It has been a stressful last couple months for people in and around the Iowa Baseball Program, as their highly touted class of 2021 pitcher Brody Brecht got talked about more and more, as a high round MLB Draft pick.
Coming into the draft, Brecht was rated as the #77 prospect by MLB Pipeline, which correlates to an early third round grade. Even though Brecht was expected to be a highly sought-after draft prospect, a football scholarship with the Hawkeyes added another level to the decision and gave Iowa hope of landing the Ankeny standout.
“If it doesn’t work out, I kind of just gave up all of my football dreams. I don’t want to just throw away everything that I’ve worked for in football my whole life for something that may not work out,” said Brecht in an interview with our own Blair Sanderson back in May.
Brody Brecht has arguably been the most dominate player in all of Iowa high school baseball this season, going 7-0 on the mound for Ankeny, while allowing just four earned runs over 41.1 innings pitched. That is good enough for a sizzling .68 ERA. Brecht also has racked up 89 strikeouts to just 17 walks and has allowed a .109 opponent batting average. His fastball sits around 94-96 mph and he boasts a curveball/slider combination in the low to mid 80s. All 30 MLB teams made their way to Iowa to take a look at the 6’4 flame thrower throughout the high school season.
Over the last week, CBS Sports and Diego Solares, an MLB Draft Director, both named Brecht as one of the most polarizing players in the entire draft class. Everything was going to come down to how much teams were willing to give Brecht. Going back to that #77 rating Brecht received, an early third round pick corresponds to around an $800,000 slot bonus, but he would likely be offered around $1.5-2 million to give up football and join the draft team.
Then today the 3rd round of the draft came and went without Brecht’s name being called. The 4th, 5th and 6th rounds all came and passed with Brody Brecht still on the board. It became clear that teams were not willing to post the dollar signs that Brecht wanted, and it would be too hard to drag the Hawkeye commit from living out his dream of playing football at Kinnick Stadium. Possibly more important, this means Brecht will also take the mound for the baseball team next spring.
It is historically uncommon for top 10 round draft picks to pass up the slot bonus and go to college out of high school. In 2020, all 160 selections in the shortened five round draft signed with the team that drafted them. The Hawkeyes are not known for landing highly rated prospects year in and year out, which makes the Brecht situation even bigger for the program. Possibly the most important thing is that Brody Brecht will be on a football scholarship at the University of Iowa, meaning that Coach Heller gets a top 100 MLB prospect on his roster, while not having to use any of his scholarship money allotment.
As a pitcher, Brecht will be able to come in and contribute right away for the Hawkeyes and will likely be a top of the rotation arm next season. Landing Brecht is part of a larger picture for the Hawkeye program and that is the fact that Coach Heller is bringing in some of the best recruits the school has ever gotten. Weston Fulk, Marcus Morgan, Coy Sarsfield, Gehrig Christensen, Blake Guerin, Joey Oakie, among many others are apart of the future recruiting classes that paint a bright future for the Iowa Baseball program.
