The Tampa Bay Rays have had to dig incredibly deep into their pitching depth during the 2026 season.
After receiving excellent injury luck in 2025, the team's fortunes have done a complete 180-degree turn in 2026. Right from the beginning, they lost Ryan Pepiot , who made 31 starts last season and won't be taking the mound this campaign. The same goes for Edwin Uceta , who emerged as a weapon out of the bullpen but couldn't get healthy.
Those are far from the only injuries the team has endured on the pitching staff this year. Most recently, starting pitcher Shane McClanahan and relievers Garrett Cleavinger and Tyler Wells all went on the injured list with forearm tightness. Manuel Rodriguez joined them on the IL as well.
That prompted the Rays to make changes, including calling up their top pitching prospect , Brody Hopkins. He began the year as a starter, but made the transition to the bullpen in August to positive results. And now, he looks like a weapon Tampa Bay can deploy in the postseason.
The 24-year-old has thrown only two Major League innings thus far, but his most recent appearance against the Athletics opened up a lot of eyes. He faced four batters in his one inning of work, issuing one walk and recording one strikeout.
What blew people away was just how good his repertoire was. As shared by Pitch Profiler on X, Hopkins showcased the best stuff in an outing by a relief pitcher the entire season.
That is not a typo. In his second career Big League outing, he showcased stuff that Mason Miller , Aroldis Chapman or any other top-flight relief pitcher in the sport has brought to the mound on a given night.
Hopkins registered an elite 129 Stuff+ score and his entire arsenal was clicking. His curveball was the highest-rated offering in proSTUFF+ with a 134. It registered 88.2 mph on the radar gun, which is hard to fathom for a breaking pitch.
Any batter who was sitting on the breaking ball would then have a fastball blown by them. The second-best pitch of the evening in the MLB was his four-seamer, which registered a proSTUFF+ of 131 and averaged 99.9 mph. He has been lighting up the radar gun all year , so this is nothing new.
His cutter, which he threw three times, had a proSTUFF+ of "only" 115 with an incredible 75 grade. Hopkins is showing some truly incredible arm talent early in his MLB career; if he can harness this repertoire and throw strikes with consistency, he is going to be impossible to hit.
Walks are the only thing that could hold him back, after he struggled with command as a starting pitcher this season. But as a relief pitcher, he has done a much better job throwing strikes.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/rays/onsi as Rays Have Emerging Star in Bullpen With Brody Hopkins .
