Nats Backtrack from Minors Pay Cut; Releases Revealed
After getting dragged like RuPaul at an NHRA event, yesterday the Nationals reversed their stipend reduction to minor-leaguers.
As Brittany Ghiroli put it in The Athletic ($$), it’s important to recognize this reversal is only for the month of June and, citing an internal memo, that the team “will consider future payments on a month-to-month basis.” In other words, this could still happen a month from now.
Ghiroli also revealed the names of 39 minor-leaguers, 30 of which were also reported by Baseball America. Without further ado…
| C | Tyler Cropley (24) Nic Perkins (24) |
| 1B | Keon Barnum (27) Adalberto Carrillo (25) Anthony Peroni (23) |
| 2B | Phil Caulfield (25) Paul Russo (24) |
| SS | Luis Sardinas (27) |
| IF | Dante Bichette Jr. (27) Austin Davidson (27) Juan Pascal (22) Trey Vickers (24) Drew Ward (25) |
| OF | Hunter Jones (28) Alec Keller (28) Landerson Pena (22) Eric Senior (22) Jack Sundberg (26) Mac Williamson (29) |
| OF-P | JB Shuck (32) |
| RHP | Jose De Los Santos (23) Rafael Gomez (21) Merandy González (24) Abrahan Hiraldo (21) Jacob Howell (24) Tyler Mapes (28) Adrian Martinez (21) Bobby Milacki Jr. (23) Jorge Pantoja (26) Miguel Pozo (20) Derek Self (30) Wilson Severino (21) Alejandro Vallejo (21) Eduardo Vera (25) Allen Webster (30) |
| LHP | Hayden Howard (26) Jordan Mills (28) Jairon Peguero (22) Ryan Williamson (25) |
I listed their ages as of right now, not the season’s end, but you can see the pattern: veterans that the Nationals could re-sign as needed in 2021, youngsters that they don’t project making the Low-A roster, and too-old-for-the-level guys.
Bear in mind that some of these—alright, many of these—guys may have been released anyway – pushed down by the veterans, or pushed out with the new draftees. But you still feel bad because there are probably a few that might have gotten that one last chance.
It’s also disheartening because this one more step toward the inevitable announcement that the 2020 minor league season will not happen.
Spike Lives!
The Drew Ward era with the Nats organization mercifully ends almost 7 years to the day after he was drafted.
The youngest drafted play to get released was Eric Senior who was dumped at age 22, and three years after he was drafted. He showed some promise, but OFs with no pop and little speed don’t typically last a long time in pro baseball.
Thanks, Luke, for putting their ages here so it can become clearer.
Some of the players released seem entirely because of this lost season. Drew Ward had a .823 OPS last year and Hayden Howard had a 3.14 ERA.
And a fond farewell to Tyler Mapes. A 30th round pick, he managed to stick around for 6 seasons. Best of luck to him and the others.
Scratch this 2020 minor league season
Bravo (?) to the Lerners being, um, shamed into doing the right thing.
Eric Senior had insane numbers during his JUCO All-America year: 17 homers, 91(!) RBIs, and 7 triples (apparently not so slow) in only 58 games, slashing .398/.438/.752. He got injured after only six games in rookie ball that summer, though, and pretty much scuffled thereafter. There had been some positive scuttlebutt about him last spring, but he only played 34 games, apparently injured again. Based on this JUCO stats, I thought he might be a real sleeper, but apparently not.
Tyler Mapes was a great story. He, Alec Keller, Austin Davidson, and Derek Self really got the most out of what level of talent they had. Mapes in particular was really hurt by terrible injury timing, just when he looked close to getting a real shot. He was never the same at the AA level after missing all of 2017.
Anyway, here’s hoping that the level of determination and hard work that allowed these guys to punch above their talent level in pro ball will also serve them well as they transition to the next phase of life.