Brandon Williamson Delivered In His Long-Awaited Homecoming

Minneapolis – Martin County, Minn., was well represented at Target Field Friday night when one of their own took the mound against the Minnesota Twins. Twenty-eight-year-old Brandon Williamson, who grew up on a farm near Welcome, Minn., made his MLB debut nearly three years ago. However, two injury-filled seasons have put his MLB homecoming on hold.

So once Williamson saw he was lined up to make the start for the Cincinnati Reds in this series, nearly 500 people showed up in support of the Martin County West High School grad. With so many family and friends, and friends of the family, making the two-and-a-half-hour drive up to Minneapolis to see him, would the large crowd warrant that he’d get an extra word of wisdom from his manager, Terry Francona, before his start on Friday?

“He’ll be fine,” Francona said pre-game Friday. “I don’t go give our pitchers words of wisdom before they pitch. That’ll just scare them. Guys come home, and it’s fun for them.”

And fine Williamson was. He went 5 ⅓ innings, allowing just one run on three hits and four walks while striking out two. There was a moment where it looked like Minnesota’s hitters were getting to him in the fifth when he walked three straight to start the inning. But two pitches later, Williamson induced an out, allowing the only Twins run of the game on a sac fly, then got Luke Keaschall to ground into a double play to escape the jam.

Brandon Williamson typically hasn’t issued many walks throughout his career, but he’s totaled 10 over his last two starts. Most of it is due to the ‘new feeling’ in his arm, following a shoulder injury that caused him to miss most of 2024, and Tommy John surgery that had him out for all of 2025.

“I would say I’m still trying to get acclimated,” Williamson said on his high walk rate. “I missed two years, I had the surgery, I’m still just trying to build up. I’ve pitched for a long time, I’ve never really been a high walk guy. I’ll keep going, figure it out.”

While the walks led to Minnesota's only run in Friday night’s game, Williamson’s performance earned him a tip of the cap from the opposing manager, Derek Shelton, who had previously seen him pitch twice as a rookie.

“I thought early in the game we put some good swings on Williamson and hit some balls to the track, but they just, they didn’t go far enough,” said Shelton. “There were nine hits in the game overall. It was a really well-pitched game.”

The weather may have factored into how the ball carried for both teams in Friday night’s game, but it did not affect Williamson. Having grown up on a farm just outside Welcome, Minn., he spent cold, damp spring afternoons pitching at a plank of wood that his dad, Tod Williamson, had set up against the family shed.

Each pitch would send an echo throughout the property, but it helped build the command he’s carried throughout his lifetime as a pitcher. Back then, Williamson was a part of the last generation of kids to grow up with the Metrodome and the first to enjoy Target Field. Despite dreaming of pitching for the Minnesota Twins as he pitched in the backyard, it was still one of the most thrilling nights of his career on Friday to step on the mound at Target Field and live out those dreams.

“I’ve been coming to games here forever, since 2010 when it opened,” he said. “Went to a few games in the Metrodome before that. It was amazing to see how many people came, just a special night to have everybody I grew up with, that I love, friends and family all in one game. It was just very unique and very special.”

With 2.5% of Martin County’s 20,025 population in attendance at Target Field Friday night, Williamson has given kids in that part of the state plenty to dream on. He has also inspired many more across southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa.

Most of his family still lives in Martin County, but Williamson’s brother Josh lives in Rochester, Minn., and has been working for the fire department for several years.

Before the Reds found him pitching at TCU in 2019, Williamson had been a walk-on at Northern Iowa Area Community College in Mason City. There, he fell under the tutelage of coaches Travis Hergert and Shawn Schlechter. Twins fans recognize Schlechter’s name as the St. Paul Saints' hitting coach for the past three seasons. Hergert has been with the Philadelphia Phillies as a minor-league pitching coordinator since 2020.

“I was very blessed, very fortunate that I went to a junior college that had as capable of coaches that I did,” he said. “It’s pretty rare. They were legit, they definitely changed my life, and set my career on the right path.”

MLB teams had drafted a few of Williamson’s other teammates from his days at NIAAC: Harrison Beethe, a pitcher who followed him to TCU after 2019, and Evan Reifert, who is at Triple-A Durham in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Neither Beethe nor Reifert signed with the teams that drafted them; both were eventually signed as undrafted free agents by the Kansas City Royals (Beethe) and the Texas Rangers (Reifert).

Reifert could join Williamson in the majors later this season as the only two NIAAC players to reach the big leagues. But as things stand now, Williamson is one of one. He’s gone from a two-year school in Mason City to a season at a four-year university, then was scouted and drafted by a major league team, and eventually debuted in the big leagues.

Not every kid living in Martin County is likely to follow Williamson’s major-league dreams. Still, his hard work to reach the majors is a great example for any kid who wants to achieve their dreams.

“It’s really just about how bad do you want it. I feel like I just dedicated myself, and I really went after it,” Brandon Williamson said. “I had gifts, I had size, I had being left-handed, but if you want something bad enough. There’s a spot for people, no matter what size you are. Everybody can have one unique thing, and you can really just tap into that.

“Whether you’re in the cities on a travel ball team, a big prospect or something, or not known, you just have to keep going. If you’re not known and in a small town, you just might have to do more to get out than other people. It’s not that you can’t do it, it just might be harder, and whether you’re willing to do it.”