{"id":105246,"date":"2025-07-31T19:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T23:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=105246"},"modified":"2025-07-31T19:46:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T23:46:28","slug":"rays-acquire-stud-reliever-griffin-jax-twins-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/31\/rays-acquire-stud-reliever-griffin-jax-twins-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Acquire Stud Reliever from Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Tampa Bay Rays have acquired reliever <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jaxgr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Griffin Jax<\/a> via trade from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for starting pitcher <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bradlta01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taj Bradley<\/a>. It&#8217;s a 1-for-1 swap of pitchers who have experienced interesting seasons. The Rays obviously need a lot of bullpen help after the unit posted a horrendous month of July. Bradley was the subject of <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/45794701\/2025-mlb-trade-deadline-preview-passan-rumors-intel-yankees-cubs-phillies-suarez-clase\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">numerous<\/a> trade rumors and is headed to a club that executed a massive trade deadline sell-off.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_103947\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103947\" style=\"width: 479px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-103947\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26620259-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"479\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26620259-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26620259-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26620259-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/USATSI_26620259-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-103947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jul 10, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Taj Bradley (45) pitches against the Boston Red Sox during the first inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Rays Trade Taj Bradley to Twins for Griffin Jax<\/h2>\n<p>Bradley, 24, was once a really exciting pitching prospect for the Rays. His initial season with Tampa Bay didn&#8217;t go as planned, however, with a 5.59 ERA and 1.385 WHIP in 104 2\/3 innings pitched. The walk rate increased, and that seemed to set the tone for his Rays career. While he posted a 4.11 ERA in 2024, he still showcased spotty command. His 2025 season didn&#8217;t get off to a great start, eventually leading the Rays to option him to Triple-A Durham. Credit to Bradley for making every start in the rotation, but the 4.61 ERA, 20.2% strikeout rate, and 9.3% walk percentage weren&#8217;t good enough. A dismal showing against the Chicago White Sox in which he was handed a four-run lead in the first inning, only to allow the White Sox to tie the game, was his final appearance in a Rays uniform.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Tampa Bay Rays have acquired RHP Griffin Jax from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for RHP Taj Bradley.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rays Communications (@RaysPR) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RaysPR\/status\/1951054178526343319?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 31, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Who Are The Rays Getting?<\/h3>\n<p>The Rays are 8-21 since leaving Kansas City on June 26 and moving 11 games over .500. The biggest culprit is a bullpen that is typically elite when it comes to run prevention. There were questions about how much buying and selling the Rays would complete. As usual, the Rays engaged in their fair share of wheeling and dealing.\u00a0 Jeff Passan of ESPN accurately <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/10\/pair-minnesota-twins-relievers-linked-tampa-bay-rays-bullpen\/\" target=\"_self\">predicted<\/a> Jax going to the Rays as the deadline drew near. Jax, 30, has a 4.50 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 46 innings this season. He has a 97 mph fastball and a filthy sweeper and changeup pitch. His 38.8% whiff rate is in the 99th percentile, and his 36.4% strikeout rate is in the 98th percentile. Those are the best numbers in his career, and the Rays will be responsible for whatever is remaining on his $2.3 million salary this season.<\/p>\n<p>Jax won&#8217;t become arbitration-eligible until 2026. He won&#8217;t become a free agent until his age-32 season. Jax has pitched his entire career in a Twins uniform and described how he was feeling as the deadline drew nearer. \u201cOdds are I\u2019m not going to finish my career here,\u201d Jax told reporters about his status as a trade chip. \u201cThat\u2019s just kind of like the trajectory of a lot of high-end relievers. That\u2019s typically the path.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>The Rays appear to have stopped the bleeding in the bullpen. They end up retaining trade <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/07\/30\/rays-pete-fairbanks-rangers\/\" target=\"_self\">chip<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/fairbpe01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pete Fairbanks<\/a> and still have <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cleavga01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Garret Cleavinger<\/a> along with his 2.35 ERA. Adding Jax to the mix strengthens the back end of the bullpen in a way that most contenders can only wish for. Jax can try closing games if Fairbanks is better suited in another role. Trading Bradley was going to be difficult from a personal standpoint, but converting him into a player with multiple years of control is the Rays&#8217; way of doing business. Combine strong starting pitching with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/24\/rays-shane-mclanahan-injury-rotation-adjustments\/\" target=\"_self\">eventual<\/a> return of <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcclash01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shane McClanahan<\/a>, and fans have reason to keep following this team down the stretch. Twins fans are beginning to digest the trade, and Rays fans wish Bradley the best during the next chapter of his baseball career.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tampa Bay Rays have acquired reliever Griffin Jax via trade from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for starting pitcher Taj Bradley. It&#8217;s a 1-for-1 swap of pitchers who have experienced interesting seasons. The Rays obviously need a lot of bullpen help after the unit posted a horrendous month of July. Bradley was the subject [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5546,"featured_media":103891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13,1071,35],"tags":[1570,5687,4969,6246],"class_list":["post-105246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rays","category-twins","category-mlb","category-news","tag-garrett-cleavinger","tag-griffin-jax","tag-pete-fairbanks","tag-taj-bradley"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5546"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105246"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105355,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105246\/revisions\/105355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}