profiled so far. Better arsenal, shown he can get deep into games with success, etc. I don't mind him as the 5th starter.

[mikelink45]

4.37 xFIP does not spell rotation to me.  But the Pen makes sense.  

I know Tampa makes errors, but overall if they judge him as a trade chip they generally know what they are doing.  

When I look at the pitching staff rankings on BP I find only six teams with worse eras - and we are close on two of them.  Tampa Bay was down, but their 3.94 era still made their staff above average. 

In Whip - we are way below average - Tampa Bay is way above.  And they were will to trade Bradley.  They screwed up with Ryan and we won, but that success is hard to count on.  

[Cris E]

With stuff like this and a clear record of not being particularly coachable he's a guy that needs another shot at the rotation in a new org. The shock of being sent away while young and controllable, the new voices in MN, and possibly a different thinking on how to maximize a fastball like his are all reasons to take another run at it. Going to the bullpen should be a move towards health or to focus a guy's pitch selection down to the good ones, not a punishment or resignation that things aren't working. 

Lots of guys resist listening when they've been very successful very young, and he's a prime example. Even by the end of last year they'd made some headway, so I expect that this could be a good year for Taj. I'm excited to see how he does.

[dogman]

1 hour ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

To me Bradley is the easiest choice of all of the options. He's failed time and time again as an SP. Make the move to the pen and don't look back and if he can't do relief then move on. Festa is the other easiest choice but I could at least get the rational of giving him one more chance at starting though I'd make the transition. 

One more chance for Festa ?  He has hardly had a chance.

[bunsen82]

@jmlease1 - I fully agree.  He has a wide variety of performance ability,  you still wonder how Tampa who a couple here want to tout so much,  let his arm mechanics get so far off.   Losing velocity and performance.   Bradleys first year in the big leagues - he came in with a higher velocity fastball - then it began to pull back 3 mph to the lower 90's.   As I said there is a lot of low hanging fruit - mechanical adjustments,   pitch mix location,   doing the necessary homework.    You start getting more performances like the last one, we should be pretty happy.  The 7 run outtings need to be few and far between.  Even though last year was more of a work in progress situation.   

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

Tampa, who was NOT in contention, straight up traded four more seasons of a 24-year-old Bradley for two seasons of 30-year-old Griffin Jax.

Tampa doesn't do that if they think Bradley's future is to remain in the rotation. I'd move him to the pen now and hope he's a lights out closer come 2027. Making that move mid-season never ends with good results.

You make an interesting point about 4 years of control (140 innings/yr) traded for 2 years of control (75 innings/yr)………that is not only opposed to Tampa’s thinking, it’s against nearly every other organization’s thinking, if not in “built to win now” mode. Could be Taj is a head case with a very straight fastball and Rays had the opportunity to get some value?

Pitch mix …….. if he throws more curves and splitters, his fastball will have more effectiveness w/o a doubt. Easier said than done, but it appears his “sinker” should generally displace his 4 seam and he bumps his curve up to 25-30% of his offerings - he could throw 4-seam 10-15% of the time and surprise guys with it in the zone.

I get it’s not video game baseball but somehow getting him more mentally engaged and interested in getting his pitch mix refined, to promote effectiveness - that’s key to him reaching his ceiling.

If Bailey Ober can make his 90-91Mph fastball effective via pitch mix and location, there’s hope for Taj!

[TJSweens]

I don't think the key with Bradley is fewer fastballs. Secondary pitches tend to be less effective when batters start to see them more and more. The Twins need to adjust his fastball. 

One of the few things I liked from Falvey was his creating off season pitching camps for prospects. They have camps set up to add velocity and modify spin. I would hope they sent Bradley, Abel, etc. to refine their pitches ahead of spring training. 

[bunsen82]

2 minutes ago, TJSweens said:

I don't think the key with Bradley is fewer fastballs. Secondary pitches tend to be less effective when batters start to see them more and more. The Twins need to adjust his fastball. 

One of the few things I liked from Falvey was his creating off season pitching camps for prospects. They have camps set up to add velocity and modify spin. I would hope they sent Bradley, Abel, etc. to refine their pitches ahead of spring training. 

