Texas Rangers Rookie Cody Bradford Reflects On 'Dream Come True'
Texas Rangers pitcher Cody Bradford started the 2023 season at Triple-A Round Rock and ended it by celebrating a World Series championship.
He told MLB.com earlier this week that the whole experience was “a dream come true.”
“The first year being in the Major Leagues and having the opportunity to make a World Series run and pitch in the postseason, I don’t know what to say,” Bradford said.
Bradford, an Aledo native, made his MLB debut with the Rangers on May 15, a month after an incredible start at Round Rock that saw him named the Pacific Coast League’s Pitcher of the Month.
The Rangers called him up to make a spot start to give their rotation a break after a long road trip.
By season’s end, he had done enough to earn the confidence of manager Bruce Bochy and general manager Chris Young. The latter, at one point, had some words for Bradford after a rough outing.
Those words from Young, a former MLB pitcher who won a World Series with Kansas City in 2015, now feel like foreshadowing.
“I had a bad outing earlier in the year and he said to me, ‘Keep your head up, we’re still going to need you down the road,’” Bradford said. “At the time, being a guy bouncing back between Triple-A and the Majors, it felt like every time I had a bad outing I thought, ‘There goes my opportunity.’ So the GM saying something briefly to me to help me settle in and I think, ‘Hey, it’s OK to have a rough outing here and there.”
Bradford ended up pitching 20 games for the Rangers (eight starts), going 4-3 with a 5.30 ERA. He made five postseason appearances, going 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA. All were in relief. He made two in the World Series, both of which were scoreless innings of relief as the Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games.
Bradford was still good enough in the minor leagues to be named the PCL Pitcher of the Year.
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