MN Twins’ Top Deadline Prize Makes Astonishing Admission

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Taj Bradley - Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox
Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Since Minnesota Twins president Derek Falvey teamed up with the Pohlad family to deal Carlos Correa, Chris Paddack, Willi Castro and most of their bullpen at the MLB Trade Deadline, the Twins have predictably gotten even worse than the disaster they rolled into the end of July with.

While that may be unsurprising, as usual, the devil is in the details. It’s not the final scores that have been most frustrating. Instead, it’s how they’ve gotten to where they are.

Minnesota’s two biggest talent acquisitions at the trade deadline, starting pitchers Taj Bradley and Mick Abel, were both placed in Triple-A St. Paul, upon their arrival to the organization. Neither have fared well, but both received recent call-ups anyway.

The results have been… mostly disappointing. Bradley has a 7.20 ERA and a 1.400 WHIP in his 10 innings as a Twin, Abel a 24.75 ERA and 4.250 WHIP (4 innings).

Taj Bradley’s discovery of pregame preparation pays off for Minnesota Twins

On Saturday, however, Bradley had his best performance in a long time, tossing 5 innings (83 pitches) of 1 run, 1 hit baseball (6K/3BB). Unfortunately, Mick Abel came in for the 6th, where he proceeded to allow 6 runs on 7 hits (59 pitches) in his one inning of work. He was sent back to St. Paul afterwards.

But it was the quote given by Minnesota’s other main trade acquisition after the game — when asked if he did anything different for this start, compared to prior ones this season — where Taj Bradley made a shocking admission.

He did, infact, do something different prior to this weekend’s start vs the Padres. For the first time in his big league career, the 24-year-old actually studied the opposing lineup and hitter tendencies.

On the latest paid Patreon episode of “Gleeman and the Geek” ($$$ – Patreon), Twins beat reporter Aaron Gleeman (The Athletic) recalled how Bradley’s blunt admission left him and other beat reporters in the Target Field locker room stunned.

So we’re talking to [Taj Bradley] and he’s talking about, you know, I felt good, I worked on this, all that. And then so someone asked…basically what was different, you know, something like that.

And he said, 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.”

Aaron Gleeman – Gleeman and the Geek (Paid Patreon)

Related: Twins Ace Nearing Return; Veteran Catcher Trying

Bradley, 24, was acquired in the Griffin Jax deal, and came with more MLB experience (69 MLB starts). Abel, also 24, was the highly-touted prospect with just six big league starts at the time of the trade. He too headlined the package Minnesota received in exchange for a top reliever, 27-year-old Jhoan Duran.

Bradley’s bad study habits not as surprising as you may think?

There are a few different ways you can take all of this. Like Gleeman, my initial reaction was one of semi-shock. How could a professional pitcher not study opposing lineups, when they are making, at the very least, an upper six-figure salary?

Not only that, but how is Taj Bradley — a borderline MLB starter for five years — allowed to ignore scouting reports, when his teammates are not. Well, Gleeman asked around and what he found was also surprising. Those he knows inside of baseball didn’t gasp at Bradley’s quote, like reporters did.

Apparently, there are a lot of teams out there who, depending on the pitcher, would prefer to have their catcher call games and worry about hitter tendencies, as opposed to the guy on the mound.

“So I asked around about this. I asked a couple people with the Rays, I asked a couple people with the Twins. Basically I said, is this plausible? Like is this just someone talking? And I don’t think it’s plausible in the sense that he wasn’t presented with all that [information] and more from the Rays.

Now, the Twins have a different approach to it. So maybe from his standpoint, it was like, ‘oh, this is a new way to do this’, but there’s no chance that the Rays didn’t try to get him to [study opposing hitters].”

“But then here was something that two different people told me, one with the Twins and one not with the Twins, who said think about this and it might change the way you view it.”

“[MLB teams] have all that information and [they] need someone to have that information for the start. But does it have to be the starting pitcher or could it be the catcher? In a lot of ways, the catcher can be like someone playing a video game where they just have the controls.”

Aaron Gleeman – Gleeman and the Geek (Paid Patreon)

Still, you have to think these teams would want pitchers to, at the least, have a base knowledge of the opposing lineups, even if they aren’t in charge of choosing the pitch sequence, right? Then, it dawned on me. This isn’t a Taj Bradley problem… it’s league-wide.

Minnesota Twins, other teams cannot force players to work hard

If the Tampa Bay Rays — who are widely seen as one of the most analytically driven organizations in baseball — had accepted that Taj Bradley wasn’t going to study up on opponents prior to his starts, then they probably have multiple pitchers on staff who prepare (or don’t) the same way he does.

Even in the world of professional sports, some people work hard, others rely on their talent to get by. And if the Rays have multiple pitchers on their staff who don’t study, then imagine how many around the entire big leagues fit into that same category.

“I just never did it at all. I was kind of out there blind the whole time. After my last outing, I had a lot of soft contact, so I figured now is the time. OK, get your head in the books. Learn a bit about the hitters you’re going up against, learn their weaknesses. And now we can be on the same page and just attack the zone.”

“I mean, they give you the numbers. They think it’s the best and they’re the best thing. And they’re probably right. It it was just me being hard, hard headed, me finally getting out of my own way. It’s like, OK, this is the game you’re playing and they’re studying you just as much as you’re studying them.

Taj Bradley – Quote via Gleeman and the Geek (Paid Patreon)

The Minnesota Twins are just trying to get through the 2025 season and trying to keep their minds from wandering out to Hawaii, maybe the Bahamas or even which of the 10,000 local frozen lakes they will be fishing this offseason.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, especially the fans, Major League Baseball does not have a mercy rule on their 162-game regular season. So god-willing, Twins players will suit up on Wednesday night and take to Target Field for game 139 of the season.

Final Taj Bradley starts worth watching for MN Twins fans

But no doubt, there are still some storylines to pay attention to. And whether or not Taj Bradley continues to pitch better, after taking pre-start mental prep more seriously, just skyrocketed to the top of my list.

It’s possible this could start as an embarrassing story, that we eventually look back on as the moment Bradley turned his career around. If he can become a viable starter for the next few seasons, the Griffin Jax trade will probably end up looking like a steal for the MN Twins

Related: Worst Case Scenario for Young MN Twins Starter

Tonight, however, the Twins are just trying to avoid falling down 3-0 to start their four-game home series against the lowly Chicago White Sox. After playing well on the road against the AL contender Toronto Blue Jays last week, Rocco Baldelli & Co took two of three against the NL contender San Diego Padres.

All that just to go home and lose two straight vs the only team in the American League who, at 51-88, has a worse record than you do. Suddenly, a fresh, confident-looking Twins roster is on the brink of everything falling apart yet again. That was until are 7-16 since August 9

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