Monday’s News & Notes
| Rochester | Won, 8-5 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Won, 5-3 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Wilmington | Won, 9-3 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 11-4 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | vs. FCL Cardinals, 12pm |
Rochester 8 Syracuse 5
• Cornelio (W, 4-1) 5IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 8K, 2HR
• Yean (SV, 5) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Morales 3-4, 2R, 2B, HR, 2RBI
• Glasser 3-5, RBI, 2SB(5)
• Ford 1-3, R, 2BB, 2K
Rochester broke open a 2-2 game with three runs in the 6th and put the game away in the 9th with a two-spot for an 8-5 win over Syracuse. Riley Cornelio spun five innings of two-run ball on a pair of solo HRs and four hits total. He walked none and struck out eight. After hiccups from Zach Penrod (1R) and Luke Young (2R), the Red Wings ‘pen closed out the game with donuts in the 8th (Granillo) and the 9th (Yean). Trey Lipscomb was the beer man in Rochester’s 12-hit parade, led by Yoyo Morales with a single, double, and a homer and Phillip Glasser with three safeties and two steals.
Harrisburg 5 Erie 3
• D. Garcia 4⅓ IP, 4H, 1R, 0ER, 2BB, 3K
• Huff (W, 3-0) 1⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 1K, 1-0 IR-S
• T. Schultz (SV, 1) 1IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 0K
• M. Romero 3-4, R
• Lawson 2-3, BB, RBI
• Wallace 2-4, R, 3B, RBI, E(6)
The Senators send nine men to the plate in the 3rd and five of ’em came ’round to score in a 5-3 win over the Seawolves. Davian Garcia fell two outs shy of earning the win with one unearned run allowed on four hits and two walks with three whiffs. The “W” went to Chance Huff, who closed out the 5th and pitched a scoreless 6th. Thomas Shultz cordero’d around a leadoff walk and a two-out single in the 9th to earn the save. Max Romero Jr. led the Harrisburg hit column with three singles, followed by Cayden Wallace with a triple and single.
Wilmington 9 Hub City 3
• Polanco (W, 1-0) 5IP, 3H, 0R, 3BB, 6K
• Jimenez (H, 2) 1⅓ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Bazzell 3-4, 3R, HR, RBI
• Petry 2-4, R, HR, 2RBI
• Banks 1-3, R, BB, 2K
Wilmington hit five homers while tripling up Hub City, 9-3 to earn a series split. Bryan Polanco tossed five shutout innings to earn his first win of ’26, giving up three hits and three walks while striking out six. Kevin Bazzell, Ethan Petry, Ronny Cruz, T.J. White and Elijah Green all homered and combined for seven RBI with Devin Fitz-Gerald doubling in the other two runs in a three-run 9th for Wilmington.
Fredericksburg 11 Hill City 4
• Sime 2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 4K, WP
• Johnson 4IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 5K
• Y. Cabrera 3-4, 2R, BB, 2B(10)
• Moroknek 2-4, R, BB, 2B, HR, 3RBI
• Ramirez 2-4, 2R, BB, HR, RBI
• Dickerson 2-5, 2R, BB, 2B, HR, 2RBI, E(5)
The FredNats put up crooked numbers in both the 1st and 2nd innings to go up 5-0 and never looked back as they took their fourth straight, 11-4. Miguel Sime Jr. labored through two innings, walking one and striking out four on 40 pitches. Luke Johnson got the win with four scoreless with two hits, one, and five whiffs. Yeremy Cabrera singled twice and doubled once while Jack Morknek and Luke Dickerson walked, doubled, and homered to power the Carolina League’s #1 offense (7.09 R/G). Fredericksburg also leads the league in pitching (4.48 R/G).
FCL Nationals, 2-1, 2nd FCL East, 1½ GB
The FCL Nationals played just three games last week due to weather and/or stadium issues but did not have to leave West Palm Beach. This week, it’s home games today and Wednesday, trips to Jupiter on Tuesday and Friday, a doubleheader on Thursday (to make up last Monday’s rainout) against the Astros as the road team, and an off day on Saturday.
Credit to Bazzell. He’s come back from injury(?) working on his mechanics(?) and looked like a different player. 7 for 11 with 2 HRs, impressive! Especially when he didn’t hit a single home run in his previous 104 games!
Somehow, despite playing in a pitcher’s dream park, the Wilmington bats are hitting extremely well. 4 guys featured with >.900 OPSes. Bazzell was one, but Fitz-Gerald, Petry and Cruz are the other 3, and TJ White is surprisingly just narrowly outside with a very good .889 OPS.
