After long road back, Brown aims to finish whirlwind '25 in Rox rotation

PITTSBURGH -- Rockies right-handed pitcher McCade Brown's career was painful and slow the last couple of years, so he welcomes the whirlwind that 2025 has been.

A third-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft out of Indiana University, Brown underwent Tommy John surgery early in the 2023 season. The comeback took longer than expected and he was limited to just 12 Minor League appearances last year.

But this year, Brown breezed through High-A Spokane and was doing more of the same at Double-A Hartford when the Rockies called him up for his Major League debut -- a 4-0 loss to the Pirates at PNC Park on Sunday afternoon.

“It was an exciting day for me, a day every baseball player dreams up,” said Brown, a Normal, Ill., native who arranged tickets for 48 family members and friends, plus had high school coaches and teammates make the trip on their own. “I was blessed to have family and friends here supporting me. It means a lot.

“I’m frustrated with my performance, falling behind in counts. There’s room for improvement.”

There were strong sequences. Brown’s spotless first inning included his first Major League strikeout, of Pirates second baseman Nick Gonzales. He overcame a leadoff walk in the second by forcing Andrew McCutchen into a double-play grounder, and escaped a two-on jam in the third by forcing a Gonzales grounder.

But a leadoff walk to Bryan Reynolds in the fourth haunted him when Jared Triolo socked a three-run homer to left field on a first-pitch slider with two outs. Another walk, then a double by Isiah Kiner-Falefa ended his unexpected debut, completing a week full of surprises.

On Tuesday, Brown started for Hartford and shut down the Somerset Patriots -- no runs on one hit with eight strikeouts over six innings. Then, Hartford coach Dan Meyer told him he wanted a meeting a couple of days later. His friend, Connor Eaton, a lefty having a strong year at Spokane, was summoned to Hartford.

“When I heard he was coming, I thought, ‘That’s kind of weird. Something’s going to happen here,’” Brown said.

Brown had Triple-A Albuquerque in mind until Hartford manager Bobby Meacham spoke up at the unusually scheduled meeting.

“He said, ‘You’re going up, but [Triple-A] Albuquerque is really far away. So we’re going to send you to Pittsburgh, instead,’” Brown said. “That was definitely a cool moment.”

Brown became the 13th Rockie to debut this year -- a club single-season record -- and the 19th player from the Hartford rosters of the last two seasons to appear in the Majors. The youth of this year's roster has contributed to the Rockies tying the 1932 Red Sox for MLB's greatest-ever run deficit (349) with more than a month left in the season.

After the ‘21 Draft, Brown was one of those names that folks in the organization would bring up well before he was on the Major League radar. But his name faded from conversations during the Rockies’ painful 2023, after Brown underwent surgery early in the season. Later in the year, pitching prospects Gabriel Hughes and Jordy Vargas, as well as Major League pitchers Germán Márquez and Antonio Senzatela, all underwent Tommy John surgery over the course of a two-day span.

Brown was forced to be patient with his recovery.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal, getting shut down and missing more time than most people do, but I feel really healthy now,” said Brown, a power pitcher who earned his call-up by holding High-A and Double-A hitters combined to a .192 average in 20 starts this year. “That makes this moment even better, knowing the hard work that I had to put in to bounce back from the surgery.”

The timing was right for a test. The Rockies would have had to put Brown on their 40-man Major League roster after the season, anyhow, so they thought it would be best to assess him against big-league hitters now. Hughes also will need to be added, but a shoulder issue that cropped up during this season at Albuquerque likely means he will finish the year there.

The Rockies brought Brown to Pittsburgh on Friday, partly to prepare and partly just to meet many of his teammates, as well as manager Warren Schaeffer. The youthful nature of this team helped, since many of them were teammates either this year or last in the Minors. Rookie righty Tanner Gordon, who will start Tuesday at Houston, was a college teammate of Brown’s at Indiana.

Brown had never even pitched in a Major League Spring Training game, so Sunday was a first impression. He averaged 94.4 mph on his sinker on Sunday, and his slider was his favorite secondary pitch. He felt he hung the slider to Triolo over the plate.

“He looked poised. He looked calm,” Schaeffer said. “Triolo got him, but other than that, it was a promising first outing. I’m happy for him. The next step is to pitch five days from now. To get that first one out of the way was special for him, and we’ll move forward.”