Six days removed from brain surgery, Braylen Wimmer went to therapy with his tee.
The Rockies prospect had an awake craniotomy on Nov. 19 to remove a cancerous tumor that was found after he had a seizure while in Scottsdale for the Arizona Fall League a few weeks prior. After his surgery, Wimmer suffered another seizure, landing him back in the hospital.
The day after he was released from his second hospital stay, Nov. 25, Wimmer couldn’t help but get a bat in his hands even though he hadn’t yet regained full control of his speech.
“It brought me some temporary peace,” Wimmer recalled. “I didn’t know what was going to happen when the ball got put on the tee. But I just went into the cage and did a few one-handed swings and got the ball off the barrel. I was like, ‘All right, it’s still there.’ It was an emotional moment for me and my dad.”
Wimmer’s dad, Chris Wimmer, runs a baseball facility in Oklahoma City where the son and father hit. Chris, an All-American at Wichita State who reached Triple-A ball in the 1990s, is a hard-nosed, old-school baseball guy who couldn’t stop the waterworks from flowing that day.
“After everything he went through, the brain surgery, the seizures, losing his speech there for a bit, you just never know how he’s going to come back to the game,” Chris Wimmer said. “So to see him back in his element, moving around, swinging, it got me pretty choked up.
“But that’s when I knew that none of this would (derail the ascent) he’s been on.”
Braylen had his initial seizure on a team bus on a way to a game on Nov. 1, and found out the next day he had a Grade 2 astrocytoma. The reality of a cancerous tumor in his brain hit the utilityman hard, especially considering the 2023 8th-round pick out of South Carolina is riding a wave of momentum early in his minor-league career.
Wimmer was a California League all-star with Low-A Fresno in 2024, his first full minor-league season, and was a Northwest League all-star with High-A Spokane in ’25. Last summer saw him tear up Spokane with a .302 average and .879 OPS in 86 games before finishing the season with 45 games for Double-A Hartford and then getting invited to the Arizona Fall League.
So when Wimmer’s tumor threatened not only his career but also his life, the 24-year-old had moments of fear and questioning, admitting that “when I got the MRI back on my phone on (Nov. 2), I was just like, ‘Wow, this is probably the end of (my career).’ ”
But that doubt was followed by his decision to meet the challenge head-on. That approach came as no surprise to those who know Wimmer, a largely unheralded player who is not ranked in MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Rockies prospects.
“Coming into the draft, clubs didn’t really give him the looks that he deserved,” said Rockies pitching prospect Jack Mahoney, Wimmer’s close friend and teammate in college and the minors. “So just Wim being Wim, he’s always going to keep that chip on his shoulder. And this scary episode that he’s gone through, that’s just adding to the chip.”
After Wimmer’s initial hitting session with his dad on Nov. 25, two days later on Thanksgiving, he was lifting weights in his parents’ garage in Oklahoma. Less than a week after that, on Dec. 3, he was back at his dad’s facility, this time for a full hitting session to officially begin his comeback exactly two weeks after he lay awake as doctors operated on the left side of his brain.
Rockies prospect Braylen Wimmer undergoes an awake craniotomy at the OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to remove a tumor on Nov. 19, 2025. (Courtesy of Braylen Wimmer)
“This is not a challenge against anyone else right now,” explained Wimmer’s girlfriend, Peyton Gray, of the ballplayer’s accelerated timeline back to training. “It’s literally just a battle between his old self and his new self.
“And ultimately, I think that this will be the biggest blessing in disguise that he’ll ever face in his baseball career. Because he’s had issues with being patient (with his career) in the past, but going through all of this will build in the patient side that he needs in the game.”
Earlier this week, Wimmer went through a full-throttle workout at his dad’s facility.
He took ground balls. He played long toss. And he went max effort in the cage, generating mid-90s exit velocities with a swing that hitting coach Trevor Burmeister — who worked with Wimmer over the past two seasons in the Rockies organization — says could eventually play at Coors Field as the Rockies seek to cut down the strikeouts in their lineup.
“He’s a doubles-type hitter, gap-to-gap, and the bat definitely has some sneaky juice,” said Burmeister, who is now with the Red Sox organization. “His greatest skill set is … his ability to hit all different pitch types in different locations. … With the swings that I’ve seen him take, he projects as a guy that can fit that mold of what the Rockies are looking for in the future.”
Wimmer hit 14 homers and 22 doubles in Spokane last year, and also flashed speed with 37 steals in 40 attempts across the entire season. A middle infielder in college, Wimmer’s adopted more defensive versatility in the pros by playing third, second, shortstop and corner outfield.
Rockies prospect Braylen Wimmer was coming off a solid 2025 season that earned him a promotion to Double-A when the utilityman underwent surgery for a brain tumor on Nov. 19, 2025. (Courtesy of Spokane Indians)
As he continues to work to gain back the muscle he lost from last month’s ordeal, Wimmer has his sights set on returning to where his baseball career left off with the seizure on Nov. 1 — Scottsdale, Ariz., for 2026 spring training beginning in mid-February.
“I’m in a good mindset now and I’m past the point of asking why did this happen to me, or how,” Wimmer said. “I don’t know why, or how, and there’s no reason to keep asking those questions.
“The only thing I can do is move forward. I’m grateful to be playing again, so I’m going to make the most of it and just be happy that every day I can focus on Spring Training and getting better for 2026.”
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