Friday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Won, 6-1 | @ Lehigh Valley, 6:45pm | Cavalli (2-1, 4.22) vs. TBD |
| Harrisburg | Won, 4-2 | vs. Binghamton, 6:30pm | Choi (2-1, 4.38) vs. Suarez (2-1, 2.75) |
| Wilmington | Canceled | vs. Asheville, 6:35pm | Ogasawara (MiLB Rehab) vs. Brito (0-1, 3.45) |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 5-3 | @ Salem, 6:35pm | Meckley (3-5, 4.47) vs. Fajardo (A- debut) |
| FCL Nationals | Lost, 5-4 | vs. FCL Cardinals, 12pm | |
| DSL Nationals | Lost, 10-5 | @ DSL White Sox, 11am |
Rochester 6 Lehigh Valley 1
• Solesky (W, 3-5) 5⅓ IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 3K
• Cuevas (H, 1) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 1K
• Millas 3-5, R, HR, RBI
• Schnell 2-5, R, HR, 4RBI
• Morales 2-3, 3R, 2-2B, 2BB
The Red Wings got homers from Drew Millas and Nick Shnell to take a 3-0 lead after six and cruised to a 6-1 win over the IronPigs. Chase Solesky allowed tha lone run on four hits and two walks over five and a 1/3rd innings to win for the thitd time in 13 starts. The bullpen once again locked it down with four pitchers combining for three and 2/3rds and three arning holds. José Tena was the beer man in a 13-hit night led by Millas with three, Schnell with two, and Morales with a pair of doibles and a pair of walks.
Harrisburg 4 Binghamton 2
• Law 1IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 0K, HR
• Cornelio (W, 2-1) 7IP, 4H, 0R, 2BB, 8K
• Santos (SV, 2) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Glasser 2-3, R, 2B
• King 1-3, R, BB, HR, RBI, 2K
Harrisburg battled back from a 2-0 hole dug by the MLB rehab with two in the 3rd and two in the 7th for a 4-2 win over Binghamton. Derek Law “worked on some stuff” as he threw in the 1st, giving up a single and a two-run HR. Riley Cornelio, the announced starter, went the next seven and allowed four hits and two walks while striking out eight. It was his second win and his third time pitching seven full innings this season. Phillip Glasser singled, doubled, and scored a run while Seaver King homered and walked and struck out twice to lead the Senators offense. Roster moves: RHP Derek Law assigned from Washington for MLB rehab.
Asheville vs. Wilmington – CNCLD
The rain that swept through the DMV yesterday afternoon made it to the 95 corridor in Delaware in time to cancel the last game of the first half. It will not be made up.
Fredericksburg 5 Salem 3
• Polanco (W, 4-5) 6IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 5K
• Bollenbacher (H, 4) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 0K
• Barbieri 1-3, R, 3B, 2RBI
• K. Diaz 1-3, R, BB, SB, 2K
• Quintana 1-3, R, RBI
Fredericksburg broke open a 1-0 game with a three-spot in the 2nd as they closed out the first half with a 5-3 win. Bryan Polanco picked up his fourth win with his third quality start, allowing one run on four hits and a walk while striking out five. The FredNats squeezed five runs from six hits and a walk with the help of five stolen bases and two Red Sox errors.
FCL Cardinals 5 FCL Nationals 4
• Portorreal (L, 0-2) 4IP, 7H, 5R, 2ER, 0BB, 1K, WP
• Olson 2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K
• L. Arias 2-3, BB, RBI, E(10)
• D. Tejeda 1-3, 2R, BB, 3B, RBI
The F-Cards dropped a four-spot in the 1st and got another in the 4th to edge the F-Nats, 5-4. Leuris Portorreal gave up all five runs (two earned) on seven hits over four innings. He walked none and struck out one. Luis Arias reached base three times on a walk and two singles while Dashyll Tejsa walked, tripled, scored twice, and plated one to pace the FCL Nationals offense.
DSL Tigers1 10 DSL Nationals 5
• E. Robles 2⅔ IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 3BB, 1K, HR
• Colina ⅓ IP, 1H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 1K, 2-2 IR-S
• Vargas 3-3, R
• Garces 2-4, 2K
• German 1-4, R, HR(GS), 4RBI
The DSL Nationals rallied for five in the 6th, highlighted by a grand slam off the bat of Marconi German. Unfortunately, that was five runs short of what they needed as the DSL Tigers1 doubled ’em up, 10-5. Eddie Robles was knocked from the box in the 3rd after four hits (one HR) and three walks. He was charged with four runs after Greider Colina let in both inherited runners in his D-Nats debut and retired just one of five batters faced to finish the 3rd. Esnaider Vargas led the D-Nats hit column with three singles followed by Jonierbis Garces with two safeties.
Jeff had a good shout out for Cornelio as our most improved pitcher of the year. There was some buzz surrounding him when we took him in the 7th round in 2022, but his career has been entirely forgettable since. But 2025 has been a break out year. He had a very good start in Wilmington (3.03 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 39 K in 32.2 IP), and has been even better since getting promoted to Harrisburg (2.50 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 38 K in 39.2 IP).
He’s been doing this in his age 25 season, and let’s see if he can keep it up over a whole season, but it’s these sort of player – completely off the radar, putting themselves into consideration (like Brad Lord, Jacob Young, even Jake Irvin) – that we are going to need a lot more of if this rebuild isn’t going to bust.
I also can’t stress enough how excited I am about Dashyll Tejeda. He’s got all the markings of another one of the “off-the-radar” talents. He had a fabulous 2024, where he was statistically one of the best batters in the DSL. But we’ve seen countless examples of performances in the DSL not translating stateside. But Tejeda has disspelled any doubts. Through 21 games, he’s batting .323/.436/.431 in the FCL. Perhaps most impressively is that he’s walking almost as much as he’s striking out (10 BB to 11 K), displaying an unexpectedly polished bat for a 19 year old. He’s also got blazing speed. He stole 46 bases in 38 games last year, and has 9 in 21 this season. But he’s also got sneakily good power for a player of his profile. He had a .150 ISO last season, and currently has .108 ISO.
I’d be curious how his defense profiles. He played mostly CF last season, but has been used equally across all 3 OF positions this season (seemingly a product of playing alongside a bunch of other athletics OFs like Andy Acevedo, Sam Petersen, Teo Banks).
I hope he’ll get a late season taste of full season ball once the FCL season wraps up. He’s certainly earned it!
What’s Barbieris barrel action like through the zone ?
I assume that the FCL season will be ending again right about the time of the draft? The logic of that totally escapes me.
Pretty much. The regular season ends on July 24. There are a couple of rounds of playoffs, but yes, pretty much impossible for any 2025 draftees to play.
The thing is once the 2025 draftees and 2025 FA sign, they report to the Nats’ FCL site and they play games at the West Palm site, but for whatever reason, MLB teams decided that instructional league format with no public reporting on the games/scrimmages was best for them.
It has very little to do with what’s best for the draft picks. Basically, when MLB eliminated the non-complex short-season leagues (NYPL, NWL, Pioneer, Appy) MLB shifted how those leagues purpose/function to the FCL and AZL. That’s why they’re primarily DSL grads and low-level college guys. Apparently, the thinking is that it’s more important to get foreign players acclimated to the U.S. than to let college players have a few more ABs/IPs. You may recall that prior to that change (’21-23) most of the draft picks didn’t play until mid-August anyway.
Esnaider Vargas adjusting to the switch to outfield
Interesting