Rangers Outline Next Steps for Cody Bradford in Elbow Injury Rehab

For Cody Bradford, the ramp-up is coming, slowly but surely.

The Texas Rangers left-hander, who has been on the mend since last summer after internal brace surgery, is preparing for bullpen sessions over the next two weeks that will allow him to face live hitters, per Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News (subscription required).

Bradford will throw two 50-pitch bullpens this week and then follow that with two 55-pitch bullpens the next week. Assuming Bradford has not setbacks, the next step would be pitching to live hitters the week of March 16.

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.

With the number of starting pitchers the Rangers have, he doesn’t need to rush. The hope is that Bradford is ready sometime this season.

Cody Bradford’s Injury History

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Cody Bradford throws a baseball during a game. — Texas Rangers starting pitcher Cody Bradford. | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

Bradford developed a left elbow sprain last season that kept him out of opening day and placed him on the injured list. At one point, he was close to heading to a minor league affiliate to begin an injury rehab assignment. There was hope he could be game ready by early July.

He required elbow surgery shortly after that, which ended his season. He had the revision surgery on the left elbow, performed by Rangers team surgeon Dr. Keith Meister. He’s never had full Tommy John reconstruction surgery, so the revision was used to help reduce his time to recovery. Tommy John surgery usually requires 12-18 months to recover from.

Bradford has his surgery in June. It’s possible he could be ready to pitch in a Major League game one year out from the surgery.

The Rangers are counting on Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Jack Leiter and MacKenzie Gore to be their first four starters in the rotation. Kumar Rocker and Jacob Latz are competing to be the fifth starter, with Cal Quantrill the most likely candidate to take the spot as a non-roster invitee, assuming Rocker and Latz are unable to take hold of the job.

Bradford is one of two starters that is recovering from elbow surgery that could be options this year. The other is Jordan Montgomery, who had Tommy John surgery last year. He was part of the Rangers’ 2023 World Series team and re-signed with them last month.

A starting spot for the left-hander is not a necessity for him to be an effective piece of the Rangers’ pitching staff. Bradford has been indispensable depth to the Rangers in 2023 and 2024 out of the bullpen and in the starting rotation.

In 2023 he made his MLB debut and went 4-3 with a 5.30 ERA in 20 games (eight starts) as mainly a spot-start for the Rangers. He was on the postseason roster that won the World Series.

He earned a starting rotation job coming out of spring training in 2024 and pitched well. But a lower back strain put him on the IL for three months and he didn’t return until August. He went 6-3 with a 3.54 ERA in 14 games (13 starts). He struck out 70 and walked 13 in 76.1 innings.