Heading into the 2024 season, the Tampa Bay Rays are counting on Taj Bradley to play a feature role in their starting rotation. However, those plans have been put on halt entering Opening Day.
Bradley won’t be ready for Opening Day due to his strained pectoral injury, via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He will be shut down for two weeks as the Rays look for potential replacements already in camp.
With Shane Baz also injured, Tampa Bay is losing starting pitchers left and right. A strong bullpen game proponent, manager Kevin Cash could look to use that strategy every fifth day to begin the season. Or, he could give an opportunity to another young player inside the organization. Whichever option Cash chooses through won’t be Bradley.
The right-hander struggled to find his footing over his first 23 games of MLB action in 2023. While his 129/39 K/BB ratio was impressive, Bradley’s 5.59 ERA left a lot more to desired.
However, Bradley is a former top prospect who ranked as the team’s third-best as recently as 2022, via MLB Pipeline. He held a 24-21 record, 3.02 ERA and a 382/115 K/BB ratio over his 83 games at the minor league level. Despite his 2023 struggles, the Rays still have high hopes for Bradley.
Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, they’ll need to wait before seeing him on the mound again. The Rays will now scramble for short-term options to replace Taj Bradley in the rotation. The team’s biggest fear is the right missing more time than his two week shutdown window. Tampa knows Bradley has potential to add extra firepower to the team’s pitching options once healthy.
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