T-Rat Talk: Bradley Blalock

The Brewers added major league talent at the 2023 trade deadline but they also picked up a top pitching prospect, acquiring Bradley Blalock in the deal that sent Luis Urías to Boston. Kyle Lobner has the story of Blalock's recovery from Tommy John surgery and a season where he's pitched for four teams.

Moving a lot can be a part of minor league life, but there aren’t many players who have moved more often than new Timber Rattlers pitcher Bradley Blalock in the last 12 months.

Blalock opened the season as a ranked prospect in the Red Sox organization but was still rehabbing from UCL replacement surgery (more commonly referred to as “Tommy John surgery” or “TJ”), so when most of Boston’s top players joined teams around the country to start the minor league season he remained in Fort Myers, Florida to start the year.

Since then, however, Blalock has seemingly changed addresses every few weeks for several months. The Red Sox assigned him to Low-A Salem in the Carolina League in May, but after just four starts there he was promoted to High-A Greenville in the South Atlantic League. He made seven solid starts in that league, where he had a 2.55 ERA and struck out 36 batters in 35 1/3 innings, but this time a different kind of move was in order: Two days after a start for the Drive Blalock was traded to the Brewers in a trade deadline deal sending veteran infielder Luis Urías to Boston.

“At first we really didn’t know who it was, so we were just trying to guess around the locker room to see who it was, and then when I got traded I was definitely in shock a little bit. But I knew it was definitely a new opportunity, so I was going to take it and run with it,” Blalock said.

Thank you, @bradley_blalock and good luck in the next step of your career. We'll be rooting for you! pic.twitter.com/p3NkwsGVPN

— Greenville Drive (@GreenvilleDrive) August 2, 2023

What followed was an eventful week. Greenville had just returned home from a week in Bowling Green, so Blalock was a relatively short drive away from his hometown of Loganville, Georgia. Being close to home at the time of a move provided Blalock with a luxury not all players have: It’s not unusual at the end of the season for well-traveled minor leaguers to have belongings they’ve left behind in multiple minor league cities, but Blalock was able to drive his stuff home before starting the trip to join his new team.

“I packed up everything that night and drove home, so all I’ll have to take home is my stuff from here,” Blalock said.

From there, however, Blalock faced a new challenge. The Red Sox, who have their complex league team in Florida and minor league affiliates up the East Coast, don’t overlap with the Brewers in many leagues. Blalock never faced the Carolina Mudcats during his stays with Salem in 2021 or 2023, so when he joined the Timber Rattlers in South Bend after the trade he had never met or even played against any of his new teammates.

“It was definitely different. I was a little nervous at first, but I went in there and met the manager first and kind of introduced myself to everyone, and then when I got on the bus to the game the first day some of the pitchers introduced themselves, so I was coming into an organization with open arms,” Blalock said.

Since joining the Rattlers Blalock has started three Saturday games and had some growing pains in his first Midwest League experience, but has also struck out 16 batters in 13 innings. On Saturday in Cedar Rapids he logged five innings for the first time since joining Wisconsin and recorded six K’s.

“I think it’s going good,” Blalock said of his early experiences in the new league. “I’m just trying to adjust and get back on track to what I was doing before I was here. I’m just trying to make those little adjustments to get on track.”

Just getting to continue to pitch and build up his arm is a positive for Blalock at this point. The Red Sox drafted him out of high school in 2019 but he made just four appearances for the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Red Sox that year, then lost all of 2020 when the minor league season was cancelled. He made 23 starts for Salem in 2021, but went down with an elbow injury the following spring. Dr. James Andrews performed his Tommy John surgery in March of 2022, and by the time Blalock returned to Salem in May of 2023 it had been 612 days since the last time he pitched in front of fans.

Getting back on the mound and advancing to this point has been a long process, but when he’s on the field Blalock is able to put it all behind him.

“I was anxious getting ready and getting ramped up, but when I got into games it kind of…I didn’t feel nervous at all,” Blalock said. “I was just kind of settled in and once I got back into affiliated ball it was just like, ‘ok, we’ve got a little crowd, got a little adrenaline,’ so it was amplifying the nerves a bit and I had to adjust to that.”

Across the season his results have been very good, but Blalock said his recovery and rebound from his lost 2022 season are his biggest points of pride from this season.

“That could have affected my career, but I didn’t let it and I was going to come out with a good opportunity afterwards,” Blalock said.

Just the beginning… a long way to go but have to enjoy the moment pic.twitter.com/Vc9Kvaf5fG

— Bradley Blalock (@bradley_blalock) June 23, 2022

Getting back into the game can be a mental challenge for many athletes, as they put pressure on themselves to try to make up for lost time or do too much too fast while they’re still building back up. Blalock said that if he could go back, the biggest piece of advice he’d give himself is to focus on making the most of the opportunities he has.

“Just take the opportunities that are given and run with them. I’ve done that since surgery and it’s made things go really smooth and easier. Going into games, it’s not really about how long I want to go in an outing, but focusing on each batter and what I need to do and what I can control with that batter,” Blalock said.

Like a lot of young players who miss extended time, Blalock matured as a person and an athlete during his absence.

“I have a better routine coming into pre-start, going about my week from before, because I was 19 and didn’t really know what I was doing. Now, with the rehab process, it kind of led me to a better routine, what I need,” Blalock said.

He also took the opportunity to learn a new pitch, better preparing his arsenal to face batters from both sides of the plate upon his return.

“I definitely made an adjustment coming out of TJ, I didn’t really have a changeup to throw going in to righties and away from lefties, so I talked to some pitching coordinators with the Red Sox and kind of figured out what pitch would be best for me. We came up with like a split finger, so I took that and ran with it and I definitely feel like it’s helped my game a lot,” Blalock said.

Despite the challenges he’s had to endure, Blalock was still a ranked prospect in the Red Sox organization before the trade and he’s a ranked prospect in the Brewers organization now. MLB Pipeline ranks him 19^th in the Brewers organization, and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked him as the 15th best prospect moved at this year’s trade deadline. Blalock said he’s aware of rankings like this, but doesn’t prioritize them.

“I definitely know about it in the back of my head but I don’t pay attention to it, because I want to go out there and do what I need to do to put my team in a winning position every time,” Blalock said.

Blalock still has a few starts left in his first opportunity to make a good impression on the Brewers organization and their fans, and his goals for those outings are pretty straightforward.

“I would say just building off of where I’m going towards, forgetting about the past outings, controlling what I can control and just going out there and pitching every time, getting guys out and putting my team in a winning position to make the playoffs,” Blalock said.