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

[DJL44]

The trade looks really bad for Tampa right now. They added Jax to contend, but this season they're retooling and Jax sticks out like a sore thumb as trade bait on their roster.

[OregonTwinsFan]

41 minutes ago, DataNerd said:

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

This is it, exactly. He will be a starter.

[stringer bell]

52 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.

The 2025 trade was made by a guy who isn't there any more. Zoll may or may not believe the same thing.

[Danchat]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

The trade looks really bad for Tampa right now. They added Jax to contend, but this season they're retooling and Jax sticks out like a sore thumb as trade bait on their roster.

Hard to say it's a bad trade for them if Jax still has value that will be worth trading for. Maybe not ideal for a team that isn't ready to do anything in the playoffs, but if they were ready to throw in the towel on Bradley as a starter, then may as well get two years of one of the better relievers in the game for him.

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

The 2025 trade was made by a guy who isn't there any more. Zoll may or may not believe the same thing.

While true, Falvey just left and they likely had Bradley continue prepping to start. That may change down the road, but I doubt they're going to move him to the pen right away now that Falvey is gone.

[Gamblerssoftball]

MLB has Bradley projected as the Twins fourth starter.

[nicksaviking]

3 hours ago, stringer bell said:

The 2025 trade was made by a guy who isn't there any more. Zoll may or may not believe the same thing.

Zoll was the GM last year, I think he was probably entertaining and executing the trades while Falvey was the guy approving them.

[bunsen82]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

The trade looks really bad for Tampa right now. They added Jax to contend, but this season they're retooling and Jax sticks out like a sore thumb as trade bait on their roster.

Tampa has historically tried to trade for closers, but in this case,  I think they were more willing to just be done with Bradley and extract the most value they could.  Odds are Twins win this trade, and they could massively win the trade if Bradley performs like a #2 or #3 starter.  

[darin617]

They simply need to give Taj Bradley at least 1 more year as a starter. He can't be a free agent until 2030 and he was only in the organization for a couple of months. 

I think if he doesn't make the rotation you just send him to St Paul and keep him starting for now.  You can easily turn a starter into a bullpen guy during the season. It's obviously not as easy to go the other way.

The same should go for Zebby Matthews. I could see David Festa as a guy for the bullpen. He just doesn't seem like he can go through the lineup more than one time effectively. Festa also has dealt with some injuries so he may be the starter I would first transition to the bullpen. 

[Twins33]

12 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

NOBODY thought Varland “should be given up on as a starter”,

There wasn’t many of us, but it was more than “nobody.”

 

[Twins33]

I’m on the fence about Bradley. I definitely lean BP, but since he’s barely been on the team, I’d like to see if the Twins can tweak anything to improve him. If they can’t figure it out in one season, which is probably unfair, I’d definitely be for moving him to the BP permanently. 

[USAFChief]

2 hours ago, Twins33 said:

There wasn’t many of us, but it was more than “nobody.”

 

Bringin' the receipts!

[Doctor Wu]

Very informative analysis of Bradley and his pitch mix. Thanks for that information. Lots of details, but that helps me understand his pitching style more. I liked him in Tampa Bay and was thrilled when the Twins acquired him. Sure, he's taken a few lumps in his career thus far, but as pointed out by others, he's also already had a few years of MLB experience, and has had some successful games, plus he's still relatively young. I still see him as a starter this season and hope having done some off-season work will reap benefits. I wouldn't relegate him to the bullpen just yet. 

[bean5302]

15 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Zoll was the GM last year, I think he was probably entertaining and executing the trades while Falvey was the guy approving them.

I think Falvey micromanaged with an iron fist.

[nicksaviking]

4 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

I think Falvey micromanaged with an iron fist.

The Pohlads don't strike me as people who would pay two guys to do the same job.

[AceWrigley]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

The Pohlads don't strike me as people who would pay two guys to do the same job.

And pfft he was gone.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, AceWrigley said:

And pfft he was gone.

Right, after a decade.

I've been saying this whole time that I didn't think Falvey and Levine then Falvey and Zoll actually did the same thing. Fans weren't privy to the delegation of tasks, but Favley was clearly hired to be the architect so it would then stand to reason that the GMs were hired to acquire the pieces to build his mansion ice house.

[AceWrigley]

55 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Right, after a decade.

I've been saying this whole time that I didn't think Falvey and Levine then Falvey and Zoll actually did the same thing. Fans weren't privy to the delegation of tasks, but Favley was clearly hired to be the architect so it would then stand to reason that the GMs were hired to acquire the pieces to build his mansion ice house.

But only a few months under Tom "T-Ball" Pohlad.