Fourth in a series
Major League Baseball earlier this year compiled a list of Black pitchers who started their team’s Opening Day since 1947, the first year Jackie Robinson played in the majors. Ferguson Jenkins and CC Sabathia lead all time with 11 starts each, and Bob Gibson with 10, the only Black pitchers in history with double-digit Opening Day starts. Fourteen others have at least one start; Marcus Stroman is one of three pitchers with three, and current Cincinnati pitcher Hunter Greene is among 11 hurlers with two.
The decline of Black players in the majors is no secret, now just under 7%, but less discussed is the fact that the current population of Black MLB players skews young. Thirty-five are 27 years old or younger, and 22 are 25 or younger, while only eight of the estimated 64 Black players on this year’s rosters are older than 32.
Minnesota and Cincinnati lead baseball with five Black players each, combining to make up nearly 18% of all Black players in the majors. Twelve teams have at least one U.S.-born Black player, and five teams have none, including San Diego, which has no Black players in its minor league system either.
Taj Bradley and Simeon Woods Richardson are both in the Twins’ starting rotation, there are only eight Black starting pitchers in MLB this season. Seeing two Black starters in the majors is a rarity in itself. Seeing them on the same team, sitting side by side in their respective locker stalls, is something this columnist has not witnessed covering the Twins since 2000.
The 6-2 Bradley was a fifth-round draft pick by Tampa Bay in 2018, three rounds after Woods Richardson was drafted by the New York Mets in the second round. Both were later acquired by Minnesota in trades, Woods Richardson in 2021 from Toronto. Last September, he became the first Twins pitcher in 17 years to shut out the New York Yankees.
Last season, Bradley was traded to Minnesota from Tampa Bay and made six starts to close out his 2025 campaign.
The two 25-year-olds have formed a natural bond.
“That’s my brother,” Woods Richardson said of Bradley. “It’s actually cool to have Taj next to me so we can chit chat and shoot the crap, talk the game, and he looks like me. He probably has not had that experience either.”
Bradley said the relationship has made him a better pitcher.
“I feel like we bounce stuff off each other,” he said. “We might not line up for the same series, but just something we saw, or just watch each other’s bullpens, not just sitting here but watching each other work. I feel that’s the biggest thing. Just somebody who talks the same thing.”
On April 29, Bradley went seven innings against Seattle, throwing a career-high 114 pitches, the most by a Twins pitcher since 2020 and the 10th time in his career going at least seven innings. He credited his preparation.
“I just feel like the work I put in before my starts, bullpen days are probably my toughest. Arm care is a big thing,” he told reporters, including the Spokesman-Recorder, afterward. “If they need me to throw 115 or a career-high again, I can just do it.”
On being one half of a rare Black starting pitcher duo, Woods Richardson kept it understated.
“We don’t make too much of it, but it’s cool to be part of history sitting next to each other,” he said. “I think we enjoy every day of it. I think we feed off each other. I cheer him on, he cheers me on. That’s our job.”
Bradley brings baseball to the next generation
Bradley and Twins teammates Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober last week distributed 3,000 new baseball gloves and baseballs to Reviving Baseball in the Inner City participants ages 8 and under, following a Wednesday afternoon game at Minneapolis’ Bryant Square Park. The event was sponsored by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
“I feel like that’s how you get kids into baseball,” Bradley told the Spokesman-Recorder beforehand. “With the equipment being so expensive, every kid is gonna latch onto something. They’re just gonna start using it more, playing catch, fielding balls, just a little love for the game at a young age.”
FINALLY…
The Twins and Minnesota Ballpark Authority last week unveiled a new “Baseball Heroes” mural on the ballpark’s Main Concourse, featuring Black baseball players with Upper Midwest ties. The mural was painted by local artist Antione Jenkins.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorderc.com.