The offseason program was going to be very important for both Abel and Bradley, and Festa and Matthews for that matter.  

[JD-TWINS]

Festa & Matthews “could be effective starters” but the reality is Matthew’s performance history does not denote that he will be effective starting! Festa’s health/arm issues do not denote that he will be effective starting!

NOBODY thought Varland “should be given up on as a starter”, ………”give him another shot in rotation….”. All 3 of these guys are lower draft picks that worked themselves into the mix - commendable for them & the organization.

Varland is NOW “the reliever we shouldn’t have traded”……after 4 months in that roll with the Twins.

Matthews at a minimum, & probably Festa as well, should be in the PEN (backend) by Opening Day.

[Linus]

Thanks for the good info. Seems like command / control is the real problem. Watching him last year I was left with the feeling that pitches got away from him frequently. 

[stringer bell]

I think it's another case of Pitching 101--throw quality strikes early in the count, get the batters out. Bradley's fastball, in particular, is/will be a lot more effective if he's ahead in the count. He gets pummeled more than most when he's behind in the count. He has the stuff to be very good. I think he should get a starting spot to begin the season with a fairly short leash.

[DJL44]

Bradley is one of the youngest of all the potential candidates for the rotation. He's younger than Prielipp, Mathews, Festa and Woods-Richardson. Only Abel and Morris are younger than Bradley and that's only by a couple months. Bradley has had more MLB success than all of those guys. He has some serious stuff and acknowledged that he needs to learn how to pitch. He admitted last summer that he wasn't doing much for game preparation.

Quote

“I worked on a few things in between adding some new stuff that I hadn’t done prior in my career, which is study the lineups and looking at the numbers and stuff like that.” - Bradley

He will have more success if he learns how to pitch instead of relying on his coaches and catcher to do that work for him.

I worry about a sinker/splitter pitcher moving from Tampa to Minnesota. Those grounders will get through the Twins infield more often.

[rdehring]

Great read, Lucas, thanks.  Also enjoyed the comments from everyone. 

So many young maybe starters with questions.  Hopefully, one or even two take that next step those great young arms at Cleveland always seem to make.  Should one of these be pushing Ryan for the #2 slot the Twins and us fans could have a nice summer.

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

4.37 xFIP does not spell rotation to me.  But the Pen makes sense.  

I know Tampa makes errors, but overall if they judge him as a trade chip they generally know what they are doing.  

When I look at the pitching staff rankings on BP I find only six teams with worse eras - and we are close on two of them.  Tampa Bay was down, but their 3.94 era still made their staff above average. 

In Whip - we are way below average - Tampa Bay is way above.  And they were will to trade Bradley.  They screwed up with Ryan and we won, but that success is hard to count on.  

Yeah, last year's 4.37 xFIP isn't good at all, but it's "passable" for a pre-arb player on team like the Twins as a #5. That said, Bradley's previous 2 seasons of xFIP were 3.62 (better than any significant starter on the Twins last year) and 3.83 (as good or better than any significant starting pitcher not named Joe Ryan last year)

The far higher xFIP in 2025 is obviously related to Bradley's struggles with location. His K rate absolutely cratered and his BB rate increased substantially. Bradley needs to throw strikes, but without the strikes being meatballs.

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

... He admitted last summer that he wasn't doing much for game preparation

He will have more success if he learns how to pitch instead of relying on his coaches and catcher to do that work for him...

I'm sure Tampa Bay's coaches were trying to encourage Taj to improve his prep, and it goes to my concern he was just arrogant and uncoachable like I suspect SWR was. Seems like the trade might have been the move that hit home for Bradley to recognize his career was trending towards ending sooner than later, just like SWR having no options and coming into 2024 as a rotation long-shot was a wake up call for SWR his career was coming to a end soon.

It's actually highly concerning for attitudes like that in the long run. Players who have to be motivated by outside forces can sometimes work hard for a year or two, get the big guaranteed payday and then coast again.

