Bradley delivered another strong start for the Twins.
Taj Bradley bounced around the Tampa Bay Rays system for three seasons, flashing elite stuff but never fully putting it together for a full year.
Minnesota traded reliever Griffin Jax to get the 25-year-old right-hander at the 2025 deadline, betting on the raw talent more than the numbers, and so far this season that bet is looking better and better.
Bradley turned in his best outing in weeks on Friday night against the Colorado Rockies, working seven innings while giving up just three hits, two earned runs, and three walks with seven strikeouts.
He was sharp from the first pitch and kept Rockies hitters off balance with a fastball that has been sitting around 97 mph all year and a splitter that has quietly become one of the better pitches in the league.
It was his second straight outing where he held the opponent to two runs or fewer, exactly the kind of stretch the Twins needed from him.
Shelton Backs Up Bradley
The bullpen made things messy after Bradley left, with the Rockies rallying for three runs in the eighth and five in the ninth to force extras before Minnesota pulled out a walk-off win in the 10th.
Manager Derek Shelton, though, was not about to let that finish take anything away from what his starter did.
"It should not in any way sugarcoat how good Taj was," Shelton said. "I mean, that was electric. That was elite. ... The eighth and ninth inning were not pretty for us on the pitching side of the ball and they continued to battle and we end up winning a game because of it."
Shelton's words reveal how he sees Bradley's role on this team, and the first-year Twins manager has been vocal about Bradley's growth since Opening Day.
He pointed to Bradley's maturation after the righty outdueled two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in April, and that confidence from the coaching staff has not wavered even through a rough stretch and a stint on the injured list with pectoral inflammation.
The Trade Looks Like a Steal
Through 15 starts in 2026, Bradley owns a 6-3 record with a 3.98 ERA and 91 strikeouts across 83.2 innings.
Those are the best numbers of his four-year career, and the strikeout rate has jumped back up to the level that made him such a highly regarded young arm in the first place.
His fastball velocity is up a full tick from last season, and the splitter that the Twins sent him to the minors to refine after the trade has turned into a real swing-and-miss weapon.
Minnesota sits at 39-44, third in the AL Central and still looking for consistency, but the rotation has been a bright spot thanks in large part to Bradley settling in alongside Joe Ryan.
With Bradley under team control through 2029, the Jax-for-Bradley swap is shaping up as one of the better midseason deals from last summer.
The Twins may not be contenders yet, but they appear to have found a piece worth building around.