Fredericksburg also had 4 guys in this line up with >.900 OPSes, including Rafael Ramirez, who’s quietly, in the shadow of Cabrera, Moroknek and Walsh, entered the .900 OPS club, hitting .273/.431/.473 on the season so far. That’s also a big turnaround from his awful, injury plagued 2025 season. Ramirez was hyped up, and was argued by some to be just as good of a piece as Clemmey in the Thomas trade.
FWIW, Harrisburg and Rochester both featured one guy each with an OPS above .900: Max Romero and Yohandy Morales.
On the other side of the rubber, Sime continues to dominate. While he struggled with his command, he hit the spots when it mattered, which is an important skill to have. Cornelio also had a very solid outing.
On the other hand, Adam Boucher has been absolutely brutal for Wilmington. After 5 BB yesterday, he now has 23 BB in only 10.2 IP. Batters have caught on and just aren’t swinging, as he’s only allowed somehow 6 hits all season. Unfortunately, the batters seem to be picking their moments, as an insane 4 of those 6 hits have been HRs. Woof.
Jean Harlow last line in film Grabd Hotel
I read a book ! Mirrors this Monday comment
Elijah Green homers !
Five dollar footings for Garcia and Polanco
I was going to comment on Bazzell and Ramirez as well. The former is still listed as on the 7 day IL, nice work MiLB!
I’ve been waiting for Ramirez to get healthy. good to see some results!
So the farm system sure looks to be doing better, both from a standings perspective and from a player-development perspective. When do we start to see some promotions? It seems that a guy hitting 325/433/575 in low-A is ready for Wilmington. And it seems that there are about 10 of those guys in the system, and that Rochester, being at the far end of the pipeline from Fredericksburg, isn’t exactly bursting at the seams with prospects.
I thought we’d have seen more movement by now. I had thought Ronny Cruz’s quick promotion was a harbinger of an aggressive promotion schedule. But that was 3 weeks ago now, and no one of much consequence has moved since. I get keeping some of the young guys, like Willits or Dickerson, where they are and let them prove it over multiple months. But Yeremy Cabrera has now played 155 games in A ball. Jacob Walsh turned 23 2 months ago. It’s especially frustrating because there’s a playing time/defensive positioning crunch in Fredericksburg at the moment that would be fixed with a couple promotions.
Though it’s hard to complain too much when there’s been such a widespread turnaround. The coaches are clearly doing really good work.
I’d expect Fien’s return could prompt a move, most likely Cabrera.
With the caveat that there might be specific development reasons to slow walk any one or two of these guys, I’m with Will and want a big crop of promotions to challenge our top hitting prospects.
At a minimum, I see no reason to wait on Cabrera to A+ – he should have a shot at a three level season. And then by midseason, I hope to see King to AAA, Fitz-Gerald and Cruz to AA, and Willits and Dickerson to A+.
I think it’s worth noting that Cabrera is R5 eligible this winter. If we lose him (or Rosario, who’s also eligible), the Gore trade would go bad to terrible. We can’t do anything with Rosario but wait, but I’d be pushing Cabrera especially aggressively.
Nats Chat had Jim Callis on to discuss the Nats’ likely options for the 11th pick in the 2026 draft. They way the draft is shaping up, Callis felt like the premium talent available at #11 looks like a “college position player”.
Have seen suggestions on social media that the Nats “have to draft an arm” in the 2026 draft, but feel like the new front office is too savvy to draft for need. Always draft for premium talent.
You want a promotion? You got a promotion:
The Washington Nationals are promoting RHP Robert Cranz to Harrisburg (Double-A).
Cranz had a 2.25 ERA along with 27 strikeouts in 16.0 innings for the Wilmington Blue Rocks.
It would be interesting to have someone involved with player development discuss what goes into a promotion decision. The following thoughts come to mind:
– the hitting stats might be good, but the player’s baserunning/fielding/decision making is below the typical learning curve.
– the player could be a 23-year old with the Fred Nats (I think I’ve seen a pattern of ‘fools gold” of hitters who handle Fred Nats but not Wilmington, and I think it’s not just the ballpark.) Let’s see about Walsh or Moroknek.
– when you slice the stats, you might see that a LH batter is still not doing anything against the better lefties in their league (the sampling is not so good because they play 6-game series now)
– they really worry only about the players who flash major league skills, and the other guys just fill out the rosters. People who appear to be held back (e.g. Jake Alu, Jake Noll) are guys who don’t make it in MLB.
– It makes sense wait a little while until some injuries open up spots rather than move people up and other people down.
That being said, it would be nice to see some people move up!
Another one:
The Nationals are promoting outfielder Yeremy Cabrera to High-A Wilmington, per a source.