It was one of those experiences where you appreciate the little things and you appreciate your career a little bit more, and after that I kind of just ran with it and just wanted to improve. – Brady Lail
TRENTON, New Jersey — The hook, “Uncle Charlie,” the bender or even the yakker.
There are plenty of nicknames for a curveball, but whatever the nickname, South Jordan native Brady Lail has a good one, and he has used it and the rest of his arsenal to bury batters on his way up the New York Yankees' organization.
Lail is 6-3 in 19 games and 18 starts this season — his first for Double-A Trenton. Entering Monday, his 2.24 ERA not only led the Thunder, but was fifth in the Eastern League, and he is just one of a dozen pitchers in the league with a sub-3.00 ERA.
“(The coaches) just know it’s a pitch that I go to a lot and it’s a pitch that I have confidence in,” Lail said from Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton, which sits near the banks of the Delaware River that splits New Jersey’s state capital from Pennsylvania. “When they see a guy (behind) 0-1, 0-2, they know I can throw that pitch for a strike — get them to ground out or strike out maybe. They don’t say too much, like it’s unbelievable, but it’s a good pitch to have.”
With the acclaim his curveball has received from scouts and coaches alike, it’s ironic that it wasn’t his curveball that turned his season around.
Lail entered a May 11 start against Portland, Maine, struggling with consistency, posting a 1-2 record and 4.43 ERA in 22 1/3 innings. The night began auspiciously, with a quick pop-out. Then a rough spot. The next batter doubled to right field. With a 1-0 count and a runner on second, the righty elevated a fastball that an opposing batter quickly spun around, drilling Lail in the face with a line drive.
The blow appeared devastating as he writhed in pain. Watching from Utah, Jody Lail, his mother, was distraught. His father, Ben, was at work at the time, but eventually saw the video replay on MiLB.com hours after it happened. They were told that had the ball hit anywhere else on Brady's face, it could have ended his season, career or even killed him.
"That was something you never think is going to happen to your kid," Ben Lail said. "I know my wife was going crazy and when I (watched it). I even knew he was all right and I still watched it and it brought tears to my eyes."
Miraculously, after a few minutes Lail collected himself, walked off the field without major injury and returned to the mound five days later to throw five scoreless innings. In fact, he didn’t allow an earned run the rest of the month and has a 1.62 ERA in 77 2/3 innings since the incident.
“It kind of changed my mindset that I have to try to stop overthrowing things because the main reason the guy hit it back at me was because it was an elevated pitch right down the middle,” Lail said. “Me trying too hard, it came right back at me. It was one of those experiences where you appreciate the little things and you appreciate your career a little bit more, and after that I kind of just ran with it and just wanted to improve.
“It almost turned on a light switch for me just to say, 'Hey I’m here and everybody wants to dream of being a minor league ballplayer — a big league ballplayer', but I have the chance to do something and run. Hopefully I can get that. It motivated me a little bit more.”
Lail has indeed run with his opportunities.
He was drafted by the Yankees out of Bingham High in the 18th round of the 2012 MLB draft. Three years later, at 21, he entered this season as the No. 17 overall prospect in the organization, according to MLB Pipeline, which also projects Lail to perhaps one day don the famous Yankee pinstripes.
His career began similarly to others around him in the minors, playing catch in the backyard with his father. Lail still references his father among his top baseball heroes. Ben Lail doubled as Lail's baseball coach until high school. By the time Brady Lail started playing for Bingham, Ben Lail was coaching Jordan High and told his son to listen to his high school coaches and earn his own opportunities to play.
His current style on the mound is very similar to how he played in the backyard with his family.
"He hasn't changed mechanics since he was probably 8 years old. Everything has been the same — I mean there's a tweak here and there," Ben Lail said. "It comes down, a lot of it, to I've watched my oldest son blow his arm out. Some coaches just throw, throw, throw and throw and I wanted to be more careful with (Brady) and see what he could develop into.
"I knew he was good in Utah, (I) didn't know how good he was against the best in the country. He got a couple of chances to go to a couple of showcases and he showcased himself really well. It's just been a great ride to go watch him and watch what he's done and be able to accomplish."
It’s been awhile since a drafted Utah prep has reached the majors. Among the reasons why Lail could be the first to reach the majors since Mitch Talbot, who was drafted out of Canyon View High in 2002, is that Lail throws strikes. That has earned kudos from his coaches and keeps scouts eying his potential. His fastball now tops out at around 94 mph (it was in the mid-80s in high school), and he has effective off-speed pitches to balance out his arsenal.
The curveball? It’s a pitch he learned as a teenager from his father while playing in the backyard. As a father and a baseball coach, Ben Lail waited until his son was older before he started using the pitch to prevent him from wrecking his arm at a young age.
