Glew: Like father, like son - Chadwick begins pro career with Rockies

Okotoks Dawgs Academy alum Tyrelle Chadwick (Kamloops, B.C.), shown here with the Illinois State Redbirds, was selected in the 18th round of the 2025 MLB draft by the Colorado Rockies. Photo: Illinois State Athletics

August 6, 2025

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Sometimes when Ray Chadwick watches his son pitch he sees himself out there on the mound.

“I just shake my head when I watch him pitch,” said Ray, who toed the rubber for the California Angels in 1986. “It’s eerie how similar it is.”

Like his dad, Tyrelle Chadwick is a tall right-hander whose fastball can reach the high 90s.

And like his dad, he has had to work hard to control that pitch.

But thanks to his breakthrough junior season at Illinois State University this spring, Tyrelle, like his dad, will pitch professionally. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound right-hander was selected in the 18th round of the 2025 MLB draft by the Colorado Rockies.

“Obviously, it was super exciting. It was a dream come true,” said Chadwick of being drafted. “Honestly, the day of the draft was pretty stressful. There was a lot of waiting around . . . But I couldn’t be more grateful and I couldn’t be more excited now that I’ve had time to soak it all in.”

The 22-year-old right-hander has signed and is at the Rockies’ complex in Scottsdale, Ariz.

His journey to pro baseball started in Kamloops, B.C. where his father, a Durham, N.C., native, settled after an eight-year professional career that included triple-A stops in Edmonton and Vancouver.

After hanging up his playing spikes, Ray served as a pitching coach for the University of British Columbia before he was offered the position of head coach at Thompson Rivers University in 2003, the same year Tyrelle was born.

Ray Chadwick, Tyrelle’s father, made seven starts for the California Angels in 1986.

Ray bought his son his first glove when he was two and two years later, Tyrelle played in his first organized league.

While he was growing up, Tyrelle spent time in the clubhouse with his father, but his dad never pushed him to pursue a baseball career.

“I was the coach and I always had access to the field [at Thompson Rivers University] and I always wanted him to come with me and he would go, ‘Nah.’ And I would never say you have to come,” recalled Ray. “So, from about five until about 12, he never came to the ballpark a lot. Then one day he came down to practice when I was coaching the summer team [Kamloops Sun Devils] and he ran around the field with the guys and he thought this was pretty cool. Then he started coming out every day after that.”

The coach in Ray liked what he saw in his son.

“At the age of 11 or 12, he was always bigger than all of his teammates,” recalled Ray. “He was bigger and stronger, so he had power, with the bat and with his arm. That’s something you don’t teach at that early age.”

Tyrelle looks back fondly on those early practices with his father.

“When I played for him, there was definitely pressure to play the game the right way. There was definitely pressure to succeed, but it was never, ‘You need to pursue this [a baseball career].’ It was never, ‘You need to go forward with this,’” said Tyrelle.

As Tyrelle reached his teens, Ray realized that his son needed to play against stronger competition and Tyrelle joined the Dawgs Academy in Okotoks, Alta.

For his first few years, Tyrelle stayed in Kamloops during the school year and played with the Dawgs at tournaments on the West Coast and then went to Okotoks in the summer. At 16, he moved to Okotoks full-time.

“I think it was huge in my preparation for college especially,” said Tyrelle of the benefits of going to the Dawgs Academy. “I think they run the program as closely to a collegiate program as they can, where if you’re missing classes, you’re not going to be able to practice. If you’re academically ineligible, you’re not going to be able to practice. But also it was very regimented.”

Jeff Duda, the head coach of the Dawgs Academy, started coaching Tyrelle when the young righty was 15.

“One of Tyrelle’s biggest strengths since I’ve known him is he’s a competitor,” said Duda. “He was obviously physical. He was a big, tall kid, very strong . . . I would say he was raw, but he had this competitive edge. He wants to win at everything he does.”

Tyrelle Chadwick spent six years developing his skills at the Okotoks Dawgs Academy. Photo: Okotoks Dawgs

Among other things, Duda worked with Tyrelle on establishing a repeatable delivery and developing his slider.

“He was two-seam and changeup heavy and we developed a slider and more less worked on getting everything synched up,” said Duda.

Duda also witnessed Tyrelle’s velocity rise from the mid-70s to the mid-90s during his six years at the Academy.

