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South Bend Cubs Gameday Program - June 2025
ROCKING A NEW "SB"
From Santa Barbara to South Bend, Ivan Brethowr and Ryan Gallagher still share the diamond
By: Tyler Reidy
During the afternoon of July 15, 2024, the Chicago Cubs in consecutive rounds drafted four players who currently call South Bend home. Fifth-round catcher Ariel Armas and eighth-round first baseman Edgar Alvarez bookended the group. Between the two of them was a pair of college teammates who had spent the previous three years together.
Right-handed pitcher Ryan Gallagher heard his name called in round six. Less than an hour later, outfielder Ivan Brethowr joined him in the Cubs organization as a seventh-rounder.
“It took me a while to put it together that me and Gally just went back-toback with the same org, and so that was pretty sweet,” Brethowr recalled. “We kind of had a little moment together calling after that, so that was pretty awesome.”
“It was exciting to know somebody showing up at a new place,” Gallagher added. “...We lived together in Arizona when we first got there. We live together now, so it's been cool having a friend like that here.”
The two buddies took very different paths to their first shared destination: the University of California, Santa
Barbara. An in-state kid from the Sacramento area, Gallagher grew up idolizing Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants’ dynasty, but he knew someday he wouldn’t mind pitching further down the Pacific coast.
“I actually lived down in Santa Barbara when I was younger for a little bit,” Gallagher said. “We were there for about a year, and I knew I loved the area a lot, and so when I started getting recruited to go out there [to UCSB], I kind of knew that if they gave me a shot, I was gonna commit for sure.”
UCSB ended up behind the school that offered Gallagher, and he fit in there just fine. He arrived in 2022 and became the Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year, going 8-0 in his first season. Tommy John surgery sidelined him in 2023, but he returned as a weekend starter and the Big West Pitcher of the Year in 2024.
Gallagher never dominated the college scene with high velocity or ridiculous metrics, but instead with craftiness and consistency.
“I've always described myself as a ‘pitchability’ type of guy,” Gallagher said.
“I take a lot of pride in my command and my stuff, being able to pitch backwards, throwing any pitch in any count.”
Gallagher wasn’t the only All-Big West First Team player on UCSB’s 2024 NCAA Tournament team. Ivan Brethowr earned such recognition as well, leading the conference with 15 home runs in his second year as a Gaucho.
Now, before you start to wonder about his baseball backstory, the first thing you’ll probably notice about Brethowr is his size. With an open stance at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, he’s essentially the Aaron Judge of the Midwest League.
“I'm not sure where it came from, but I'm not complaining,” Brethowr said of his height. “It definitely took me a while to grow into my body. I think for a while I was kind of like a baby baby giraffe or a baby horse, just getting control of my body and putting on the weight.”
Brethowr’s altitude forced him to put aside his childhood position of catcher as he entered his college years.
Transitioning to the outfield, he left the Kansas City area to spend his freshman season in a warmer climate at Arizona State. However, a sweeping coaching change impacted his fit with the Sun Devils, sending him to Santa Barbara in the transfer portal after the 2022 season. The big man thrived with the Gauchos, hitting double-digit home runs in each of his two years and earning his call from the Cubs.
Upon entering the organization late last summer, Brethowr got his feet wet a Single-A Myrtle Beach, belting two home runs in 23 games.
“It was a really good taste for me just to have information of what the schedule is gonna look like, what's it gonna be like to play every day, how I'm gonna need to map out my routines going into my first full season,” Brethowr said. “I'm really grateful that I had that really big learning experience.”
Since debuting in South Bend on Opening Day 2025, Brethowr has put up good Midwest League numbers, posting an OPS close to .800 through the middle of May. His on-base percentage, which has consistently ranked within the league’s top 15, was a catalyst for manager Nick Lovullo moving him to the leadoff spot on April 30. Brethowr has stayed put there since, both getting on base and swinging as good a bat as anyone in High-A with runners in scoring position.
“The leadoff spot ends up coming up pretty frequently at the end of the game with runners on base, and so that's a moment that I want to be in,” Brethowr described. “And that's a moment that I think a leadoff hitter should be prepared for and want to be in – a guy who gets on base, a guy who knows the zone, a guy who puts the barrel on the ball.”
Gallagher, meanwhile, is getting his first glimpse of professional baseball this season. He has slotted in as South Bend’s starting pitcher, really hitting his groove in the middle part of May. On May 10 against the Fort Wayne TinCaps, he spun six hitless innings to earn Midwest League Pitcher of the Week honors. Seven days later in Lansing, he punched out 12 in six more innings.
In each start, Gallagher is learning more about what it takes to consistently retire Midwest League hitters.
“I think a lot of it has been the mental side,” he said. “I've definitely had my ups and downs so far, just kind of getting settled into professional baseball and competing again, but I think trusting your stuff and really attacking the hitters and not trying to pitch around them has given me the best results so far. But they're great hitters, so they're going to get hits. They're going to hit the ball hard, so it's not like everything is going to go your way.”
“It feels like I'm on a football schedule,” Gallagher added. “I know I'm going to play once a week, and that's my whole rest of the week is just preparing for that day. So I’m just trying to make sure my body feels as good as it can, and then on Saturdays, just go out there and compete with what I've got.”
Not too long ago, Brethowr and Gallagher teamed up to make postseason memories at UCSB. Having rearranged those four letters to spell out “Cubs,” they each hope to make a continued positive impact on their new shared organization.
