Rochester Red Wings ready for season opener: Here's what to know

During a career in baseball that has included 11 professional seasons as a player including eight as a major-leaguer, and another 15 as a minor league coach or manager, Matt LeCroy has seen just about all there is to see.

On the high side, he was a part of three straight AL Central division winning teams with the Minnesota Twins as a player, and he managed and helped develop several of the players who went on to play for the Washington Nationals 2019 World Series winning team. On the down side, he is 69 games below .500 in his managerial career and only one of his teams has finished first in its division.

Through it all, one of LeCroy’s greatest attributes is the way he keeps things positive no matter what’s happening with one of his ballclubs, and across the board, his players love that about him. And never was that more important than in 2022, his second year as the Rochester Red Wings manager.

As you can probably recall, the Red Wings were in first place in the International League East division midway through July which was quite a turnaround after a 2021 season when they had the second-worst record in all of Triple-A.

But on the night of July 16 they dropped a 4-1 decision to Omaha, and unbeknownst to him and the team, a baseball calamity was set in motion. The Wings would go on to lose a franchise record 19 straight games which obviously blew up their season and turned the final six weeks into a funereal slog.

“For me as a manager and even all my coaches, we’ve all been through losing streaks of probably eight to 10 games, but 19 is such a large number,” LeCroy said Wednesday while sitting in his office at Innovative Field (yeah, not Frontier Field which is going to be tough to get used to).

“I learned a lot about myself. I think the players learned how crazy this game can turn, from being on top of the mountain and then all of a sudden, you’re fighting a battle you just can’t seem to win at all.”

As difficult as it was to go through, LeCroy said he felt like, “That was the time I managed the best because I could have easily went in a hole and pouted and got angry and I didn’t. I thought I was patient, I thought I was calm, leaned on my coaching staff to see if there’s anything that I could do differently to change it. But at the same time inside of me, every game that we had a lead I was treating it like it was a game seven. And hopefully that’ll never happen again.”

Seeing as that it had never happened in the previous century plus of Red Wings history, it’s probably safe to assume that the history of 2022 won’t repeat itself this year.

A new Red Wings season is scheduled to start Friday afternoon at home, though mean-spirited Mother Nature may have the final say on that. And with a new season brings renewed hope that the Wings can compete at a higher level and get back to the International League playoffs for the first time since 2013.

Here’s a look at the team that will start the season in Rochester, mindful that there will be more than 100 player transactions that will occur between now and late September when the 150-game regular season concludes.

The bullpen appears to be the Wings’ strength

LeCroy likes some of the power arms he has in the relief corps. Last season the Wings had a pretty good bullpen, one that ranked eighth in the 30-team IL in both reliever ERA at 4.18 and WHIP (walks/hits per inning) at 1.35, and this group could be better.

“When I looked at our bullpen, that’s the strongest part of our team, and that’s a good thing, having a strong bullpen,” LeCroy said.

Back from last year are lefty Jordan Weems who had a 2.70 ERA and 16 saves in 33 appearances; lefty Matt Cronin who limited batters to a .229 average against in 35.2 innings; righty Zach Brzykcy, rated the Nationals 18th-best prospect, who had a brief callup after dominating at Double-A Harrisburg with a 1.89 ERA and nine saves; and veteran righty Andres Machado.

One pitcher set to make his Triple-A debut that has LeCroy excited is lefty Jose Ferrer. He’s a flamethrower who can get into the high 90s with his fastball and has averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings at the lower minor league levels.

The Nationals also brought in two newcomers who should get plenty of work. Righty Jose Mujicka was with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year where he had a 1.11 WHIP in 53.1 innings. And righty Jesus Liranza can touch 100 and could be in play to close games.

“I think all these guys all have a legitimate chance to go up at some point and help our big league team if they go out and throw strikes,” LeCroy said.

Mixed bag of youth and veterans in the starting rotation

One of the key reasons for the Wings’ collapse after their hot start last year was the lack of consistency by the starters. By season’s end the Wings’ starters ranked 18th in ERA at 5.24 in the 20-team league. That has to improve, and LeCroy has some interesting options this year.

