Brody Brecht Benefitting from Full Offseason

Iowa Baseball Ace Rounding into Form on Diamond After Leaving Football Behind

Brody Brecht finally had a true college baseball offseason.

That time to work, Iowa coach Rick Heller said on Tuesday, has Brecht in a “better place.”

The junior right-hander, considered a first-round MLB draft prospect this summer, will be the starter for the Hawkeyes’ season opener against Seton Hall in the Swig and Swine College Classic in Charleston, S.C.

Brecht, who came to Iowa as a two-sport athlete, announced last spring that he was giving up football to concentrate solely on baseball. So, after a season in which he went 5-2 with a 3.74 ERA, he went through his first offseason concentrating only on getting better as a pitcher.

“I think Brody is in a completely different place than he was two years ago,” Heller said during the Hawkeyes’ media day at Duane Banks Field. “The year playing baseball has really paid dividends. He’s a completely different guy right now, in a lot of ways. His mentality and his maturity, the shape that he’s in — he’s in great shape, pitching shape.”

Brecht used the time to work with pitching coach Sean McGrath to make subtle adjustments after a season in which he struck out 109 batters, but walked 61, in 77 innings.

“It was just really good for the body — take some time off, regroup,” Brecht said. “It’s really beneficial working on the little things that I wouldn’t normally get to work on. Just being able to have 4-5 months working with Sean — in my opinion, the best pitching coach in the country — was very beneficial for me.”

Brecht’s velocity has always been there with a high-90s fastball that can hit 100 or a little bit more — Brecht said he’s hit 101 this spring — but it’s been a matter of command of not only that fastball, but his breaking pitches as well.

“When you see Brody throw this year, you’ll notice visually how he’s smoothed things out, how he commands the strike zone better with all of his pitches, but especially his fastball,” Heller said.

Heller said there is more consistency in his breaking pitches.

“The breaking ball was 93 to 85 last year, and I’m not sure Brody knew how to do one or the other, but that was the day and that’s what we were getting,” Heller said. “Now his feel for all of his pitches has improved. He has a cutter that performs like a traditional slider, and now he’s got one with more depth that drops a little bit. And his change-up is coming around.”

Brecht said he has learned to do more with his slider.

“I’ve been able to refine the shape, distinguish between the two shapes I want to throw,” Brecht said. “Just consistency and shape are the big things.”

There was the mental approach as well, especially if Brecht is going to be the Friday starter in weekend series this season.

“Obviously the command was one of the things to work on,” Brecht said. “Working on the mental side of things was important, too, so it’s just carrying over those habits into the fall and into the season.

“I’ve just got to be in a good place mentally. Just visualizing, doing my breathing, being able to reset and slow things down if I fall behind and things aren’t going well. Being able to reset was something I had to learn a lot about.”

Heller said it was beneficial that most of Brecht’s fall work was behind the scenes.

“One of the smartest things we did, and it was with Brody’s blessing, was shut him down very early in the fall,” Heller said. “Because it was apparent that any time he took the mound in a scrimmage or whatever it might be, there were still going to be 25-30 people — scouts or whoever — watching. And as long as he was going to be evaluated, he was going to compete as he knew how. So shutting him down to where he could focus on himself, focus on the things he needed to improve on, and doing it earlier rather than later, I really felt like it promoted much more growth.”

Brecht is ranked No. 25 on Baseball America’s list of the 2024 top draft prospects. He knows that he will be watched closely this season.

“It’s all projection,” Brecht said. “It’s early. I’m worried about Friday.”