Brody Brecht (born September 27, 2002) 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, ...

in the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. Th ...

organization. He was drafted by the Rockies with the 38th selection in the

2024 MLB draft The 2024 Major League Baseball Draft took place on July 14–16, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The first six selections were set via a lottery, with first round picks ...

Amateur career

Brecht grew up in

Ankeny, Iowa Ankeny (, ) is a city in Polk County, Iowa, United States and a suburb of the state capital of Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines, as part of the Des Moines metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Ankeny ...

, and attended

Ankeny High School Ankeny High School is a public high school located in Ankeny, Iowa, United States. It is part of the Ankeny Community School District, and serves grades 10 through 12. History AHS opened in 1913 and graduated six seniors in the spring of 1914 ...

, where he played baseball and football and also ran track. He caught 35 passes for 796 yards and seven touchdowns during his junior season. Brecht had 42 receptions for 599 yards and 12 touchdowns as a senior. He was also named the Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball after going 10–0 with a 0.57 ERA with 126 strikeouts. Brecht committed to play both

and football at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

. He was considered a late-rising prospect in the

2021 Major League Baseball draft The 2021 Major League Baseball draft took place on July 11–13, 2021. In conjunction with the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the draft was held in Denver. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was s ...

, but ultimately went unselected due to his strong commitment to play football at Iowa. Brecht redshirted his true freshman football season with the Iowa Hawkeyes. In baseball, he made 17 pitching appearances with one start and went 1–3 with a 3.18 ERA and 44 strikeouts. After his freshman year, Brecht 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 ...

for the

Clinton LumberKings The Clinton LumberKings are a collegiate summer baseball team of the Prospect League. They are located in Clinton, Iowa, and play their home games at NelsonCorp Field. From 1956 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's Midwest Leag ...

of the

Prospect League The Prospect League is a collegiate summer baseball league comprising teams of college players from North America and beyond. All players in the league must have NCAA eligibility remaining in order to participate. So as to maintain their colleg ...

. He played in nine games during his redshirt freshman football season with five starts, catching nine passes for 87 yards. Shortly before the start of Iowa's spring football practices, Brecht announced he would be giving up football to focus solely on baseball. In 2023, he played collegiate summer baseball with the

Chatham Anglers The Chatham Anglers, more commonly referred to as the Chatham A's and formerly the Chatham Athletics, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Chatham, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in ...

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 Brecht with the 38th overall pick in the

2024 Major League Baseball draft The 2024 Major League Baseball Draft took place on July 14–16, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The first six selections were set via a lottery, with first round picks ...

. Brecht is the highest-drafted Iowa Hawkeye since the selection of

Tim Costo Timothy Roger Costo (born February 16, 1969) is an American former Major League Baseball player. Mainly a career first baseman, Costo played for the Cincinnati Reds in and . Costo was a first round draft pick (8th overall) in the 1990 Amateur ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

. On July 21, 2024, he signed with Colorado on a $2.7 million contract.

References

External links

Iowa Hawkeyes baseball bioIowa Hawkeyes football bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brecht, Brody 2002 births Living people Baseball players from Iowa Baseball pitchers Chatham Anglers players Fresno Grizzlies players Iowa Hawkeyes baseball players Iowa Hawkeyes football players People from Ankeny, Iowa Sportspeople from Polk County, Iowa