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The Minnesota Twins reportedly acquire hometown pitcher Adam Bray

By Nate Palmer

PHOENIX, AZ - FEBRUARY 28: New baseballs are delivered to the home plate umpire prior to a game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Kansas City Royals at Maryvale Baseball Park on February 28, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
PHOENIX, AZ - FEBRUARY 28: New baseballs are delivered to the home plate umpire prior to a game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Kansas City Royals at Maryvale Baseball Park on February 28, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) /
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The Minnesota Twins have been good at building good depth in the minor leagues. Acquiring pitcher Adam Bray appears to be another one of those moves.

The Minnesota Twins made a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend for minor league pitcher, and Minnesota native Adam Bray. Bray attended Eden Prarie High School where he played baseball and football. He then went on to play Division 1 baseball for the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in Brookings, SD.

In what seems somewhat odd, Bray has announced the trade but neither the Twins or Dodgers have made any announcement or acknowledgement of it at this point. Bray isn’t a huge addition to the Twins 2018 hopes but the Twins are acquiring a pitcher with some intriguing future prospects to him.

The Dodgers drafted Bray in the 33rd round of the 2015 MLB draft. Bray had just finished his four years at South Dakota State and left the program as one of the best pitchers in the school’s history. The right-hander holds the school’s records for strikeouts (264), innings pitched (326.2), and games started (51).

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Upon being drafted by the Dodgers, Bray was assigned to play for the Rookie Ball Ogden Raptors. In his first taste of professional baseball, Bray started 8 games, threw 35.0 innings, 33 strikeouts (8.5 K/9) and a 3.86 ERA. As his career has progressed Bray has spent the majority of his time pitching for the High Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

Last season with the Quakes, Bray pitched 129.2 innings, held a 3.89 ERA, and an 8.2 K/9. A unique part of Bray’s 2017 was the type of outing carves out a piece of time and history in any club. On July 23rd while facing the San Jose Giants, Bray completed what is now referred to as a Maddux. In case you are not familiar with that phrase, that means Bray pitched a complete game shutout in under 100 pitches. In a similar way to its namesake, Greg Maddux.

That may bring up bad memories to many Twins fans of the pitch to contact days. While Bray had to be effective at creating outs early in several at-bats in order to complete a Maddux. Bray was also able to strike out 8 batters throughout that outing. Right in line with his 8.2 K/9 last season. Hopefully, those strikeout numbers help fend off any nightmares.

Next: 5 Things that need to go right for the Twins in 2018

Bray is likely still some time away from the majors. He has pitched 3.1 innings at Triple-A but will need some work yet before he can be another Twins Cities area product pitching at Target Field. Even though this trade isn’t official, Bray has intriguing prospects especially assuming that the Twins didn’t have to give up much to get him. This looks to be another solid depth addition to an already deep minor league system.

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