ATTLEBORO, MASS. — The game had already been decided. The story already written.Bishop Feehan High School 2, Attleboro High School 1, with the Shamrocks winning in walk-off fashion.Players, former players, coaches and parents celebrated on the field, basking in a season that has brought more attention to Bishop Feehan baseball than at any point in the program’s history. Then there was the reason for all the attention, standing near his domain on the mound. The tool used to compact the clay looked almost toy-like in the hands of Brody Bumila, whose 6-foot-9 frame has a way of distorting perspective much like his high-powered 101 mph fastball.
The left-hander didn’t pitch that day. He didn’t need to.His presence still filled the ballpark.The buzz surrounding Bishop Feehan baseball this spring was largely his doing. The life coursing through the program had been amplified by what Bumila accomplished on the mound, including a 20-strikeout no-hitter that only further fueled the attention surrounding him.He’s committed to Texas, but few inside the game expect him to ever throw a pitch in Austin.The 6-foot-9 left-hander is widely projected to be a first-round pick in July’s MLB Draft (he was projected as the No. 21 overall pick in CBS Sports’ first Mock Draft), cementing himself as perhaps the most coveted high school player Massachusetts has ever produced.
Bumila, a decorated basketball player who led his team to its first state championship, understands the reality of his situation.
“It would be so cool to be a first-round draft pick because that’s my dream,” he reported. “But that’s the first step of the dream.”
2026 MLB Mock Draft: White Sox take UCLA star at No. 1 as three shortstops go in top four
Mike Axisa
His high school coach, Joe Breen, took it a step further.
“He wants to be round No. 1, pick No.1,” reported Breen, who has known Bumila since he was 11 years old. “He wants a Cy Young, World Series. He wants it all.”
High risk, high reward
There is an industry-wide reluctance to spend first-round picks on high school pitchers.
The reasons are understandable. Teenagers are still growing into their bodies. The jump from pitching once a week in high school to the demands of professional baseball, not just taking the ball every five days but managing the workload between starts, can be difficult to predict.
“The Bumila kid, he’s got everything you want to see,” reported a former MLB executive, who has watched Bumila this spring and evaluated countless amateur pitchers throughout his career. “He’s got arm strength. You could tell there’s aptitude there. He’s gonna get a better feel for a breaking ball and changeup. A better feel for a breaking ball, better feel for a changeup.”
But Ricciardi also understands the volatility attached to projecting teenage pitchers. Of the 53 high school pitchers drafted in the first round between the 2013 and 2022 MLB Drafts, 30% of them (16) failed to reach the majors
“Yet despite all of that,” he continued, “he can go out there to the minor leagues and never get out of A ball.”
Courtesy of Andy Ferreira (@aferreiraphoto)
In Bumila’s case, his high-powered fastball and size are the hook.
Standing next to him, it’s easy to forget he’s only 18.
Then he starts talking.
The projected first-round pick deleted his social media accounts to tune out the chatter surrounding his future and spend his final high school season doing what most seniors want to do: enjoy it with his friends.
But talent of this caliber comes with scrutiny and, as one league executive put it, “Bumila has an elite fastball, solid life, good extension, but the rest of his mix needs development.”
Overpowering high school hitters in Massachusetts, where the competition isn’t viewed through the same lens as baseball hotbeds in the South or West, can only tell evaluators so much.
Which brings the conversation back to the risk inherent in drafting high school arms.
“They are so difficult to evaluate,” added another executive. “How is Brody’s stuff going to evolve over a long season? He’s not going to be throwing 100 anymore. How is his fastball gonna play at 93-94 miles per hour? That’s a very tough thing to project on.”
‘Potentially the next Randy Johnson or Chris Sale’
Rich Hill, a Massachusetts native who carved out a 21-year major league career, believes Bumila’s future may hinge less on his talent and more on the organization entrusted with developing it.
“I think it’s just the proper development of being able to get him with the right coaches because what is to come is certainly like a gauntlet of ups and downs, and being able to manage that is important. I also think he needs to develop a second pitch. But, again, that comes down to coaching.”
Bumila understands the evaluations. He also has a firm grasp of the strides he’s made to get here.
“Sophomore year, I went from 85 to 96 miles per hour,” he reported. “I put on about 40 pounds.”
The growth wasn’t linear.
Bumila underwent an internal brace procedure on his elbow, costing him his entire junior season. He returned this spring, throwing harder than ever, drawing crowds of more than 50 scouts to nearly every start.
His athleticism isn’t limited to the baseball field, either.
This winter, Bumila helped lead Bishop Feehan’s basketball team to the first state championship in program history, finishing the title game with 36 points and 22 rebounds. The performance only reinforced what scouts already believed: the towering left-hander remains far from a finished product.
“I’m no scouting director,” Breen reported. “But if you have the opportunity to potentially draft the next Randy Johnson or Chris Sale and a kid from Massachusetts instead of drafting the shortstop from California for the 10th year in a row, I find it hard to believe that you wouldn’t want to bet your farm on this kid.”
Bumila and Bishop Feehan will open the state tournament Sunday, with hopes of adding a baseball championship to the trophy case.
This time, he’ll have the ball in his hand. The rest of his story is still being written.
