VENICE, Fla. — Taj Bradley had to wait a little extra to finally see the results of all his offseason work in action. The starter thinks he might have been the last to find out Sunday’s game had been delayed by an hour because of rain.
He was hanging in the clubhouse. Then he was riding a stationary bike. He chatted with Byron Buxton, bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins and director of team security Charles Adams.
The extra hour didn’t seem to faze him.
Sunday marked his first chance to test out his new two-seamer he had been working on and his revamped splitter. In those respects, the starter walked away from his first spring training start happy. Bradley threw three innings in the Twins’ 8-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves at CoolToday Park. Facing a lineup packed with Braves regulars, Bradley gave up one run — a home run to Drake Baldwin — while striking out five.
He was pleased with his ability to get ahead of hitters and said he thought his stuff felt good. After giving up hits to the first two batters he faced, he got out of the jam unscathed, a point of emphasis for his new manager, Derek Shelton.
“I thought he was really really good,” Shelton said. “First impression of him getting into any kind of trouble and then being able to dial it in and make pitches was really impressive.”
Though he has spent most of the past three seasons pitching in the majors, he was at Triple-A when the Twins acquired him last July. When he was sent down, working on his splitter was a particular point of emphasis.
It was this offseason, too.
Bradley, who had a 5.05 earned-run average last season across 27 major league starts, said it took months of catch play to feel comfortable with the grip. He went to Dallas this offseason and worked with a group that included Twins prospect Marco Raya, who he said gave him some feedback to improve the pitch.
“I was tweaking and found a grip I could be consistent with, and that’s the one I just rode with all the way into spring training. And I threw a few good ones (Sunday),” Bradley said. “I got (Ozzie) Albies with one, (Ronald) Acuña, I got him to foul one off, so I think it was a good pitch. And I got the double-play ball to (Matt) Olson with one.”
The starter also added a two-seamer to his arsenal — “just another pitch to throw in the mix and keep hitters off balance” — and said he was happy with the soft contact it got.
Bradley had an extended start in his debut because he is preparing to compete for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic next month. Former Tampa Bay teammate Randy Arozarena introduced Bradley, who was born in the United States but is eligible to play through his grandmother, to Mexico’s general manager in 2023, kickstarting that relationship.
His offseason routine, though, he said was more or less similar, though his bullpens were more stretched out because of the upcoming competition.
This offseason was his first in the Twins organization after being acquired for Griffin Jax last July. He credited Twins pitching coaches — Pete Maki, Luis Ramirez and Hawkins — with helping simplify things for him as he adjusted to the team.
“We’ve got LaTroy here to be a little bit of the art, Pete’s the science … you’ve got Luis helping you with the little finer things like mechanics,” Bradley said. “(It’s) like a good mix of coaches and good mentors that you can throw all into one person and be a great pitcher from it.”
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