After missing two of the previous three seasons due to injury, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders pitcher Brendan Beck is glad to be back on the field this season. The 26-year-old righty said when you are rehabbing, the biggest thing you miss is the camaraderie of your teammates on the field and in the clubhouse.
“From a competitive nature, you want to be out there doing well and having a relationship with the guys,” Beck said. “Postgame celebrations, the in-the-dugout fun in between innings, the chess
matches of trying to go out there and win games. That’s what I’ve been really enjoying the most being back out there.”
The fact that he is pitching well helps, too.
In 18 combined games (16 starts) with Double-A Somerset and the Triple-A RailRiders, Beck is 8-3 with a 2.98 earned-run average and 78 strikeouts in 87.2 innings.
“He’s got a fastball that’s sneaky. It’s got good ride to it, good life,” RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan said. “His slider and curveball are both pretty good, his split’s pretty good. When you’re able to throw all those pitches for strikes around the zone, it makes hitters need to deepen it up a little bit, which makes the fastball a little more effective. Every time he gets two strikes, offspeed is in the hitters’ heads. Next thing you know, he’s aggressive with the heater, pounding it in a good spot and it gets good results.”
A native of La Jolla, California, Beck played four seasons at Stanford University and went 22-10 with one save, a 3.11 ERA and 289 strikeouts in 55 appearances (46 starts) and 289.1 innings. As a senior in 2021, he helped the Cardinal reach the College World Series, was Pac-12 Conference Pitcher of the Year and a first-team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association.
The Yankees selected him in the second round of the 2021 MLB Draft, 55th overall. But shortly after he was taken, it was discovered he needed Tommy John surgery and missed all of the 2022 season.
In 2023, Beck returned and started a combined 10 games with the Florida Complex League Yankees and High-A Hudson Valley Renegades and went 0-1 with a 1.59 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 34 innings. However, more elbow problems caused him to miss all of the 2024 campaign. It was a deeply frustrating time for the man who led the Pac-12 in innings pitched during his senior campaign, prior to pro ball.
Beck began this season at Somerset, appeared in 11 games (nine starts) and went 5-2 with a 1.82 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 54.1 innings. Those numbers helped earn him a promotion to Triple-A on June 22nd. He debuted with six shutout innings, three hits, no walks and four strikeouts at the Louisville Bats, top affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, in a 3-2 win.
Brendan Beck brought the heat in his Triple-A debut and earned the win!
— SWB RailRiders (@swbrailriders) June 22, 2025
6.0 IP | 3 H | 0 R | 0 ER | 0 BB | 4 K#WhereLegendsRise #RepBX pic.twitter.com/i5JlCbvDeu
With the RailRiders, Beck is 3-1 with a 4.86 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 33.1 innings (seven starts).
On July 18th at the Worcester Red Sox, Beck threw five hitless and scoreless innings with one walk and a career-best nine strikeouts. But in his next start, July 24th at the Rochester Red Wings (the Washington Nationals’ Triple-A club), he allowed eight runs — including four home runs — in four innings.
“Some starts like that happen,” Beck said. “You’ve got to take what you can from it. You don’t want to flush it right away. Examine it, see what you can do better, see what you can learn from, then put it behind you. That’s baseball.”
Just as he does after every start, good or bad, Beck sits down with the coaches the next day and goes over his outing — what he did well, what he can do better.
Following that game in Rochester, Beck tried to be more aggressive in his next start July 30th against the Nashville Sounds, top affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. The result: six shutout innings of three-hit ball with one walk and two strikeouts in a 1-0 victory.
Beck'd it!
— SWB RailRiders (@swbrailriders) July 31, 2025
6 IP | 3 H | 0 R | 1 BB | 2 K#WhereLegendsRise #RepBX pic.twitter.com/Krsj62evW9
“Nothing too crazy, definitely didn’t reinvent the wheel,” Beck said. “You can’t make sweeping changes week to week. It’s just those little tweaks here and there.”
While he can’t make up for the time he lost, Beck is trying to make the most of every opportunity he gets when he takes the mound.
“That’s really been my goal for the season: to keep stacking starts,” Beck said. “I’ve just been trying to take it one start at a time. It’s nice to go out there and have a good one. But at the end of the day, it’s just one start. Got to go do it again next week.”
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