But when Bernardino threw that heater up-and-in, causing a late swing and a shattered bat, the sawed-off moment was an omen.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen that bat broke, I looked at my coach next to me and went, \u2018Wow,’\u201d recalled Jared Snyder<\/a>, Bernardino\u2019s high school coach. \u201cThat is a very rare occurrence for a high school pitcher to do that against a college hitter. But that showed us: Brennan could locate any pitch. He didn\u2019t miss middle. He did not try to throw the ball by you. He pitched. He was a thinker. He understood how to go east and west, north and south.<\/p>\n \u201cThat moment also changed his confidence coming back from quitting, because I think he then realized, \u2018Damn, I\u2019m pretty good.\u2019 Just that one moment erased the doubts and gave him the confidence to pursue his baseball dream. That one pitch changed a lot of things for him.\u201d<\/p>\n This season, the southpaw has been the Rockies\u2019 best reliever after Colorado acquired him via an offseason trade with Boston<\/a> for outfield prospect Braiden Ward. In a career year, the 34-year-old journeyman has a 2.82 ERA and 1.5 bWAR in 59 games entering the weekend.\n<\/p>\n The winding road to a dominant season in the Rockies\u2019 bullpen probably wouldn\u2019t have been paved without Snyder changing his mind when Bernardino walked into the coach\u2019s office and asked to rejoin the team 16 years ago.\n<\/p>\n Snyder granted Bernardino\u2019s request, but with an array of stipulations.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n He had to keep his grades up. He couldn\u2019t get into trouble outside of school anymore, and he had to stay away from the peers he hung out with, which ultimately led to his being dismissed from the basketball team. He had to do field work to prove he really wanted to be back on the baseball team. And he was going to have to earn his spot in the rotation during the season, even though Snyder knew Bernardino was his clear No. 1 starter.\n<\/p>\n \u201cHe got kicked off the basketball team for some knucklehead stuff, because every kid makes mistakes,\u201d Snyder said. \u201cBut I also remember that when he got kicked off that team, I hoped he\u2019d come back to our program. I do believe kids deserve second chances and especially second chances when you know what the potential is of that kid and what he could possibly do at the next level.<\/p>\n \u201cThat moment was a fork in the road for a kid like Brennan. You either go left or you go right. Right takes you down the wrong path, with the wrong crowd. Maybe that left turn takes you down to where you can get your life in order. I felt baseball was the path that could get his life in order. I hoped it would be, and obviously it did.\u201d<\/p>\n Significant velocity jump<\/p>\n Bernardino says he looks back on that time in his life and \u201cwouldn\u2019t change a thing.\u201d\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some lessons I needed to learn,\u201d Bernardino said. \u201cGod has a different journey for everybody, and that was mine.\u201d<\/p>\n Little did he know at the time that journey would take him to multiple junior colleges, Division II, the 26th round of the MLB Draft<\/a>, independent league ball, and all across the globe to prove himself on the mound before he finally made his big-league debut in 2022.\n<\/p>\n Bernardino wasn\u2019t recruited out of high school, so he went to College of the Canyons, a few minutes down the road from his high school. He made the team as a walk-on, but coaches wanted him to redshirt, and Bernardino wanted to play right away. His next stop was Los Angeles Mission College, where he again walked on.\n<\/p>\n He gained traction in two seasons there, while also adding significant velocity that took him from the low-80s to 90 mph in a single day after working with pitching guru Dick Mills.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI flew him out to Arizona to work with Dick Mills in Scottsdale,\u201d Bernardino\u2019s dad, Danny Bernardino, said. \u201cAt the time, I was reading all of his articles and analysis on pitching. And I really liked what I was reading. But he was like something like $1,400 for one lesson, for three hours. It was the best money I\u2019ve ever spent my life. Brennan came back (to California) and he had picked up about 6 or 7 miles per hour.\u201d<\/p>\n Bernardino was an all-league selection in his second season at Los Angeles Mission College, but he was pitching hurt. He transferred to Division II California State University Dominguez Hills<\/a>, and platelet-rich plasma injections in his ailing shoulder weren\u2019t helping. He continued to pitch in the fall of 2012 at Dominguez Hills, before Toros head coach Murphy Su\u2019a finally ordered the pitcher to get imaging of his left shoulder.\n<\/p>\n That revealed tears in his shoulder, where the labrum had detached from the bone.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how badly he wanted (this MLB dream),\u201d Danny Bernardino said. \u201cAnd that goes to show why he never gave up afterwards, too.\u201d<\/p>\n After redshirting in 2013, Bernardino emerged as CSU Dominguez Hills\u2019 ace in \u201914. But Su\u2019a was careful in building him back up on the mound, and Bernardino was usually on a pitch count. One game late in the season against another prominent Division II program, Su\u2019a pulled Bernardino in the seventh inning, even though the score was close and he was pitching well.\n<\/p>\n Bernardino reacted by slamming his glove in the dugout.<\/p>\n \u201cI shared with him my thoughts, not so kindly, on why I made the decision to pull him,\u201d Su\u2019a recalled with a laugh. \u201cAnd I mentioned to him, in front of the whole dugout, \u2018You\u2019re the only guy in this dugout right here that has a potential pro career. We can either relieve you right now, or I can send you out there and you can finish the entire game because we\u2019re not coming after you.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of competitor that he is. He apologized to me. He\u2019s a humble guy, but boy, you put him on the field, it\u2019s like, just watch out and get out of his way.\u201d<\/p>\n That fire would come in handy in the years that followed, when Bernardino faced many moments where quitting the game would\u2019ve been the much easier and more realistic option over continuing to pursue his MLB dream.