Dream Come True
“It’s time.”
Brian Walters knew exactly what that message meant.
It was from his older brother Andrew. A text that was years in the making.
“It didn’t feel real,” said Brian, a redshirt junior for the Hurricanes who was sitting in his Wednesday evening kinesiology class when he received that fateful message. “I was shellshocked.”
Since they were little kids, the two brothers fantasized of making it to the major leagues.
Now, Andrew was about to live out that childhood dream.
“When my Triple-A manager Andy Tracy told me, I had a little flashback to when I was a little kid,” he said. “All the things I watched on TV, all the guys I looked up to, it was finally going to happen to me. It was just an overwhelming amount of emotion. I didn’t really know how to think. I froze up.”
After collecting himself, Walters was congratulated by surrounding teammates and staff.
But he had to share the news with two more people. His parents.
Mere minutes before the Columbus Clippers — the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians — were supposed to take the field, Andrew called his dad.
“I saw the phone ring and I told my wife, ‘This is the call,’” Kyle Walters said. “He asked me what I thought about going to Cleveland tomorrow. We celebrated and I just told him how proud I was of him.”
While Andrew packed up his belongings in Columbus, his family worked on the quickest way to fly across the country.
With his bags stuffed and his parents’ plane tickets booked, Andrew hit the road.
As he approached downtown Cleveland, he couldn’t help but picture what the following day would entail.
“When I first saw the stadium lights on from outside the city, it was pretty cool,” Andrew said. “I didn’t get a great night’s sleep. I was too amped up. I showed up to the field the next day. Adrenaline took me through that day.”
That day — Sept. 12, 2024 — turned into one the Walters family will remember forever.
With the Guardians in a close game with the Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt turned to Walters to make his MLB Debut.
He had seen it countless times on TV. But now, he was about to run through that bullpen door himself.
Fire us up, @AndrewWalters07 🔥
Congratulations on becoming the 68th Hurricane to make it to the big leagues!
📺: @MLBONFOX pic.twitter.com/qktchBbUOP
— Miami Hurricanes Baseball (@CanesBaseball) September 13, 2024
“My body was fully ready to throw, but I was nervous. Maybe I didn’t show it, but I was nervous. My heart was beating fast. I couldn’t feel the ball. I was definitely really amped. I just had to figure out a way to put the ball in the square,” Walters said. “It was very, very special to look at the whole stadium and take the hill on a big-league mound.”
Even on the biggest stage, the 23-year-old did what he has done his entire career.
The 6-foot-4, 222-pound right-handed pitcher held Tampa Bay to no hits and zero earned runs on 14 pitches.
If a dream coming true wasn’t enough, Andrew got to share the moment with his parents and brother.
“He was just really happy,” Kyle said. “Getting Andrew to express emotion is hard. He’s very stoic. You could tell he enjoyed the ride and the hard work to get there, and to be successful in his first outing is a big fear for anybody. Just that smile. It was worth it all.”
The Walters family soaked it all in.
They smiled. They laughed. They celebrated.
And their trip to Cleveland was only beginning.
The next night, Andrew retired all three Rays he faced, recording his first strikeout in the majors.
“My brother is my best friend,” Brian said. “He works harder than anybody. My brother is in the big leagues. It still doesn’t feel real. I remember being eight years old, watching big league games, hoping that we’d be in that position one day. For him to make it there in the short time that he did is incredible. To see a smile on my mom and dad’s face and with that much joy, motivates me to get there.”
Despite nerves in his debut, Walters has quickly become a key piece to the Guardians’ bullpen.
He earned his first big-league win just three days later after another scoreless outing.
On Sept. 25, Vogt entrusted Walters to make his first start.
Cleveland’s No. 21 prospect tossed the first 1 2/3 innings for the Guardians, tying the MLB record with an eighth straight hitless appearance to begin his career.
“He misses bats, and he has low pulse, low heartbeat,” Vogt told reporters in Cleveland. “I think he’s got the potential to be a leverage arm for us, and he’s done well against righties and lefties. He’s going to be a part of this bullpen that’s been special all year, and he’s going to play a role in a perfect world.”
Photos courtesy of Russell Lee // Cleveland Guardians
After being promoted to The Show, Walters has not only helped the club clinch the American League Central but also secure a first-round bye in the postseason.
Through 8 2/3 innings, the hard-throwing hurler has yielded only one hit and zero earned runs.
While many baseball fans are just learning about Walters, his success in MLB hasn’t surprised his former pitching coach in Coral Gables.
“He’s a special talent,” Hurricanes head coach J.D. Arteaga said. “We’ve had some great, great closers come through here. He’s up there as one of the greatest of all-time. During his time here, he kept getting better and better. It just shows you his work ethic, his makeup and character.”
A once under-recruited pitcher out of Bayside High School in Palm Bay, Fla., Walters is making a name for himself as a budding star.
Following a stop at Eastern Florida State, the righty notched a 4-1 mark with a 1.41 ERA and 26 saves — the sixth-most by a Hurricane ever — over his three-year career at Miami.
The two-time consensus All-American was picked in the Competitive Balance Round B (No. 62 overall) in the 2023 MLB First-Year Player Draft and climbed through the minor leagues in just 50 games across Double-A and Triple-A.
Throughout his journey, Walters has worn his patented ‘U’ chain for the whole world to see as he’s shined in the bigs.
“I am really proud to come out of The U,” he said. “That place showed me a lot about who I was as an athlete. Those three years I spent there made a huge impact on my career. All the people there helped make me the person I am today. It’s a place that transformed me over a short period of time and prepared me for a lot of these moments right now. I don’t think without that place I’d be sitting in that big-league clubhouse. It’s a very special place to me.”
With Cleveland seeking its first World Series title since 1948, Walters is just hoping to be a part of something special.
But at the end of the day, he’s just happy to be living out his childhood dream.
“I love to win. Right now, I want to provide whatever I can to this team for the rest of the season. Hopefully, that leads to a World Series,” Walters said. “This is what I’ve dreamed about since as long as I can remember. All the little things that we did as kids has led to these moments.”
