{"id":421458,"date":"2026-01-20T13:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/421458\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:10:12","slug":"after-missing-2025-season-cody-bradford-looks-to-contribute-to-rangers-pitching-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/421458\/","title":{"rendered":"After missing 2025 season, Cody Bradford looks to contribute to Rangers\u2019 pitching solution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Rangers<\/a> left-handed pitcher Cody Bradford, now onto his fourth season with the team and seventh overall with the organization, has evidently learned the company line. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can never have too much starting pitching,\u201d Bradford said Monday, in lockstep with Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young\u2019s go-to phrase<\/a>, at one of the club\u2019s Winter Warmup events. \u201cWe had eight or nine starting pitchers last year and, that\u2019s just what happens, you end up with five at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

His own injury contributed to the attrition. <\/p>\n

Now, he plans to contribute to the solution. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI just want to not only show the teams, but show the fans, that I can be the same version of myself that I\u2019ve always put forth,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cIf not a better version.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Aledo native and Baylor alum missed the entirety of last season after an internal brace procedure in June<\/a> derailed what could\u2019ve been his first full and healthy season in the club\u2019s rotation.<\/p>\n

Bradford plans to throw his first bullpen Wednesday to extend what he described as a \u201csmooth\u201d rehab process. He hopes to make his first minor league rehab start soon after spring training concludes and, in alignment with Young\u2019s comments earlier this month, remain on track for a May return. Those who undergo an internal brace procedure are generally expected to pitch at full strength 10 months after the operation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be starting in the big leagues and up to a pretty good pitch count,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cThat\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other?<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had a full season in the big leagues,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cI would love to prove that I can do that. Sometimes that\u2019s out of our body\u2019s control, or out of my control as a person, so I\u2019d love to prove that I can be a major league starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Bradford split time between the bullpen and rotation<\/a> when he debuted in the 2023 season. He posted a 3.03 ERA in 13 starts two seasons ago but missed more than two months with a lower back strain. He was in line to earn a rotation spot last spring before an elbow sprain developed into an injury that required surgery. <\/p>\n

The year off, Bradford said, allowed him to add muscle in the weight room and better understand how his body operates from a mechanical standpoint. He\u2019s tweaked how his lower body transitions into each throw in an effort to put less stress on throws, manipulate his spin pitches better and add \u201cmaybe a tick or two\u201d to his fastball, which runs in the 90 mph range. <\/p>\n

Bradford said that it\u2019s a \u201ccloudy statement\u201d to suggest that a direct correlation exists between elbow surgery and an increase in velocity. He believes that the combination of time off and a full year spent in the gym may contribute more to the spike that Tommy John surgery recoverees than the operation itself. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten six months [in the gym], and I really don\u2019t like the cliche of \u2018the best shape I\u2019ve ever been in,\u2019 so I\u2019m not going to use that,\u201d Bradford said, \u201cbut my body feels really good right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers will take that. The club still wants to bolster its rotation depth and remains active in both the free agency and trade market<\/a> with less than a month before pitchers and catchers report. They have three certified locks in right-handers Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Jack Leiter. The last two rotation spots, as the roster currently stands, will be claimed by some combination of Bradford, right-hander Kumar Rocker and left-hander Jacob Latz. <\/p>\n

Bradford said that Latz \u2014 a fellow southpaw who\u2019s bounced between the rotation and bullpen<\/a> \u2014 is \u201cdefinitely capable of being a big league starter\u201d after he had a 2.72 ERA in eight starts last season. <\/p>\n

The track record suggests that Bradford is as well. <\/p>\n

The next step is to prove that.<\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers left-handed pitcher Cody Bradford, now onto his fourth season with the team and seventh overall with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[176600,1331,3037,49,48,462,11714,82,3992],"class_list":["post-421458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aledo-school","tag-article","tag-baylor-bears","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-rangers","tag-sports","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}