Wednesday’s News & Notes; Rosters for the Rest of the Minors

Team	Yesterday	Today	Pitching Matchup (’25 Stats at the Level)
Rochester	Postponed	vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 4:05pm	Cornelio (1-3, 5.35) vs. Y. De Los Santos (1-1, 1.62) Beck (8-3, 4.44)

Rochester Red Wings – PPD
As semi-predicted yesterday, the Red Wings’ season opener agains the RailRiders was rained out. It has been postponed to Friday afternoon. Rain, however, remains in the forecast for the rest of the series.

Harrisburg Releases its Opening Day Roster

Yesterday, the Senators released their Opening Day Roster:

PITCHERS
Chandler Champlain, Alex Clemmey*, Davian Garcia, Sandy Gaston, Kyle Luckham, Valentin Linarez, Erick Mejia, Holden Powell, Shinnosuke Ogasawara*, Jared Simpson*, Thomas Schultz, Eriq Swan, Connor Van Scoyoc, Luke Young
^{* LHP}

CATCHERS
Caleb Lomavita, Caleb Farmer, Max Romero, Jr.

INFIELDERS
Sam Brown, Seaver King, Cortland Lawson, Kevin Made, Kervin Pichardo, Cayden Wallace

OUTFIELDERS
Branden Boissiere, Sam Petersen, Leandro Pineda, Jack Rogers, Johnathan Thomas

Like a year ago, there are a lot of returners –17 of the 29 have played here previously. But unlike a year ago, there are considerably more watchlisters, with perhaps as many as three in the starting rotation.

Wilmington Releases its Opening Day Roster

I’m trying to give the Blue Rocks the benefit of the doubt. But my emails are still being ignored and the roster release came via social media Forrest Gump pause again.

PITCHERS
Pablo Aldonis*, Austin Amaral, Merrick Baldo, Tucker Biven, Adam Boucher, Gavin Bruni*, Robert Cranz, Kevin Davis, Brady Hill, Eiker Huizi, Yeuris Jimenez, Riley Maddox, Euri Montero, Bryan Polanco, Josh Randall, Liam Sullivan*, Yoel Tejeda

CATCHERS
Kevin Bazzell, Nate Rombach, Matt Suggs

INFIELDERS
Randal Diaz, Angel Feliz, Devin Fitz-Gerald, Hunter Hines, Jorgelys Mota

OUTFIELDERS
Teo Banks, Elijah Green, Elijah Nunez, Ethan Petry, Cristian Vaquero, T.J. White

On paper, this seems like it might be a better team – even without Ethan Willits joining them at the outset. But will the new guys offset the guys who’ve been stuck here for multiple seasons and have appeared to have hit their ceiling despite the hype?

Fredericksburg Releases its Opening Day Roster

As per usual, this is the roster that will have the most promise (lots of recent draft picks) and pressure (lots of watchlisters):
^{italics = played for FredNats previously}

PITCHERS
Jared Beck*, Jonah Conradt, Carson Fischer, Landon Harmon, Nolan Hughes*, Luke Johnson, Isaac Lyon, Grant Manning, Alexander Meckley, Ryan Minckler, Bryant Olson*, Johan Otanez, Leuris Portorreal, Owen Puk, Jacob Roberts, Cesar Rojas, Miguel Sime, Jr.

CATCHERS
Christian Fagnant, Nick Hollifield, Sir Jamison Jones

INFIELDERS
Juan Cruz, Ronny Cruz, Luke Dickerson, Gavin Fien, Coy James,
Rafael Ramirez Jr., Jacob Walsh
Eli Willits

OUTFIELDERS
Yeremy Cabrera, Jack Moroknek, Nick Peoples

FWIW, Dickerson and Fien were listed as INF/OF, so it’s possible there’s a position change coming this season. For all the potential offense, it will still boil down to how the rotation fares. In theory, it could be Harmon-Sime-Johnson-Lyon-Meckley but there’s an awful lot there that’s untested.