And as far as Spring Training is concerned, that’s sort of who the Boston Red Sox prospect became with that stolen base.
Ward has now stolen more bases in a single spring than any player ever, with 17 and counting.
The single-season spring training stolen base record now belongs to Red Sox prospect Braiden Ward, who swiped his 17th bag and then picked up the base like Rickey Henderson
pic.twitter.com/835zUNshRm— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 12, 2026
That’s not necessarily a record anyone sets out to break, but Ward clearly knew by this moment that he was about to break it.
And hey, baseball is fun. It’s cool to see Ward enjoying it.
It’s especially cool that a grinder like Ward is the guy who did it.
At 27 years old, and just 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, Ward isn’t exactly a top prospect.
He was a 16th-round pick by the Colorado Rockies in the 2021 MLB Draft out of the University of Washington.
This is his first season outside of the Rockies’ organization, and he’ll likely open the year in either Double-A or Triple-A.
Last season, Ward hit .331 in 44 games at Triple-A in the Rockies’ system. In those 44 games, he stole 35 bases and was only caught twice.
His career minor league stolen base stats have him at 211-for-241 on swiping bags. He has hit .275 in the minor leagues with a .776 OPS, also displaying a solid walk-to-strikeout rate.
Ward’s speed and base running could actually get him to the majors at some point as a key bench player. We’ll see if the Red Sox do that at some point.
In the meantime, he’s got an all-time record, and still time to expand upon it. It might just be spring, but for someone on the fringes of the majors like Ward, it’s certainly still special.
