Taj Bradley keeps giving the Twins exactly what a rotation needs: a start they can trust.
On Friday night, he logged six scoreless innings in a 5-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, giving up just one hit and four walks while striking out six. It was Bradley’s 13th quality start of the season, and his third in three tries against the Guardians. He also reached a milestone along the way, recording his 600th career strikeout in only 104 starts.
That outing fit the broader picture of Bradley’s first season in Minnesota since arriving at last year’s trade deadline in the deal that sent reliever Griffin Jax to the Twins. He’s taken his share of bumps, but the right-hander is settling into the kind of dependable, playoff-caliber starter Minnesota hoped it was getting.
Bradley isn’t even through his fourth MLB season yet, and the numbers point to a pitcher moving in the right direction. He’s on pace to finish with a 3.81 ERA and roughly 2.3 WAR.
For comparison, Joe Ryan’s first four seasons from 2021 to 2024 produced a 3.91 ERA and an average of 2.1 WAR per year, while Bailey Ober posted a 3.76 ERA and averaged 1.9 WAR over the same stage of his career. The contexts weren’t identical - Ryan had 84 starts through year four, Ober 88, and Bradley will finish this season with 105 - but the Twins have seen this kind of progression before.
What stands out most is how steadily Bradley has climbed. His WAR has gone from 0.8 in 2023 to 1.5 in 2024, to 1.7 last year, and now 2.3 so far in 2026. His expected ERA has also improved year by year, dropping from 4.41 in 2023 to 4.15 in 2024, to 4.09 last year, and 3.99 this season.
Manager Derek Shelton, speaking to MLB.com’s Matthew Leech after Bradley’s recent start in Chicago, pointed to that growth directly.
“I think you even see the maturation of it this year,” Shelton told Leech. “He continues to get better.
He continues to get stronger. … He is doing such a better job as he matures of being able to flush those innings.”
That’s the kind of language teams use when a pitcher is earning real trust. Bradley has done that by working through trouble instead of letting it snowball.
There was a rough stretch from late May through June, when he posted a 4.96 ERA and 1.39 WHIP. In eight starts during that span, he reached the sixth inning only twice and allowed seven home runs.
But he weathered it, adjusted, and has been much sharper since. Over his last 13 starts, he owns a 3.76 ERA with a 27.7% strikeout rate and a .206 batting average allowed.
“I see growth in bits and pieces when I allow myself to,” Bradley said (via Leech’s mailbag). “Excited about all the stuff I’ve learned within looking at the game, reading swings throughout the game, talking with my catchers and figuring out what’s their reasoning for calling this next pitch. And it’s helping me grow as a pitcher.”
That kind of collaboration matters, especially for a pitcher who admitted he mostly ignored scouting reports with his previous organization. Whether it’s a new approach to preparation, the work he’s put into his craft, or simply time smoothing out the rough edges, Bradley looks like a starter the Twins can lean on.
And with Minnesota needing rotation stability, having him in place for the next three-plus years looks awfully important.
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