The Rangers’ rotation was just dealt a major blow.
President of baseball operations Chris Young announced on Tuesday that left-hander Cody Bradford is going to have elbow surgery. Team physician Dr. Keith Meister will perform the surgery Wednesday in Arlington. It’s unclear if it will be Tommy John or an internal brace, which would require a shorter rehab.
“I can't emphasize enough the person that Cody Bradford is,” Young said on Zoom. “We have full confidence that he'll get through this. I spoke to him earlier today. Obviously he's very disappointed, very bummed. But he'll attack this next challenge head on and come back better than ever. We wish him the best. We really feel for him as an organization, because we know how hard he's worked and really how much he embodies our core values and everything we're about. So a tough day for Cody, and our thoughts are with him.”
Bradford was shut down midway through Spring Training with elbow soreness and has been attempting to ramp up over the last few weeks. The initial MRI back in camp came back clean.
On June 14, Bradford threw two simulated innings of live batting practice, throwing about 25 pitches in his first “inning” and between 12-15 in the second. The staff had hoped that he would be stretched out to five innings by July 4.
Young described it as a “setback” in his rehab that led to needing surgery.
“Obviously it’s a tough blow for the team, but more importantly for Cody,” Young said. “He worked extremely hard and looked great this spring. He was going to be a big part of our season this year, and to lose him today is tough news. But that’s part of the game. We look forward to helping Cody get back to full health and contributing in future years to the Texas Rangers.”
Bradford was arguably the Rangers’ best starting pitcher in 2024 when he was healthy, though he was sidelined for months with nagging back and rib injuries. The southpaw had a 1.40 ERA when he first landed on the injured list on April 14, 2024. He finished the season with a 3.54 ERA in 76 1/3 innings.
The Rangers have been operating with four starting pitchers for the last two and a half weeks, with Nathan Eovaldi (right triceps soreness) and Tyler Mahle (right shoulder fatigue) joining Bradford and Jon Gray (right wrist fracture) on the injured list.
Jacob deGrom, Patrick Corbin, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker have performed admirably, with the group still holding the best ERA in the American League at 3.27 entering Tuesday’s matchup with the Orioles. But they’ve also put together a 5.02 ERA (34 ER/61.0 IP) over their last seven games to raise the collective ERA from 3.10 to 3.27.
“I don't think anything changes,” Young said. “We are confident in the group we have. We're getting Evo back this week, and I think it just means that we've got to continue to prioritize and focus on the health of the current group. Any additional moves, I think somewhat are going to be related to the performance of the team.”