Tuesday morning, Patrick & Henry Community College baseball coach Brandon Nania was in a staff meeting at the school’s campus in Martinsville.
Twenty-four hours later, he and former P&H coach Barry Powell were standing inside Yankee Stadium watching former Patriots pitcher Bradley Hanner in a Yankees uniform preparing for a Major League Baseball game against the Seattle Mariners.
Hanner, 27, an Orange County High School graduate who pitched for Patrick & Henry for two seasons in 2018 and 2019, became the school’s first product to make the MLB ranks when the Yankees called him up Tuesday from their Class AAA affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Nania and Powell were not far behind, showing up in the Big Apple on Wednesday to take in a pair of games.
“I was in the middle of our staff meeting looking down at my phone and there’s Barry Powell calling me five times,” Nania said Friday. “He finally texted me and said, ‘Brad’s going to the Big Leagues. ‘Your flight’s booked. Meet me at my house at 7:15. We flew up [Wednesday] morning, got off the plane, put our bags down and we were at Yankee Stadium probably at noon.
“That was one of the coolest, most unbelievable experiences that I could have had on a baseball field. Taking the train over, it was like, ‘We’re going to the mecca of Major League Baseball.’ “
Hanner’s trip to New York took just a bit longer.
The 6-foot-4 right-hander, who originally committed to Young Harris College in Georgia after two years at Patrick & Henry, was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 21st round of the 2019 MLB Amateur Draft.
He debuted with the Twins’ entry at the Rookie level in the Gulf Coast League in 2019, advancing to Class A Ft. Myers in 2021 and High-A Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League in 2022.
Hanner entered the Rule 5 minor league draft where he was taken in the first round by the Cleveland Guardians. He played at the Class AA level in Akron in 2023 and split time between Akron and the Guardians’ Class AAA International League affiliate in Columbus in 2024.
Hanner spent the entire 2025 season in Columbus before the former P&H pitcher opted for free agency and was signed to a minor league contract by the Yankees in December.
Pitching 51 1/3 innings in relief for the Yankees’ affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he compiled a 6-2 won-lost record with a 2.10 ERA, four saves, 61 strikeouts and a 1.17 walks/innings pitched ratio.
The Yankees purchased Hanner’s contact from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in July. The club immediately optioned Hanner to their Class AAA team, but the move also put him on the 40-man roster and made the reliever eligible for the MLB postseason.
In six minor league seasons (the 2020 season was cancelled by COVID-19), Hanner had a 37-24 record, 25 saves, a 3.93 ERA and 403 strikeouts in 348 innings.
Powell, who currently works as a regional scout for the New York Mets, recalled Hanner as a young player with good mechanics, a developing fastball and an outstanding breaking ball.
However, it was Hanner’s intangibles that struck Powell most when the big right-hander was playing at the NJCAA Division II level.
“The first time I saw him the thing that impressed me was his makeup,” Powell said. “He seemed to go about his business his way, in a positive way. He was not one to follow [others]. He was more of a leader. He set the standard for a lot of players there. When he threw his ‘bullpens’ it was not uncommon for the other guys to want to be close by and take a look.
“At that stage his fastball was more than adequate for his age. He was 90, 92 [mph]. But he could really spin it. You see enough athletic ability and then the mindset, which I think is so important, to develop these skills. You felt like with his work ethic, that this kid was going to develop.”
Hanner carries 220 pounds, up from 190 or so during his junior college days.
“He had a good frame. Looking at him the last couple days, his shoulders, his legs, he’s got a great pitcher’s body. He put a lot of time in the weight room. If you don’t have good mechanics and you try to throw harder and harder you’re going to run into injury problems. His mechanics were solid, good arm action. His [velocity] has picked up. Now it’s 94-96.
“He’s got his plan. He’s got his blinders on, so to speak. He does things his way. I never doubted him one bit.”
Hanner is the fifth Patrick & Henry baseball player selected in the MLB and the first to sniff the Major Leagues.
He was added to the roster when reliever Kelvin Castro was placed on the 15-day injured list.
Nania and Powell hoped to see him take the mound Wednesday, but the Yankees did not summon the right-hander in the game against the Mariners, which New York won 10-5 with five runs in the late innings.
They were in the stadium on Thursday when Seattle scored a 1-0 victory as Hanner again was not summoned.
“I was sitting next to his agent and he was like, ‘I don’t know if he’s going to throw tonight,’ ” Nania said. “They don’t really throw their guy they just called up in high-leverage situations.”
For a brief instant, Hanner thought his MLB debut might come in Wednesday’s game.
“He said, ‘My stomach was in my mouth,’ ” Nania related. “They radioed down and told me to get moving around. I was thinking this is it right here. It was a surreal feeling. I’m about to break the ice and be a Major Leaguer.’ “
Nania and Powell watched batting practice on the field and were able to meet briefly with Hanner before and after the two games they attended.
“Walking down the tunnel and onto the field … when I walked up the step and looked out onto Yankee Stadium, it was breathtaking,” Powell said. “I had tears in my eyes. It was just awesome. It just doesn’t happen every day.”
Hanner made his MLB debut Friday in Canada in the Yankees’ 3-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Entering the game in the eighth inning with New York trailing 2-1, he struck out the first two hitters he faced, Charles McAdoo and George Springer, before Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk tagged him for a solo home run. Hanner retired the next hitter, Andres Gimenez, on a bunt attempt to end the inning.
Even with superstars like Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger on the injured list, the Yankees still have a loaded pitching roster featuring Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Cam Schlitter.
Powell was able to impart some advice to his former pitcher, and it had nothing to do with what to throw to Shohei Ohtani on a 3-2 count.
“Judge and Stanton are three lockers down and he’s talking with big-name players, it’s easy to get caught up,” the former P&H coach said. “I told him, ‘You belong here. Try not to be too impressed. Not that it isn’t an impressive scene, but don’t be ‘too’ impressed.”
Brand new Patrick & Henry athletic director Brandon Johnson plans to make the most of the situation.
“It’s huge,” he said. “It’s something we try to tell the kids. You come here. You make the most of it. Anything can happen to you.”
