Jersey Shore BlueClaws 2023: After gaining world of experience, players ready for home opener

LAKEWOOD – Playing winter baseball is a long-standing tradition for minor league prospects seeking a path to the big leagues. But a group of Jersey Shore BlueClaws players took it to an extreme during the offseason, amassing big-time frequent flier miles while experiencing the game at the highest levels around the world.

And it could translate into wins on the field this season at ShoreTown Ballpark, with first pitch for tonight’s home opener against the Greensboro Grasshoppers at 6:35 p.m.

Take Rixon Wingrove, a 22-year-old first baseman who smashed 12 homers in 67 games with the BlueClaws last season.

Wingrove, considered one of the Phillies’ better prospects, played for his native Australia in the World Baseball Classic. He launched a two-run homer against Cuba in the Tokyo Dome in the quarterfinals, after driving in four runs in a game against China.

And Wingrove joined five of his BlueClaws teammates in playing for the Adelaide Giants, winning the Australian Baseball League title while playing for Australian Chris “Tank” Adamson, a bench coach for the BlueClaws this season and the team’s manager in 2021.

More: Jersey Shore BlueClaws 2023: As home opener looms, can minor leagues continue rebound?

“It was crazy,” Wingrove said. “To start off with I had the U23 World Cup with the Australian team, so it was cool getting to play in an international tournament. Then two weeks later we flew to Japan with the national team, Team Australia, to play two games against Japan. The day we got off the plane we had our first game in the ABL, where we won 12 straight games at one point and won the championship, ending a 43-year drought, which was the most special moment of my career so far.

“We had a three-week long camp before the World Baseball League where we went to Japan, Italy, we flew to a different place just before the tournament.”

Then there’s infielder Nick Ward, a Kennett Square, Pennsylvania native who played independent baseball the past two summers.

Ward, a life-long Phillies fan, went to Australia looking to land a spot in the organization, and with Adamson’s recommendation signed with the Phillies in December. And after winning the ABL title, he went on to play in the WBL for Great Britain.

More: Jersey Shore BlueClaws 2023: New manager has deep connection to Phillies - and a good jump shot

“I haven’t even had a chance to sit down yet,” Ward joked. “My independent season ended the second week of September, and from there I went to the World Baseball Classic qualifier in Germany, then came home and had about a month to get ready to go to Australia, and played for three months there. Then came back and only had six days or so to get ready to go down to spring training, then left to go to Phoenix for the WBC, and then back to spring training, and here we are.”

Here we are indeed, with Ward starting at third base for the BlueClaws, picking up three hits and an RBI in their season-opening series against the Brooklyn Cyclones over the weekend.

“I encourage guys to play winter ball because for a lot of these guys it’s a great way to continue to learn the game,” said BlueClaws’ first-year manager Greg Brodzinski. “You continue to compete somewhere outside the 140 games here.  You see a lot of growth in guys they have the opportunity to go to another country, experience a different culture see a different type of baseball then you get here every day.

“And a lot of the winter ball leagues that is the biggest thing going in that country at that time and they learn a lot of things about showing up to the ballpark to win every day, and that is what we’re going to preach with these guys.”

It’s that hectic offseason that could help launch careers in the coming months, a the BlueClaws look to move up in the South Atlantic League standings after a pair of down seasons.

“I just think this offeseason, I learned so  much about myself,” Wingrove said. “I‘ve had a level of talent and understanding of the game, but to really see it at the highest level now, playing against Japan in front of 50,000 in Tokyo Dome and understanding exactly what it feels like in that big league moment. You learn things from that. You learn how to go about your business, see how others do it.”

Added Ward: “Winter ball, especially in Australia, was a little bit more of a relaxed environment. That being said, it was relaxed because we were getting our work done. And we were a really, really good team and we had a lot of fun with each other. So I think a lot of guys learned a lot about themselves, especially being 11,000 miles from home.”

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jersey Shore BlueClaws players traveled world, won titles in offseason