Potential 1st rounder Brody Bumila has a UCL injury

Brody Bumila, the 6’9”, 255 lb. prep lefthanded pitcher out of Massachusetts who throws over 100 mph, has a damaged UCL, per multiple reports. Bumila had internal brace surgery on his elbow last May, and returned to throw as well as ever for much of the spring, though a decline in both velocity and command in his final few starts raised concerns about his health. Those concerns, it turns out, were valid.

I had debated about whether to do a draft write-up on Bumila, as the Rangers have generally stayed away from high school pitchers in recent years. However, I’ve seen him mentioned as a possibility with the Rangers a couple of times — including in the June 29 BA mock draft — and you have to think the Rangers’ president of baseball operations has a soft spot for giant pitchers who also play basketball (Bumila led his high school team to the state championship this year).

Bumila is a good athlete for his size, and has shown good ability to throw strikes and repeat his delivery for a prep pitcher with his build. He has a relatively low arm slot and great extension, which makes his fastball play up and gives him good rising movement at the top of the zone. His secondaries, though, are way behind his fastball. Jen McCaffrey has a write-up on him for the Athletic that came out today, hours before the news of his UCL injury came out.

Bumila had gone from a likely first rounder to someone who could slip into the second round, based on the reports from the prognosticators, even before the news of the UCL damage. The fact that Bumila will likely need UCL surgery — either another internal brace surgery or Tommy John surgery — is likely to exacerbate that slide.

Bumila is a University of Texas commit, and so has the opportunity to play for a top team in one of the top conferences if he doesn’t end up getting signed by a drafting team. However, he’d most likely be sitting out all of the 2027 baseball season for the Longhorns with a medical redshirt. He’d also be running a risk in regards to whether, and how well, he’d come back after two elbow injuries, with the possibility of getting a lower payday after three (or more) years in college. You also have the uncertainty surrounding the future of the draft — if you’re a high school player who is being offered top two round money right now, you have to consider the possibility that the landscape and bonus structure for the 2029 draft could look much different than it does now.

As we’ve discussed quite a bit, the Rangers have not shied away from taking pitchers who are injured, or coming off of injuries, in the draft in recent years. If the organization feels comfortable with his medicals and their medical staff’s ability to get him back to 100%, he could be a high risk, high reward selection in the second or third rounds.