I had high hopes for Tampa Bay’s Brody Hopkins coming into 2026. Shades of Zach Wheeler and a 2.72 ERA in 2025 had me looking forward to seeing him in a Tampa Bay uniform very soon. He did earn a promotion to Triple-A Durham for the 2026 season, but things have been anything but smooth since then.

Previously coming in at #85 on MLB’s Top 100 prospects, the latest update has Hopkins off the list altogether. Hopkins represents a classic yet maddening archetype in today’s game: a high-velocity strikeout pitcher with severe control problems. The Jordan Hicks model, if you will. Despite possessing an elite opponents’ batting average of .192, Brody Hopkins has an ERA of 4.63 so far in 2026. How does that happen? Walks, walks and more walks. He has a WHIP of 1.60, and when you factor in that he’s allowed 54 hits in 81.2 innings, which by itself isn’t a bad number, walks stand out even more. Hopkins has surrendered 77 walks in that timespan, which equates to an astronomical 8.53 BB/9. That number was 4.66 a year ago. There’s you story. Hopkins is creating his own problems.

The Durham Bulls have recently experimented with using Hopkins as a bulk reliever over the summer, where he put up two separate occasions of 5 shoutout innings out of the bullpen. The experiment appeared to have been short-lived as they returned him to the starting rotation after relief appearances, but maybe it shouldn’t have been. In 11 innings out of the bullpen, Hopkins only gave up 2 earned runs on two hits while striking out 17. Most importantly, he walked 7. That number may seem high, but the bulk of that was from his last outing, where he also gave up the two runs. If you isolate that inning, and just focus on the two bulk relief appearances, Hopkins only walked 3 while striking out 16 across 10 shoutout innings.

Maybe it’s as simple as a mental block. It appears that the Bulls were using an opener in those two games where he was near-perfect. Since returning to the rotation in July however, the same problems bit him again – 16 walks in 19 innings. His stuff isn’t the problem. He’s averaging nearly 11 K/9. I genuinely think it’s a mental block. Something about going out on the mound first gives him the yips.

There are plenty of great pitchers in the history of baseball who have begun their careers as starters but found a home in the bullpen. Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Mario Rivera, Kenley Jansen (after he switched to pitching), Joe Nathan and Francisco Rodriguez just to name a few. He may not have begun his career as a starter, but the Cincinnati Reds experimented with Aroldis Chapman as a starter for a short time before ultimately deciding he was better off closing the door than opening it.

Maybe that’s the path forward for Hopkins, and there’s no shame in it. Almost all of those guys I mentioned are either enshrined in Cooperstown or destined to be (sorry, K-Rod). With an overpowering fastball that regularly hits triple-digits and a curveball that has dramatically improved from a solid off-speed offering to a plus strikeout pitch since last year, the only thing standing between Brody Hopkins and the Major Leagues is control. If he can get past his starter yips or carve out a place for himself that allows him to bring the walks down, he could be a great asset for an ascending Rays team.