“In his true 12th grade year, that’s when we really saw the velo jump, he was anywhere from 88-to-92,” said Duda. “And then by the end of the year, he was popping 94s.”

This increase in velocity, as well as his overall improvement, captured the interest of the baseball staff at Illinois State University (ISU), who devoted considerable time to recruiting him.

“I felt like they really got to know me as a player and as a person and that was awesome,” said Tyrelle of the ISU coaching staff. “So that was a pretty easy decision for me.”

When he arrived on campus, Tyrelle was still a two-way player, but that changed quickly.

“I had seven at bats during fall scrimmage at ISU and then I started throwing a little harder and they were like, ‘Hey, you could probably help us win on the mound right now,’” recalled Tyrelle. “They said, ‘You probably won’t be an everyday guy at the plate until your junior year. Which one do you want to do?’ That was a pretty easy answer for me.”

So, Tyrelle retired his batting gloves and focused on getting NCAA Div. I hitters out in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), which wasn’t easy in his first two seasons.

“It was definitely a learning experience. My numbers definitely weren’t fantastic my first couple of years there,” said Tyrelle. “There was a lot of maturing both mentally and physically . . . It was a lot of learning about my myself and learning the game at a higher level.”

Tyrelle Chadwick led the Illinois State Redbirds in wins and innings pitched this spring. Photo: Illinois State Athletics

But things came together for Tyrelle in his junior season at ISU this spring. He went 6-3 with a 4.31 ERA and led his team in wins and innings pitched (77 1/3). For his efforts, he was named to the All-MVC Second Team.

“I think his biggest strength right now, and it just came about this year, is his command of his fastball, because he struggled his first two years in college with that,” said Ray, who watched many of his son’s starts. “And this year in the last three-quarters of his season, he didn’t walk guys . . . One of the reasons he didn’t walk guys is that he pushed back a little bit on his fastball. He went from 94-to-96, and at times 98, to this year pitching at 92-to-94.”

With an arsenal featuring a sinker, slider and changeup, Tyrelle has also become more economical with his pitches.

“He’s got that mentality now that he wants them to hit the first pitch he throws on the ground,” said Ray. “If you go back and look at his numbers from this past year, he was top in the league in ground balls.”

All of this helped convince the Rockies to select him in the 18th round of the MLB Draft in July. He signed with the Rockies and has been at their complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., for just over two weeks.

“The first two weeks have been learning a lot about the how the organization operates and what our daily schedules are going to be, what our routines are going to look like and knowing where to go for help when it’s necessary,” said Tyrelle. “But the transition has been really good so far and it’s been very cool to see the amount of talent that’s in the locker room.”

He is rooming with fellow Canadian pitcher Antoine Jean (Montreal, Que.) who was taken by the Rockies in the seventh round. Tyrelle talks to his father on the phone almost every day. He is grateful for all that his dad and his mother, Candice, have done for him.

“Something that comes from both of my parents that I really pride myself on is commitment to my process and understanding it is a grind to play professional baseball and it’s an everyday job,” said Tyrelle, “and just understanding that I need to be dedicated to the things that are going to make me have the most success possible. And I think that comes from watching my mom over the years in everything she does and the career my dad had as an athlete.”

Tyrelle hasn’t set quantitative goals for himself yet, but he is looking forward to what’s next in his pro career.

“I just want to get acclimated here to the best of my ability and just start developing as quickly as possible,” he said. “I trust that the program has my best interests in mind and I trust that the organization is taking the start of my career seriously because they have done a ton of work down here, even in the first little bit. It’s been really clear that they value each and every one of us . . . I’m really excited to get going, but I am going to make sure that I’m committed to the process that they have laid out for me and making sure that I’m attacking every day the same way and trying to be the best I can be out here.”

This approach wouldn’t surprise Duda who believes Chadwick’s determination, combined with his talent, will give the young right-hander a good shot at one day pitching in the big leagues.

“One thing about Tyrelle is that it certainly won’t be from a lack of effort or lack of desire or compete or anything like that . . . I would not be surprised if Tyrelle finds himself a way to pitch in the majors. I really wouldn’t.” said Duda. “No matter what he does in life, he’s going to be successful. He’s got that motor and that drive, that edge to him where he’s going to do everything he can to be the best at what he’s doing.”