Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
Brayden Spears is currently a pitcher in the Chicago Cubs organization, but his first love was the bulls.
“When I was little, I wanted to be a cowboy,” said Spears, who grew up on a cattle ranch in Northern California. “That’s all I wanted to do. Pretended to ride my couch like a bucking bull and all that. I was completely obsessed with it. And I grew up. At 6, I realized that riding bulls was probably not in my future.”
An equally improbable career as a professional baseball player was in his future, however. In 2025, his first Minor League season, the lanky 6-foot-6 right-handed reliever appeared in 36 games as a member of the Single-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans. The 24-year-old’s path to the pros didn’t come easy, either. Spears sums it up by saying, “I took the long route.”
“I went to three schools in three years: Boise State, Oregon and [Cal State] Fullerton,” he said. “And, really, the only reason I left Boise was because COVID hit and they cancelled the program. Then went to Oregon [in 2021], wasn’t playing and wanted a new spot. Went to Fullerton and was kind of done with playing baseball, honestly.”
Spears’ college career was underwhelming, to say the least. He made just six appearances, total, and four of them were in his interrupted COVID campaign at Boise State. Over the course of 2021 and ’22, he pitched 1 1/3 innings combined. But just when he thought he was out of the game, the game pulled him back in. One of his coaches with Boise State also coached for the Pioneer League’s Boise Hawks, an independent MLB Partner League franchise, and extended an offer to try out for the team.
“I played [with the Boise Hawks] for three years. It was a grind, but it was fun,” said Spears. “I learned a lot. Learned how to really pitch again. … Every night they’re packing the house out, so it was a good experience to learn how to play in front of a lot of people and able to calm your nerves and get your adrenaline under control.”
Spears’ steady improvement over three years with the Hawks led to a Jan. 25, 2025 “Pro Day” tryout invitation at Push Performance training facility in Tempe, AZ.
“The next day I started getting calls [from MLB clubs], and I signed with the Cubs on Feb. 8,” said Spears. “So it all happened really quickly.”
Spears spent the entirety of 2025 with the Pelicans and steadily improved as the season went on, ultimately compiling a 3.13 ERA and 1.43 WHIP over 60 1/3 innings pitched.
“It’s a lot more analytical [in the Minor Leagues]. You pitch and the next day you go in and have a meeting about everything you did, and so you can’t hide from anything,” said Spears. “Looking at the small, fine details was definitely a big adjustment for me.”
Meanwhile, Spears hasn’t entirely given up on his cowboy dreams.
“Me and my sister own a bucking bull, it’s kind of a crazy story,” he said. “Like, let’s put our money in and buy a share of this bull. This was in 2020 or 2021 and I kind of forgot about it, and then the PBR [Professional Bull Riders] posted a photo of our bull bucking in a competition. My sister sends it to me. I was like ‘Holy cow, that’s pretty wild!’ No pun intended.”
In the rodeo or on the pitcher’s mound, you just have to enjoy the ride.
“I’m doing something now I’ve dreamed of since I was a little kid, and really working it for the last four years,” he said. “I try to take it in and be appreciative, because it’s a hard game. I always try to act like this might be my last day. I need to enjoy every second of it.”
