Summerville High School alum Brody Hopkins is heading to the major leagues. The Tampa Bay Rays selected the right-handed pitcher’s contract Saturday, promoting him from Triple-A Durham for his first Major League Baseball action.
The move was announced at 2:39 p.m., ahead of the Rays’ game against the Houston Astros. To make room on the active roster, right-hander Alex Cook was optioned to Triple-A and right-hander Michael Grove was designated for assignment.
Hopkins, 24, played at the College of Charleston before transferring to Winthrop, where he built out his professional profile. The Seattle Mariners drafted him in the sixth round of the 2023 draft, and he joined Tampa Bay’s organization at the 2024 trade deadline as part of the package Seattle acquired for outfielder Randy Arozarena.
The right-hander leans on an upper-90s fastball that has been clocked at 100 mph, paired with a curveball that pro scouts have graded near the top of the scale. Command remains the work in progress: at Durham this season he posted a 5.17 ERA and a walk rate near 21 percent across 94 innings. National prospect rankers had him inside the sport’s top 40 heading into the season and slid him down closer to 80th in their late-summer updates.
A move from the Durham rotation to the bullpen in mid-August appears to have helped stabilize his profile. As a reliever he owns a 3.00 ERA with 16 strikeouts and five walks over nine innings and 39 batters faced.
Older brother TJ Hopkins also reached the majors, adding a second Lowcountry name to a family with big-league service time. In 2025 the younger Hopkins put up a 2.72 ERA and 141 strikeouts across 116 innings at Double-A Montgomery before earning a Futures All-Star selection, the resume that put him on the doorstep of his Saturday call-up.
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