With so much time and money spent annually on scouting for the MLB First Year Player Draft each year, you would think that all of the best college and high school players would be discovered and at least be selected in the later rounds. But every now and then an exceptionally talented college or prep player slips under the radar. Such was case for 21-year-old right-hander Brandon Beachy, who went undrafted out of Indiana Wesleyan University during his junior year in 2008.

But while Beachy, who put up excellent numbers at Wesleyan, may have gone undrafted in 2008, he caught the eye of the Atlanta Braves scouting staff and was signed as a non-drafted free agent on July 22, 2008. He was a September call-up for the Braves in 2010 where he posted an 0-3 record with an impressive 3.00 ERA in his three MLB starts.

Beachy won a spot in the Braves starting rotation out of spring training in 2011 and earned his first MLB win against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on April 11. He would finish the season with a 7-3 record and 3.68 ERA. But after getting off to a strong start in 2012, the now 25-year-old Kokomo, Indiana native was placed on the disabled list on June 17 with elbow discomfort. The next day an MRI revealed a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow that would require Tommy John surgery. What made Beachy’s injury all the more devastating is that, at the time, he was leading the MLB with his incredible 2.00 ERA. He underwent Tommy John surgery on June 21, thus ending his 2012 season.

As expected, Beachy began the 2013 season on the disabled list but returned to the Braves’ starting rotation on July 29, 2013 – a mere 13 months after his Tommy John surgery. He would finish the season with a respectable 2-1 record and 4.50 ERA – good enough to earn a one-year/$1.45 million contract extension. But Beachy’s near-record return from Tommy John surgery would prove to be extremely costly – both figuratively and literally. During spring training 2014, Beachy again experienced elbow discomfort and an MRI revealed that he had again torn his UCL. He underwent a second Tommy John surgery on March 21, 2014 and after spending the entire 2014 season on the DL while being paid a lot of money without throwing a single pitch, the Braves declined to re-sign the now 27-year-old free agent.

…but the Dodgers did.

On February 21, 2015, only two days after pitchers and catchers reported for spring training in Glendale, Arizona, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and General Manager Farhan Zaidi decided to roll the dice on Beachy, offering him a one-year/$2.75 million contract with an option for 2016, and by the looks of things, they may have found a gold nugget in the recycle bin.

Although unseen by fans, not a day goes by that Beachy isn’t working out at Dodger Stadium.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Although many Dodger fans may not even be aware that Brandon Beachy is a Dodger or that he is on the 40-man roster, he in fact is; and he has been working extremely hard to get back to The Show after not one, but two Tommy John surgeries.

“There’s some changes [in my rehab] this time,” said Beachy during a recent interview. “It’s a slower more conservative approach, but it’s feeling good. I like where I’m at.”

Beachy, who is now almost 14 months removed from his second surgery, is well aware that returning after two Tommy John surgeries has a far less success rate than returning from one. Knowing this, he has made some mechanical changes to his pitching.

“Nothing big, but there are some mechanical things I’m trying to do a little more efficiently,” said Beachy. “I obviously want to contribute, I want to play as soon as possible, but I know that’s not going to help me or the team – to do anything earlier than it needs to be done.”

With the Dodgers starting rotation finally beginning to show some semblance of stability with the additions of Carlos Frias and Mike Bolsinger, how does Beachy figure into the Dodgers future – as a starter or as a reliever?

“That’s not up to me, I don’t get paid to make those decisions,” said Beachy. “I’m going to rehab the way they tell me to and I’m going to hopefully contribute in the way they ask me to, whatever that may be.”

But Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is among those getting paid to make those decisions and he made it perfectly clear that Beachy’s role will be as a starter. He also said that Beachy’s rehab is different than any other Dodgers pitcher on the mend.

“[Beachy is] going to start throwing live [batting practice],” Mattingly said. “He’s moving in the right direction. His pens are not typical bullpens. Now they’ve become like three innings – throw X amount of pitches, sitting down for so long, doing it again, sitting down so long, doing it again. He’s going through the whole starter routine like they go through before a game. His throwing load has kind of increased slowly and as we’re getting to live BP, obviously we’re getting closer to competition.”

Beachy threw live BP this past Saturday – to rookie center fielder Joc Pederson – and did exceptionally well. In his two 15-pitch sessions (with a short rest in between), Pederson managed to hit only two balls out of the infield – one a pop-up to left and the other a grounder to right – both of which would have been outs. But that, of course, was not the point. The point was to have Beachy pitch with an actual hitter in the batters box.

“He did good. He had nice life on his fastball, he spotted up well, his curveball was nice, his change-up,” said Pederson after the two sessions. “His arm felt good and that’s the most important thing. That’s going to get his confidence back.”

As far as Joc Pederson is concerned, Brandon Beachy is ready to return right now. The star center fielder did not have one solid hit off of Beachy in his first live BP session.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

When told of Pederson’s assessment of his first live batting practice outing, Beachy was a bit more humble about it.

“I wouldn’t say every pitch was really good but it felt good, I was happy with the way it went,” said Beachy. “Facing a hitter for the first time in a long time and getting a little of that competitiveness helped me zero in a little bit better than I have been in my bullpens. I threw all of my pitches, not many of them, but I threw each of them at least a couple of times.”

Although Mattingly hasn’t given a timetable for Beachy’s possible return or even hinted about a tentative date for a rehab assignment with one of the Dodgers’ minor league teams, by every indication Beachy is far closer to returning than he or anyone else is letting on. That being said, the last thing – the very last thing – that anyone wants is for the soft-spoken, extremely polite 28-year-old from Kokomo to suffer a setback.

But soon, perhaps even real soon, Brandon Beachy – the Invisible Dodger – will become very visible.