So Long, Boys
While perhaps not as large a group as in some years – one thing I’ve noticed since the MLB coup d’état is that releases are more likely to be reported when they happen – it’s nevertheless the end of the road for these guys.
- IF Cole Daily (Harrisburg)
- IF Drew Mendoza (Wilmington)
- RHP Cole Quintanilla (Retired, Fredericksburg)
- C Ray Torres (FCL)
- OF Yeuri Amparo (FCL)
Perhaps the only (mild) surprise is the retirement of Quintanilla, who spent most of 2022 in the I.L. and pitched in the FCL for a total of eight innings. He turns 24 in May which is old for High-A, never mind Low-A, which he hadn’t mastered yet.
While it’s tempting to blame the pandemic for the foibles of Mendoza, the other side of the coin is that were it not for his draft status (3rd Rd.) or the Nats’ dearth of CI candidates, he’d have been released last March.
Daily was a 22nd Rd. pick in 2018 who reached AA, which is a success no matter how you look at it — especially when the Nats could have very easily released him in 2020 or 2021. Amparo and Torres both played very sparingly in the FCL the past two seasons.
Just add Mendoza to the long list of players the Nats couldn’t develop. Hoping their new player development staff will be able to turn things around in the future.
Spike lives!
Always a bummer when a NCAA arm stalls at A ball .
So Hillman to AA while Cole Henry name sticks on Rochester roster for the time being
April 1 st
First of all, good luck to all those guys as they face a difficult life transition. They may have known it was coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
And yes, Mendoza of course will be the focus. He’s yet another who we’ll always have the chicken/egg question: did the Nats fail at developing him, or was he just not that good to begin with? He was one who was spoken of as a potential top-five pick going into his junior season, but it seems that the reasons he fell in the draft were valid. Same with Nick Banks, and Rhett Wiseman, and . . .
A team isn’t going to hit on every pick in the 2d and 3d round, but you have to hit on at least some of them . . . or you end up going 55-107 with a very bleak immediate future. Sigh.
The last 3rd round pick to play for the Nationals was Danny Espinosa, 15 drafts ago. Interestingly, we had remarkable success with our 3rd rounders back then. Including Espinosa, 4 of our 5 3rd rounders from 2004-2008 played for the Nats. Not all were good (Kory Casto), but Espinosa, Desmond and Souza were remarkable value for 3rd rounders.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of pressure on Lipscomb’s shoulders to break this streak, because our other two most recent 3rd rounders, Branden Boissiere and Holden Powell, are already irrelevant.
I also had some hope for Ray Torres when they signed him as an FA after the COVID-shortened draft. He was ticketed for LSU before ending up at San Jacinto JC catching Mitchell Parker and seemed to have a good pedigree.