ARMED AND READY: Biscuits' Bradley has tools to be top arm in Tampa organization

Biscuits starter Taj Bradley has become the top pitching prospect in the Tampa organization. He is scheduled to start tonight against the M-Braves. (Staff Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

When Biscuits manager Morgan Ensberg looks at Taj Bradley, he sees the type of athlete that could dominate whatever sport he plays.

“He’s very athletic,” Ensberg said. “He looks every bit an athlete that should be on a basketball court or a football field.”

Ironically, Bradley never played any other sports growing up in the metro Atlanta area. 

“I just always played baseball,” he said. “I did some swimming, just because I heard that was good for arm strength, for arm maintenance, but other than that I only played baseball.”

Did he feel like swimming helped his development on the baseball diamond?

“I would say so,” he said. “I did swimming before my (senior) season started and afterwards my (velocity) went up a little.”

A right-hander, Bradley is considered one of the top pitching prospects in all of Minor League Baseball, which is pretty remarkable considering he never pitched until his senior year at Redan High in Stone Mountain, Ga. 

“I played everywhere except shortstop,” he said, “and pitching was never a primary (position) at all. I would come in and clean up innings in travel ball if they had no one else to go but my senior year, that’s when I really started pitching as my primary position.”

By the end of his senior year, he was an intriguing prospect, a player recruited for his ability as a center fielder and batter (he had signed to play baseball at the University of South Carolina) but suddenly one who emerged as a standout pitcher with a rapidly improving fastball and slider.

“The sky’s the limit with him in terms of ability,” Ensberg said. “Big fastball; sharp off-speed; fills up the zone. He has a chance to be a No. 1 or No. 2 starter in the big leagues.”

It only took one year of high school pitching for the Rays to see his potential, taking him in the fifth round of the 2018 draft and signing him to more than double the slot amount. He spent that fall with the Gulf Coast Rays, followed by a trip to Princeton in 2019 before the Coronavirus pandemic interrupted his journey in 2020.

“They told us two weeks. Two weeks turned into a year,” Bradley said, calling the year off “a good learning year” back home in Georgia. “I didn’t take a break at all. I figured this month is going to be the month they call us back.”

He came back in ‘21 at Charleston and Bowling Green as an improved pitcher, using a more efficient delivery that increased his velocity from mid-90s to upper-90s, along with the development of a curveball to complement his slider plus give him a nasty breaking ball that is Major League ready, according to Ensberg.

Now, it’s a matter of deciding whether the right hander who just turned 21 two weeks before the start of the 2022 season is mentally ready for the next challenge.

“We need games to know when people are ready,” Ensberg said. “We know he’s prepared. This is very much like you’d see on an actual farm. Our product here is growing. They’re young; they’re maturing. They need practice so they can have the pitches they need in the big leagues, so they have the maturity to handle the stresses and the pressures.

“All 30 picks in the first round don’t go to the big leagues, so there’s something else. Certainly, they have the ability.”

Bradley made 22 starts in Single-A ball last year and allowed just 21 earned runs for the best earned run average (1.83) in all of Minor League Baseball. 

Double-A, obviously, is a bit tougher.

“They say the hitters’ approaches are more advanced and more strict -- they’re not chasing anything out of the zone -- so I’m more focused on filling up the zone, figuring out the hitters through their swings, and taking it from there,” Bradley said.

“My strengths were the fastball and the cutter last year. So, just trying to figure out how to use them. I don’t have anything to go off of, so I’ll just figure out my game as I go out on the first outing and just figure it out and progress.”

He’s thankful he’s just a short interstate drive away from family and friends that can travel to watch him pitch in Montgomery and while he has a burning desire to reach the Major League level, he trusts the Rays’ organization to figure out when he’s ready and has no unrealistic expectations.   

“Be where your feet are and just dominate where you are and that’ll justify if you’re ready for the next step,” he said. “I never look too far ahead. Just wherever I am at that moment, figure out how I can dominate.”

Bradley is scheduled to make his next start tonight against Mississippi.