[rdehring]

4 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I'm sure Tampa Bay's coaches were trying to encourage Taj to improve his prep, and it goes to my concern he was just arrogant and uncoachable like I suspect SWR was. Seems like the trade might have been the move that hit home for Bradley to recognize his career was trending towards ending sooner than later, just like SWR having no options and coming into 2024 as a rotation long-shot was a wake up call for SWR his career was coming to a end soon.

It's actually highly concerning for attitudes like that in the long run. Players who have to be motivated by outside forces can sometimes work hard for a year or two, get the big guaranteed payday and then coast again.

Got a good smile from your last comment, bean.  Thanks.

Could we be so fortunate this guy would work hard for two years with great results.  Should that happen, it would then be time to move on from him with a big return.  That's assuming he has more than two years until free agency.  He does, doesn't he?

[HerbieFan]

No matter what Tom Pohlad thinks, this is not a contending team...not even for a WC spot.  BUT... I do think 2026 could be very beneficial for the future.  One way or another, we are going to have answers on a lot of mid-20s players.  Lewis, Lee, Wallner, Larnach, Roden, Abel, Bradley, Matthews, SWR, etc., are going to show where they do (or don't?) stand moving forward.

[DataNerd]

1. There is no way the Twins make the Jax trade if they didn't view Bradley as a starter.

2. Bradley is younger than SWR, Festa, Zebby, and even Prielipp.  Only half a year older than Abel/Morris.  He's younger than Ober/Ryan were when they made their debut.  He had some issues last year, but the trajectory of his first 2 years had him looking like a potential star.  He's easily the #4 starter for me.

[bunsen82]

43 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I'm sure Tampa Bay's coaches were trying to encourage Taj to improve his prep, and it goes to my concern he was just arrogant and uncoachable like I suspect SWR was.

FYI - I am not aware of any information stating SWR is uncoachable -  I think the opposite is actually occurring.  From the limited interviews,  he seems to be someone who is 100% committed and lives and breathes it.  His issue his stuff just isn't quite as good.  He came in with an expectation the Fastball velocity would increase and it actually decreased a bit until last year.  Last year and I think a little bit the year before they worked on increasing his velocity. 

Thats quite a difference than Bradley admitting he effectively did no homework or prep for a game start.  He showed up each day and that was that.  I will agree with you, there is a concern this could be a significant issue, but I will say I was impressed with the changes he made.  

[bunsen82]

11 minutes ago, DataNerd said:

1. There is no way the Twins make the Jax trade if they didn't view Bradley as a starter.

2. Bradley is younger than SWR, Festa, Zebby, and even Prielipp.  Only half a year older than Abel/Morris.  He's younger than Ober/Ryan were when they made their debut.  He had some issues last year, but the trajectory of his first 2 years had him looking like a potential star.  He's easily the #4 starter for me.

Most of it is people just upset with the trades.  It would be like saying Joe Ryan should have been flipped to the bullpen.  They haven't even given him an offseason to see if they can continue to make some mechanical adjustments,  making sure the pitches are tunneling -  not giving tells (I am almost positive the white Sox had something on him - they crushed him every time they saw him)  then improve the control and ride on the fastball.  Yes there is quite a bit of work,  but there was* some pretty good stuff to work with even a year ago.  The stuff was already improved by the end of the year.   

[DJL44]

51 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I'm sure Tampa Bay's coaches were trying to encourage Taj to improve his prep, and it goes to my concern he was just arrogant and uncoachable like I suspect SWR was. Seems like the trade might have been the move that hit home for Bradley to recognize his career was trending towards ending sooner than later, just like SWR having no options and coming into 2024 as a rotation long-shot was a wake up call for SWR his career was coming to a end soon.

It's actually highly concerning for attitudes like that in the long run. Players who have to be motivated by outside forces can sometimes work hard for a year or two, get the big guaranteed payday and then coast again.

It sounds very "gifted 24-year-old male athlete" to me. Many players don't put in the extra work until they get a dose of reality. None of these guys likes losing. Sometimes it takes losing to be willing to put in the work to win.