There was no sweep of the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday — the Twins losing badly 8-0 — but more questions and concerns likely are being raised about starter Taj Bradley, the clear surprise of the 2026 season, after he turned in a second straight sub-par performance.
He didn’t exactly get lit up by the Sox, but he also couldn’t find the strike zone as he walked five batters across just four-plus innings. Only 63 of his 104 pitches landed for strikes.
The concern, of course, is that the early part of the season was an outlier of sorts for Bradley, and that rather than seeing a new and improved pitcher on his way to sustained success, we are about to get a pitcher who pitched to a 5.05 ERA in 2025, a 4.11 ERA in 2024 and a 5.59 ERA in 2023. All of this instead of the guy currently pitching to a career low earned run average this season.
In fairness to Bradley, he got absolutely no support from the offense (five hits) and there were three errors behind him.
The Kansas City Royals are at Target Field Thursday. Andrew Morris gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–Perhaps Tristan Gray shouldn’t play shortstop after he committed those three errors, two fielding and one throwing. Not a good day at the office.
–Bradley’s line: Four runs allowed on seven hits with five walks and five whiffs across four-plus innings. He falls to 5-2 with a 3.56 ERA.
–None of the pitching was very good: Reliever Eric Orze allowed a run and Cody L., fresh off the injured list, allowed three runs across just an inning of work.
–Struggling pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson, who didn’t record a win with the Twins this season, is headed back to Toronto after he was designated for assignment by the Twins, then traded to the Blue Jays for cash considerations, MLB Trade Rumors reports.
This is what we call a full-circle moment for SWR because he was traded by the Blue Jays to the Twins in exchange for Jose Berrios in 2021.
–Speaking of Berrios, the durable right-hander who was drafted by the Twins and spent the first six of his 10 major league seasons in Minnesota, recently had Tommy John surgery. Best wishes on a full recovery for La Makina.