During the 2021 MLB Draft, the Yankees used their second-round pick on Stanford right-hander Brendan Beck, who they believed would be a fast riser in the organization. He possessed many pro-ready traits, and the idea was that he could flourish with an organization with tons of accessible pitching data. Prospects are given data from their agencies on which teams churn out the most big-leaguers, and the Yankees are near the top of the board in that regard, especially when it comes to pitching.
Instead of a swift ascent, it has been a struggle for Brendan Beck, but not because of any on-field struggles or character concerns. He’s recovered from two different elbow surgeries that knocked him out for all of 2022 and 2024. Beck is finally healthy again and just finished a six-inning shutout performance where he didn’t allow a single hit, walk, or hit batsman while striking out five.
The road to the big leagues is still there for the right-hander, who has been a strikeout machine as a pro and could help a depleted rotation this summer.
Brendan Beck Could Be the Yankees’ Secret Rotation Weapon in 2025
Through his first two starts at the Double-A level, Brendan Beck has 10 strikeouts in 10 innings pitched, allowing just one hit and one walk in the process. His stuff looks sharp, as he’s aggressively using his slider and curveball to pick up whiffs and ugly swings out of the zone. Beck won’t overwhelm you with his fastball, throwing a heater with good vertical ride from a high release point that sits around 90-92 MPH.
He hasn’t ever been known for his velocity, but his command and pitchability were off the charts, and it drew the Yankees to him during that 2021 draft. When healthy, Brendan Beck has decimated opposing lineups without much of a challenge, and that has to do with his advanced strike-throwing abilities. Filling up the zone to get count leverage and set up a nasty breaking ball has led to plenty of efficient outings, and Beck looks as sharp as he did before the surgeries.
Against the Altoona Curve, Beck racked up 10 whiffs while pitching a no-hitter through six innings, and the only reason it wasn’t a perfect performance was because of a fielding error. He needed just 67 pitches to get through the evening, and that kind of efficiency to go with the strikeouts is an indication of excellent command. I got to see Brendan Beck in a live bullpen session while in Tampa and I was extremely impressed with how his command and secondaries looked all day.
The Yankees do have some rotation depth issues in the big leagues right now, as their starting five has combined for an underwhelming 126 ERA-, which is the second-worst mark in the league. Only the Orioles have a worse ERA- (143) as a rotation, and while the return of Clarke Schmidt should help, they might need some more arms to step up over the course of the season. Injuries are bound to happen, as Marcus Stroman recently hit the IL with inflammation in his left knee.
Brendan Beck could serve as a valuable depth arm in this organization because his feel for throwing strikes is there; the lack of innings at the pro level has been the only limiting factor. Is the fastball going to dominate in the big leagues? No, and there’s a good chance his four-seamer will have to be a sub-40% usage pitch for him if he wants to have success at the highest level, but he has the arsenal to hide that pitch and still rack up whiffs.
Jumping from High-A to Double-A is supposed to be incredibly hard on a prospect, and yet, Brendan Beck has gone from posting a 1.59 ERA with the Hudson Valley Renegades to tossing 10 dominant frames with Somerset. He has averaged 12.8 pitches per inning through his first two Double-A starts, and as the sample size grows, we could see the Yankees make an aggressive promotion based on Damon Oppenheimer’s comments regarding Beck from 2021.
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The Yankees’ scouting director said that there wasn’t much development left for Brendan Beck when the team initially drafted him back in 2021, and his performance on the mound backs that claim up. I project a backend role for Beck in his big-league career due to the limited velocity, but that’s still valuable at a cheap cost for a contender. This squad needs competitive innings, not an ace at every spot in their rotation.
Brendan Beck is already Rule 5 eligible and hadn’t been selected before by a big-league team due to his lack of pro experience. The Yankees will have to protect him on their 40-man roster this season if he continues to perform well, because an MLB team will all but certainly take a chance to add an upper-level MiLB arm with excellent command. It creates a fascinating scenario where Brian Cashman might actually entertain bringing Brendan Beck to the Bronx.