Brandon Connor Pfaadt ( ; born October 15, 1998) is an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

for the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The franchise was established ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2023.

Amateur career

Pfaadt attended

Trinity High School Trinity High School is the name of high schools: United Kingdom * Trinity High School, Renfrew, Renfrewshire, Scotland * Trinity High School, Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland * Trinity High School and Sixth Form Centre, in Redditch, England * Trin ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

, and played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

Bellarmine University Bellarmine University ( ; BU) is a private university, private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky, UNited States. It opened on October 3, 1950, as Bellarmine College, established by Archbishop John A. Floersh of the Archdiocese of Louis ...

. In 2019, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Wareham Gatemen The Wareham Gatemen are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Wareham, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Gatemen play their home games at Clem Spillane Fie ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over 1,000 forme ...

Professional career

The

selected Pfaadt in the fifth round of the

2020 Major League Baseball draft The 2020 Major League Baseball draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2019 MLB season standings. In ad ...

. The draft had been shortened to five rounds that year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and the Diamondbacks selected Pfaadt over two other prospects because he agreed to an under-slot $100,000

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

. Pfaadt made his professional debut in 2021 with the

Visalia Rawhide The Visalia Rawhide are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They are located in Visalia, California, and have played their home games at Valley Strong Ballpark since their ...

and was promoted to the

Hillsboro Hops The Hillsboro Hops are a Minor League Baseball team in the Pacific Northwest, northwest United States, located in Hillsboro, Oregon, a city in the Portland metropolitan area. The Hops are members of the Northwest League and are the High-A affilia ...

and

Amarillo Sod Poodles The Amarillo Sod Poodles, nicknamed the Soddies, are a Minor League Baseball team of the Texas League and the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They are located in Amarillo, Texas, and play their home games at Hodgetown in downtow ...

during the season. Over 22 starts between the three teams, he went 8–7 with a 3.21 ERA and 160 strikeouts over innings. In 2022 in 29 starts split between Double-A Amarillo and the Triple-A

Reno Aces The Reno Aces are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They are located in Reno, Nevada, and play their home games at Greater Nevada Field, w ...

, he was 11–7 with a 3.83 ERA, and led the minors in innings pitched, with 167, as well as strikeouts, with 218. Pfaadt began the 2023 season in Reno, posting a 3.91 ERA with 30 strikeouts across 5 starts. On May 3, 2023, Pfaadt was selected to the 40-man roster and promoted to the major leagues for the first time to serve as the starting pitcher against the Texas Rangers. That year, the Diamondbacks made the postseason and Pfaadt was tabbed to start five games. He started Game 1 of the Wild Card Series versus the Milwaukee Brewers and allowed three runs (all earned) in 2.2 innings of work, although the Diamondbacks later won. In the four games Pfaadt started as Arizona made their way to the NL pennant, he didn't receive a decision in any of them and had just one start that lasted longer than four innings (Game 3 of the NLCS) but Arizona didn't lose any of the games. He was then tabbed to start Game 3 of the

2023 World Series The 2023 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2023 Major League Baseball season, 2023 season, and the 119th edition of the World Series. It was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American ...

against the Texas Rangers, where he gave up three runs on 5.1 innings pitched as the Rangers won 3-1 and Pfaadt received the loss. In total, Pfaadt pitched 22 total innings in the postseason and allowed eight total runs with 26 strikeouts and 5 walks. On March 28, 2025, Pfaadt and the Diamondbacks agreed to a five-year contract extension worth $45 million. On May 31, 2025, Pfaadt allowed eight runs on six hits and two hit batters, failing to record an out against the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Na ...

, who scored 10 runs in the first inning. His performance was criticized as a " yes-hitter" in the press, as the opposing team was allowed to accomplish a feat that had not happened since 1948.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pfaadt, Brandon 1998 births Living people Amarillo Sod Poodles players 21st-century American sportsmen Arizona Diamondbacks players Baseball players from Louisville, Kentucky Bellarmine Knights baseball players Hillsboro Hops players Major League Baseball pitchers Mankato MoonDogs players Reno Aces players Visalia Rawhide players Wareham Gatemen players