BRIDGEWATER – Brendan Beck isn’t one to think about making up for lost time.
Unfortunately, there’s been far too much of that in his professional career thus far, so he chooses to focus on what remains a bright future.
The 26-year-old right-handed starter is off to a good start for the Somerset Patriots; the 2021 second-round draft pick of the Yankees dazzled during his first professional outing since August 2023, spinning four shutout innings of one-hit ball and striking out five in a 5-4 loss to the Reading Fightin’ Phils at TD Bank Ballpark Tuesday night.
Beck had been limited to just 34 pro innings prior to his Double-A debut, first sidelined by Tommy John surgery in 2022, and then missing all of the 2024 campaign due to more elbow issues.
“At this point, the time I’ve missed is in the past,” he said after his outing.
“There’s nothing I can really do about it. Obviously, I would have preferred to be out there all these past few years, but I’m really excited about the team we have here and just being back and having a good year this year.”
Once considered one of the top arms in the organization, Beck has become something of an afterthought due to those injuries, but flashed glimpses of the pitcher the Yankees signed for a reported $1,050,000 bonus out of Stanford. Beck used a four-pitch mix of a fastball, slider, curveball and changeup to keep a solid Reading lineup off balance all night, sitting in the low-90s with a heater that he commanded well.
“I was happy, I thought we had a good gameplan,” Beck said. “I think going into it, the biggest thing was just the (cold) weather but just going out and executing. Luckily, the cold didn’t affect us too much, and I felt like I was able to get into a nice rhythm and all the pitches were working.
“(Catcher Rafael Flores) really kept me locked in, so I have to give it up to him … dominating the strike zone is something I’ve always been really good at, and I think that’s something that’s a key characteristic of mine. So, to be able to go out there and do that and set the tone from the first inning, that’s something I was really trying to do.”
Even with a solid individual result, it was just something of a reward for the affable California native to be able to set foot on the mound again, with feelings of everything that he’d missed over the majority of the last four years having rushed back.
“Just all the pre-game stuff, showing up to the field, putting the spikes on, getting out there and stretching and all the things ...