It turned out Brady Lail was a natural, with a movement Ben Lail says has a slight hitch to its described "12- to six-inch" straight drop.
"He's a kid that actually picked it up really quickly because he's got big hands, so it was easier for him to throw. I mean, it's a hard pitch to throw" Ben Lail said. "Once he started throwing it, it came really easy to him so he's never really gone away from it. He's just sort of perfected it.
"Even at a young age, it had a lot of movement. People just couldn't hit it and it's kind of the same way now. It's a tough pitch to hit if he locates it, just the way it falls off the table and comes down. It's a really effective pitch for him."
Brady Lail admits he’s still developing his curveball. His coaches believe it’s effective because he gets ahead in counts with his other pitches.
“Everything will work if you pound the strike zone with the fastball,” said Jose Rosado, Lail’s current pitching coach in Trenton. “I’ve seen many, many guys with a great curveball, but they don’t get ahead. They don’t get ahead with the fastball. It’s tough to work that way, but (Lail) has a great curveball, but he’s also working ahead of the count, especially with that fastball.”
Rosado said he’s worked with Lail to develop a two-seam fastball, which sets up his off-speed pitches. “When he throws that hook, let me tell you, the hitters aren’t very comfortable against him, especially with that curveball,” Rosado said.
After the May 11 comebacker, Lail has hit a new stratosphere as a pitcher, even if most of his mechanics haven't changed.
“He’s a bulldog out there,” Rosado said. “He always works hard. He doesn’t try to overthrow the ball. He’s really someone that can keep it simple. … It doesn’t surprise me the way he bounced back after that accident. That’s his mentality. ... He’s a dream for any pitching coach.”
Even Lail laughs now at the way his season has changed since getting hit by the line drive.
“It’s kind of an odd turnaround in getting drilled,” Lail said with a chuckle. “I just started clicking. I started executing pitches down in the zone. I started making them swing the bat a little bit more and save some bullets in my arm. … It was something to give my career (a) boosting, I guess. It was a hard experience to go through, but if you can turn around from that, hopefully you can climb from there.”
In his most recent start, last Saturday, Lail tossed his first career complete game, and it came at the perfect time. With the Thunder coming off a 17-inning loss the night before, including using its entire bullpen and two position players, Lail gave himself the task of eating up innings to help his fellow pitchers.
“When I woke up the next morning, it was like, ‘I have to do something for my team, I have to make sure I give them a good, strong six or seven innings,’” Lail said. “I wasn’t expecting to go nine for sure, but I just wanted to give them a good effort to try to get a win for them and just let that bullpen take a night off.”
Not only did he complete the game, he only allowed two hits and a walk while striking out four on 106 pitches. After recording the final out, the smiles on the Thunder players’ faces were as bright as Lail’s.
Of course, the pitchers in the bullpen made sure to give him a few extra thank-yous, too.
“Even during the game, in the eighth and ninth innings, the whole dugout was standing and cheering me on,” Lail said, noting that it was one of the most memorable starts of his baseball career. “It was a great atmosphere to pitch in front of. It was awesome to see the excitement of my teammates wanting me to do this.”
Making the outing even sweeter, it was also his first minor league start that his entire family got to watch in person. Ben and Jody Lail made a trip to Trenton earlier in the year and saw him pitch twice, but not like this.
It was a moment the entire family got to share together.
The goal now is to continue his success on the mound with a little more than a month left in the minor league season. Lail has already moved up a few spots to No. 14 on MLB Pipeline’s prospects list and he could rise higher.
For Lail, the major league bright lights or a promotion to Triple-A are out of his control, and he’s fine with that.
“I just take it day-by-day,” Lail says. “I’m looking forward to my next start in Trenton. If something happens going on with the (trade) deadline, promotions, demotions, I don’t really think about it. I just want the ball and to be able to pitch that next start — just worrying about the now."
If he does reach the majors, it will end Utah's drought for producing MLB talent. Ben Lail, given his ties to the state's high school baseball scene, says the dry streak surprises him. But if Brady Lail is the one to snap it, that would be less shocking.
"I think every time he throws a baseball he's thinking nobody can beat me," Ben Lail says. "He's got an attitude that if you're going to beat me, you're going to beat me with my best."
That's the baseball coach in Ben Lail. As a parent, he's enjoyed watching Brady's journey through the minors. In addition to occasional cross-country visits to New Jersey, he and Jody try to watch every start on their computer.
"It's been awesome," Ben Lail says. "To watch how he's developed and gone through the Gulf Coast League and the short-season stuff, passing Staten Island and going right to Charleston last year, getting his chance to get bumped to Tampa and then one start there this season and going to Double-A, he's really done an excellent job that way.
"It's been a great ride. Really, it's been a great ride just to watch him play."