Texas Rangers Prospect Cody Bradford Off to Great Start at Triple-A
Cody Bradford has gotten off to one of the best starts of any pitcher in the Texas Rangers organization, as the left-hander won his third straight game for the Triple-A Round Rock Express on Friday.
Bradford breezed through five innings in the Express’ 7-1 win over Tacoma in Pacific Coast League action. He allowed only one run on two hits with three walks and six strikeouts.
Bradford, 25, isn’t as highly-touted as some of the other pitching prospects in this system, such as Owen White, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. But Bradford is the Rangers' No. 26 prospect, per MLB.com. Bradford was a non-roster invitee to Spring Training.
He won his previous two starts for the Express. In his first start on April 1 against Albuquerque, Bradford went 5 1/3 innings, giving up two hits, no runs and two walks while striking outs six hitters.
On April 8, Bradford went a season-high six innings, giving up a hit, no runs and a walk while striking out four.
Through three starts Bradford is 3-0 with a 0.55 ERA. He’s allowed five hits, one run and six walks. He has struck out 16.
He’s coming off a 2022 season in which he pitched for Double-A Frisco and went 10-7 with a 5.01 ERA in 26 starts. He walked 33 and struck out 124 and helped the RoughRiders to a Texas League title.
Before that, he spent the 2021 season with High Class-A Hickory and Frisco, going a combined 6-4 with a 4.11 ERA, walking 21 and striking out a career-high 128.
The Rangers took Bradford as their sixth-round pick in the 2019 MLB draft out of Baylor, where he was 12-11 in three seasons with a 3.86 ERA. He did not pitch for the Rangers in 2019 or 2020, the latter of which was due to COVID-16 cancelling the MiLB season.
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