One who will warrant attention is 26-year-old Jake Irvin who will finally make his Triple-A debut. The 2018 fourth-round draft pick is the Nationals 20th-rated prospect, but could soon rise on the list. He lost two seasons due to the canceled 2020 COVID year and 2021 Tommy John surgery, so he’s just starting to come around. He had a 1.80 ERA in five spring appearances for the Nationals. “He’s gonna get challenged at this level so I’m looking forward to watching him,” LeCroy said.

Joan Adon, who will get Friday’s Opening Day start if the game is played, had a brutal 2022 for the awful Nationals. The righty went 1-12 with a 7.10 ERA, so he’s in Rochester to try to rebuild his confidence.

LeCroy will have two young guys in righties Cory Abbott and Tommy Romero, both of whom were here in 2022. And he has two other veterans with ample MLB experience, 36-year-old righty Paolo Espino and 33-year-old Wily Peralta.

Espino started 19 games each of the last two seasons for the Nationals after prior big-league stints with the Brewers and Rangers. “He’s done about everything you can in the big leagues as far as starting, being a long guy, finishing games,” LeCroy said.

Peralta has 139 starts and 258 appearances in the majors with the Brewers, Royals and Tigers. In 2014 he won 17 games for Milwaukee while in the last two seasons with Detroit, he started 18 games in 2021 and then relieved in 27 games in 2022, putting up a combined ERA of 2.93.

And eventually, the Nationals’ 13th-rated prospect Cole Henry, who dominated at Double-A but then hurt his elbow after just two starts with Rochester, will join the team. He underwent surgery in August and the hope is that he can return within the next few months.

There are some familiar names in the infield

The Nationals liked second baseman Darren Baker enough to draft him twice, the first time in the 27th round out of high school in 2017, and when he opted to play college ball, they picked him again in the 10th round in 2021. Obviously, the 24-year-old has pretty good genes given his father is Dusty Baker, a terrific player in his day who has also become one of the most successful managers in MLB history.

When Jeter Downs was waived in the offseason by the Red Sox, the Nationals signed him and he’ll play shortstop, the same position as the Hall of Fame player he was named after, Derek Jeter.

Jake Alu will start the year on the injured list but he’ll eventually settle in at third base, and MLB veteran Matt Adams, who had early success with the Cardinals and then was part of the Nationals’ World Series team, accepted a demotion to Rochester and will provide leadership and a strong lefty bat at first base.

Speedy Lucius Fox can play both middle infield positions and serve as a dangerous pinch-runner, and when he’s healthy and able to return, Jake Noll, one of the most reliable players the past two seasons, can play the infield and the outfield.

Behind the plate, Israel Pineda was slated to be the starter but he has a thumb injury so Onix Vega will get the bulk of the starts. Last year, Vega spent most of the season at High-A Wilmington, then skipped two levels and joined the Red Wings late in the year, so the Nationals clearly have high hopes for him.

Outfielder Stone Garrett is literally made of stone

LeCroy compared Garrett’s physique to former football star Herschel Walker, just a solidly built bopper at 6-foot-2 and 224 pounds. He got a late callup with the Diamondbacks in 2022 and hit four homers in 84 plate appearances after he had hit 28 homers and drove in 95 runs at Triple-A Reno. “A really athletic, big strong kid,” LeCroy said.

Yadiel Hernandez, who spent most of 2022 with the Nationals, got squeezed down to Rochester as Alex Call and Lane Thomas were Washington’s Opening Day lineup Thursday. The 35-year-old should add to the veteran leadership in the clubhouse for as long as he’s here.

Chad Pinder, who was just released by the Reds and signed by the Nationals last week, is with Rochester for now. He has 553 MLB games on his resume plus 131 from his Triple-A days so like Hernandez, he’s another veteran who LeCroy can rely on.

“I’m excited about the group,” LeCroy said. “I like the men, I like the makeup of the group. I think our talent overall is better than it was last year so hopefully we can start out strong and hold on to it.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester Red Wings 2023 season preview: What to know