ARLINGTON -- The last couple of weeks have been a blur for Brody Bumila.
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When his senior season ended, he wanted to be able to enjoy life as much as possible between the MLB Draft Combine and meetings with teams and various other things that can get in the way of life for an 18-year-old future draftee.
Then the MRI came back. He was going to need another left elbow surgery to repair a torn UCL. Ranked No. 23 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 250 Draft Prospects, Bumila began slipping out of the first round when it was reported mere weeks ago that he needed his second UCL surgery. He also had internal brace surgery in May 2025, from which he bounced back before a stellar senior season.
Ultimately, the Rangers selected Bumila in the third round (Pick 89) of the 2026 MLB Draft, giving him “first-round money,” he said.
“That's life,” Bumila said of the injury via Zoom. “It's just adversity that I have to overcome. I'm not too concerned with it. It's just another step in the journey. It's just a scar on my body. It's not going to define who I am. I’m just ready to go out, compete, and work my ass off in the rehab, do everything as good as possible, and do what they want me to do, before I go out and shove next fall.”
The Rangers have a recent history of drafting pitchers who are coming off Tommy John -- most recently AJ Russell in the second round in 2025 -- and have been successful in their short-term development. Texas director of amateur scouting expects Bumila to undergo surgery performed by team physician Dr. Keith Meister in the coming weeks before beginning the rehab process.
“The downside is we have to wait a little while for Ranger fans and for all of us to see this guy on the mound and see what he's capable of,” said assistant general manager Josh Boyd. “The way that pitchers come back from these injuries, especially under the care of our medical and performance staff and Dr. Meister, I think it's second to none. We're excited about that. We just gotta wait a little while, but that's what we do in the Draft. You're playing the long game.”
The reason Bumila was so sought after begins and ends with his elite fastball, which routinely hits triple digits, and he’s got a decent slider and changeup to play off of it. MLB Pipeline’s breakdown notes that his “extension and low release height are outliers, creating 19-20 inches of inverted vertical break” on the heater.
Bumila believes that changeup and slider will only get better once he gets into pro ball and works with the Rangers' pitching group.
“I'm going to throw the ball in the zone. I'm going to throw it hard. I'm going to get batters out. I'm going to force weak contact and I'm going to compete harder than anyone else on the mound.”
With confidence like that, it’s easy to see why the injury didn't sustain the hype.
The 6-foot-9, 255-pound left-hander went 6-0 with a 1.10 ERA and 106 strikeouts across 44.1 innings during his senior season at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Mass., including a 20-strikeout no-hitter in early May. A two-sport athlete, Bumila also helped lead the Shamrocks basketball squad to a state title this past winter, averaging 30.6 points and 15.2 rebounds. He was the MaxPreps Male National Athlete of the Year and Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year.
He joked that basketball is a hobby, despite his obvious talent in the sport. He’s a baseball player through and through.
“From the get-go, really even prior to his spring starting, there was buzz and excitement around the scouting community,” Boyd said. “We saw every one of his games, every start, every pitch he threw. Tyler Carroll, our scout up there in the Northeast, did an incredible job getting in to scout and evaluate him. The buzz sometimes doesn't always live up to the hype, and I feel like this one exceeded it.
“The conversations we all had after each outing are pretty unique. It's just a very, very special, unique talent. Getting to meet him at the Combine only added to that because you see how you know what a mature young man he is. He’s very driven, and he has high aspirations and goals for himself.”