Who’s he and the place did he come from?
He’s Braiden Ward and he hails from the higher San Diego space, the place he attended the phenomenally named El Capitan Excessive Faculty. The best Crimson Sox participant of all-time is a San Diegan, after all, as is Marcelo Mayer. However Ward doesn’t have fairly the baseball pedigree that these guys do, having been chosen within the sixteenth spherical of the 2021 draft out of the College of Washington.
The Sox acquired him from Rockies yesterday in trade for reliever Brennan Bernardino.
What place does he play?
He’s a flexible glove man who has hung out in each the outfield and infield, however he’s primarily a middle fielder, and also you’ll perceive why while you learn the primary sentence of the very subsequent part.
Let’s begin with this: in 97 video games final 12 months, Braiden Ward stole 57 bases and was solely caught 7 instances. Over the course of his minor league profession, he has stolen a complete of 211 bases whereas solely being caught 33 instances. For reference, David Hamilton stole 185 bases whereas being caught 32 instances within the minors. Ward is among the quickest males in baseball.
Sadly, pace alone shouldn’t be sufficient to get a participant to the massive leagues. So does Ward have the products in the remainder of his sport? Nicely, sadly, he has no energy to talk of, having posted a profession minor league slugging share of simply .382. He simply doesn’t hit the ball laborious in any respect, placing up a sixth percentile common exit velocity in AAA final season.
However what he does do is make contact, hit the ball to all fields, and management the strike zone. His 14.1% strikeout charge in 2025 would have been the Seventeenth-best mark in all of AAA had he certified, and his stroll charge was above common for AAA as effectively. On prime of that, he’s mentioned to be a robust bunter and will get hit by pitches so much. He’s been hit by a pitch 53 instances over the previous two seasons, the third-most throughout the whole minor leagues throughout that span.
To me, he appears like a first-rate candidate to go to the hitting lab to attempt to enhance his bat pace. If he can add a modicum of energy to his sport, he could be a huge league common.
Present me a cool spotlight.
Is stealing dwelling the good factor a baseball participant can do? He’s carried out it a number of instances, together with in a sport through which he went 3-3 on the plate and stole six bases general.
What’s he doing in his image up there?
“All the time cheezin” in keeping with the caption he himself wrote when he posted that image on his very active Instagram page. And let me let you know one thing: the proof means that Ward is in reality all the time cheezin.
Right here he’s cheezin whereas holding a freshly hooked trout:
Cheezin in black and white:
Cheezin and displaying off his core whereas dressed as Slutty Woody for Halloween:
And even utilizing his pinkies to reinforce his cheezin at this sausage fest of an unpleasant sweater occasion. You don’t want to do this, Braiden! You will have harmful quantities of cheez already!
What’s his function on the 2026 Crimson Sox?
He’s not going to begin the 12 months on the massive league roster, however he’ll make an look right here and there. And if he could make some actual enhancements to his swing, then he can flip himself right into a helpful depth piece subsequent season and possibly an enormous league common sooner or later. On the very least, he offers Craig Breslow flexibility to ship out David Hamilton in a commerce, and he’s actually a man who may contribute with a key stolen base in some unspecified time in the future.