\n<\/p>\n The left-hander was drafted at No. 785 overall by the Reds in 2014 and spent five years in the Cincinnati organization, reaching as high as Double-A. When the Reds released him in 2018, Bernardino refused to give up.\n<\/p>\n He spent the rest of that season with the Winnipeg Goldeneyes in the American Association<\/a>, and then pitched in the Venezuelan Winter League. When 2019 spring training rolled around, he was living in Arizona, and without a job.\n<\/p>\n So Bernardino took matters into his own hands. He went to various spring training complexes around the Phoenix area and tried to bluff his way in the door to get in front of a decision-maker, telling people at each complex that he was a player in that organization.\n<\/p>\n The ruse finally worked at Cleveland\u2019s Goodyear facility, where an unsuspecting receptionist led him to the Guardians\u2019 farm director, James Harris. Once in Harris\u2019 office, Bernardino set his white lie straight.<\/p>\n The pitcher told Harris, \u201cI am a player, just not for you guys yet,\u201d and Harris replied that he would do some research and might call him later that night.\n<\/p>\n The next day, Bernardino threw a bullpen session at the facility and the Guardians signed him to a minor-league contract. But he only pitched in five games for the organization in \u201919 before Cleveland shipped him to Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League.\n<\/p>\n Bernardino then spent the next three years grinding to get another chance at affiliated baseball. Along the way, he developed a sidearm delivery. His break came in 2022, when an agent saw him pitching in the Caribbean Series. He pitched in the Mexican League All-Star Game on June 18 of that season, and eight days later, the Mariners signed him to a minor-league contract. On July 31, 2022, he made his MLB debut.\n<\/p>\n Bernardino only appeared in two games for Seattle, which designated him for assignment in April 2023. Boston claimed him off waivers, and he emerged as a key piece of the Red Sox bullpen over the next three seasons, posting a 3.46 ERA with 157 strikeouts in 167 games.\n<\/p>\n \u201cLast year I was not the main lefty in the (Red Sox) \u2018pen,\u201d Bernardino said. \u201cThe year before that, for some time I was, and the year before that, for some time I was for most of the season. But I ended up losing that role. So it\u2019s a good feeling to get that role back this year here in Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n Bernardino\u2019s pitching in Boston led to his \u201cMoneyball\u201d moment when Colorado dealt for him last November, the first trade of Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta\u2019s tenure.\n<\/p>\n Maybe it didn\u2019t have quite the drama of the movie scene<\/a> when Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) and Peter Brand (the character based off DePodesta that was played by Jonah Hill) wheeled-and-dealed at the trade deadline to acquire a southpaw reliever in Ricardo Rinc\u00f3n, but the phone call from the real Peter Brand hit home for Bernardino.\n<\/p>\n For the first time in his career, Bernardino was not just a big-leaguer, but a big-leaguer worth trading for.<\/p>\n \u201c(Paul) called me and just told me, \u2018You know, you\u2019re my first move,’\u201d Bernardino said. \u201cAnd it was a good feeling to be his first move. Of course I\u2019ve seen the movie, but also just knowing the entirety of his career and how he (thinks about the game). \u2026. Hearing that, it was kind of like, \u2018OK, wow.\u2019 It made me feel a little bit special.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid his success this season, Bernardino has made up for a lack of heat with his funky arm slot, pitch location, and sequencing. His average fastball velocity is just 90.2 mph, which ranks in the bottom 4% in baseball.<\/a> But with a varied pitch mix that pounds the strike zone and mostly features a sinker, curve and cutter, Bernardino has been sensational, especially at Coors Field where he has a 2.22 ERA in 28 games.\n<\/p>\n Bernardino\u2019s signature has been weak contact. He ranks in the 78th percentile in barrel rate (5.7%), the 85th percentile in average exit velocity (87 mph) and the 89th percentile in hard-hit percentage (32.1%). His curveball has been his most effective pitch, as opponents are batting just .151 against it.<\/p>\n All of which begs the questions: Will Bernardino be part of the next competitive Rockies team? Can he keep pitching well enough in the future to justify the trade of Ward, whose elite speed<\/a> gives him future big-league potential for Boston?\n<\/p>\n Bernardino\u2019s performance has been a bargain this year with a $925,000 salary and he is under club control for three more seasons.<\/a> But he\u2019s one of the oldest players on the roster and is the Rockies\u2019 oldest reliever.\n<\/p>\n Su\u2019a believes Bernardino\u2019s age matters less than the average pitcher, given his limited high school innings as well as the injury that led to his pitch counts in college.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s got a 26- to 28-year-old arm right now, because his arm is more healthy because he doesn\u2019t have the volume and the wear-and-tear that other pitchers have had,\u201d Su\u2019a said. \u201cAnd plus, he\u2019s not throwing triple-digits, right? So there\u2019s less (strain) there, even when he\u2019s throwing his maximum.<\/p>\n \u201cAll that leads me to believe he\u2019s still got a lot in the tank and a bunch of really good seasons still ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Brennan](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TDP-L-ROCKIESPADRESHJD00836.jpg\")
Brennan Bernardino of the Colorado Rockies pitches during a game against the San Diego Padres in Denver on Thursday, April 23, 2026. (Photo by Harmon Dobson\/The Denver Post)
\nBluffing way back into pro ball<\/p>\n![\"Pitcher](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TDP-L-Rockies-Spring-RJS-15831.jpg\")
Pitcher Brennan Bernardino of the Colorado Rockies looks up to talk with a fan before a spring training game at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona on Feb. 22, 2026. (Photo by RJ Sangosti\/The Denver Post)
\nWeak contact at Coors Field<\/p>\n