Former Baylor Baseball Great Cody Bradford, Texas Rangers Set for World Series
WACO, Texas – Former Baylor baseball great and 2018 Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Cody Bradford has been named to the Texas Rangers’ World Series roster, as announced Friday by the organization.
Bradford becomes the eighth different Bear to appear on a World Series roster for a total of 14 times.
A native of Aledo, Texas, Bradford pitched at Baylor from 2017-19 and posted a career 3.86 ERA across 32 appearances and 31 starts. He won 12 career games, including seven in his standout sophomore campaign, and struck out 139 batters while only walking 50 in 177.1 total innings on the bump. In 2018, Bradford was named a Third-Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper after being honored as a First-Team All-Big 12 performer and the league’s best pitcher.
Bradford also led the Bears to their first Big 12 Championship title in 2018, being named the tournament’s Co-MVP alongside teammate Shea Langeliers. The southpaw was dominant in his only action of the week, throwing 7.2 scoreless innings and allowing just four hits with a career-high 11 strikeouts in BU’s opening-round win over Oklahoma.
In 2018, Bradford was a three-time Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and became the first pitcher in program history to throw back-to-back complete-game shutouts. His 1.88 ERA in Big 12 play that season remains a program record for starting pitchers. After the 2018 season, Bradford went on to represent Baylor as a member of the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.
In the classroom, Bradford was also a standout performer as an Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team member in 2017 and Academic All-Big 12 First Team selection in 2018. He also earned a spot on the 2018 CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team.
Bradford was selected in the sixth round of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Texas Rangers and quickly moved up through the system, making his major league debut earlier this year against the Atlanta Braves on May 15. Across 20 regular-season appearances, including eight starts, he posted a 4-3 record with a 5.30 ERA and tallied 51 strikeouts.
The rookie lefty turned heads earlier this postseason after earning the win with 3.2 scoreless frames against the Baltimore Orioles in Game 2 of the American League Division Series, holding the AL’s top-seeded team to just three hits with four strikeouts in his first playoff appearance. Bradford went on to make two more relief appearances in the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros, allowing just one earned run across his two innings of work.
Bradford will seek to become the fourth World Series winner in Baylor history, as his Rangers take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 Fall Classic which begins on Friday. First pitch for Game 1 of the series is set for 7:05 p.m. CT at Globe Life Field in Arlington and will be televised on FOX.
If he pitches, Bradford will become the fourth different Bear to appear on the mound in a World Series game for a total of five occasions. Lee Tunnell of the St. Louis Cardinals was the most recent BU alum to toe the rubber in the 1987 World Series.
Baylor’s first World Series roster member was Dave Danforth of the Philadelphia A’s in 1911. Though Danforth did not make an appearance for the A’s in the series, he later became BU’s first World Series winner in 1917 with the Chicago White Sox, throwing one inning on the mound and collecting two strikeouts.
Each of the last two former Bears to appear on a World Series roster have won the Fall Classic, including Max Muncy with the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers and Shea Langeliers, a member of the Atlanta Braves’ 2021 taxi squad.
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BAYLOR BASEBALL IN THE WORLD SERIES
Dave Danforth – Philadelphia A’s, 1911
Dave Danforth – Chicago White Sox, 1917*
Dave Danforth – Chicago White Sox, 1919
Mule Watson – New York Giants, 1923
Mule Watson – New York Giants, 1924
Ted Uhlaender – Minnesota Twins, 1965
Ted Uhlaender – Cincinnati Reds, 1972
Lee Tunnell – St. Louis Cardinals, 1987
David Murphy – Texas Rangers, 2010
David Murphy – Texas Rangers, 2011
Max Muncy – Los Angeles Dodgers, 2018
Max Muncy – Los Angeles Dodgers, 2020*
Shea Langeliers – Atlanta Braves, 2021*
Cody Bradford – Texas Rangers, 2023