Twins deadline pickup Taj Bradley pitches well in St. Paul Saints debut

Bradley followed Mick Abel in throwing a strong start for the Saints in his Twins organizational debut.

Jul 5, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Taj Bradley (45) throws to the Minnesota Twins in the first inning at Target Field. | Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Taj Bradley, the 24-year-old right-hander the Twins acquired for Griffin Jax in one of their many pre-deadline trades, pitched well for Triple-A St. Paul in his organizational debut on Wednesday.

Bradley went six innings, allowing one earned run on five hits and no walks. He struck out four batters. Of his 73 pitches, 47 were strikes and eight resulted in swings and misses. Bradley's four-seam fastball got up to 97.6 miles per hour, and he mixed in plenty of cutters, curveballs, and splitters.

Taj Bradley with a solid showing in his @Twins organizational debut 🌊

6 IP / 5 H / 1 R / 0 BB / 4 K

He topped out at 97.6 MPH on the day⛽️#MNTwins pic.twitter.com/YdmRZ1rQHA

— Twins Player Development (@TwinsPlayerDev) August 6, 2025

On Sunday, Mick Abel — who came over from the Phillies in the Jhoan Duran trade — had a strong debut with the Saints. Both Abel and Bradley have things the Twins want them to work on, but they should make their way to the big leagues before long.

For Bradley, one thing president of baseball operations Derek Falvey has mentioned is continued work on his splitter. That was an effective pitch for him last season, but this year, his feel for the pitch hasn't been as consistent. He threw 13 splitters on Wednesday, and that'll continue to be one of his focuses moving forward with St. Paul. This isn't a situation where Bradley or Abel will be headed to the Twins after just one start with the Saints.

Bradley has only made four starts at Triple-A since the start of the 2024 season. In those four starts, he's allowed two earned runs on seven hits and five walks over 24 innings, striking out 22. That's a 0.75 ERA. Bradley, who has flashed some serious upside over 354 innings with the Rays, clearly has MLB-caliber stuff. But he also has a career 4.70 ERA, so the Twins want him to continue refining his arsenal a little bit before he makes his debut in a Minnesota uniform.

Abel is lined up to pitch at CHS Field in St. Paul sometime this weekend. Bradley's next start for the Saints figures to come early next week in Omaha.