After posting an 8.00 ERA through his first nine innings of the season as a reliever, Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Griffin Jax has turned his season around since converting to a starter, posting a 1.42 ERA across 19 innings. Over his last two starts, Jax surrendered just one earned run in 10 innings.
Griffin Jax is figuring it out as he moves down the Clay Holmes Road, from the bullpen to the role of starting pitcher.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) May 20, 2026
Start 1: 2 1/3 scoreless
Start 2: 2 2/3 scoreless
Start 3: 4 IP, 2 ER
Start 4: 5 IP, 0 ER
Start 5, last night: 5 IP, 1 ER
Given Jax's rough start to the year and his struggles as a starter with Minnesota in 2021, the righty's strong stretch in his new role is shocking to many Twins fans.
Shocking since he got shelled as a reliever to start this season
— Mntwinsfan92 (@MNTwinsFan1992) May 20, 2026
This is crazy https://t.co/NRWqniwQgd
— Joe Gunderson (@BigJoeGun) May 20, 2026
Good for Jax. We knew he wanted to be a starter and he has proven he's capable of taking on more innings with the Rays. Of course, he still could regress and be moved back to a bullpen role. But for now, he deserves to be in Tampa Bay's starting rotation.
The Twins weren't wrong to convert Jax to a reliever. As a primary starting pitcher in his rookie season (2021), Jax posted an awful 6.37 ERA with an 18.1% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate across 82 innings. After being converted to a reliever at the start of the 2022 season, Jax finished his Twins career by posting a 3.32 ERA and 2.64 FIP with 313 strikeouts across 254 2/3 innings.
Twins made right decision to trade Jax despite his recent success with Tampa Bay
The Twins also weren't wrong to trade Jax. After Jax requested a trade last summer, Minnesota dealt the righty to the Rays in exchange for right-handed starting pitcher Taj Bradley, who is currently on the IL with right pectoral inflammation but made a rehab start with Triple-A St. Paul on Sunday and could return to Minnesota's rotation on Saturday, per MLB.com's Matthew Leach. Before suffering the injury, Bradley was arguably the Twins' best starting pitcher this year, posting a 2.87 ERA with a 26.1% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate in 47 innings across eight starts. Also, Bradley is just 25 and is under team control through the 2029 season. Meanwhile, Jax is 31 and will be a free agent at the end of the 2027 season.
If Bradley keeps dominating while Jax continues to succeed in his new role, the Bradley-Jax trade will be viewed as a win for both teams. Regardless of how it eventually turns out, you have to give former Twins president Derek Falvey credit for swapping Jax for a pitcher who is six years younger and under team control for two more seasons.
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