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.