The FCL season starts this weekend. 2025 was a banner year for position players in the DSL, and there are more than a few kids that did well enough to warrant a move to the US this year. The only person I'm iffy on is Sami Manzueta, who might have to stay back since he's still a minor. Here's who I'm hoping will be in the US this year: Anderson Areinamo Yensi De La Cruz Juan Rojas Anthony Millan Luis De Leon Adrian Ardines - 5-1, 1.91 ERA, 7 BB, 56 K in his second DSL season Omar Damian - could be held back since he doesn't turn 18 until July
Looks like the roster is updated: https://www.milb.com/florida-complex/roster/1998 LeBron, Quesada, Rojas, Arienamo, and De Leon are the position players who got promoted. There were 6 pitchers added.
Notes on the 11 guys promoted from the DSL to the FCL: P Luis Amador: big kid 6'4" / 185, only 18, nothing stands out about his numbers last year. P Adrian Ardines: 19, dominant #'s in DSL last year over 42 ip (34% k, 4% bb). P Miguel Balza: already 21 P Nick Borquez: 19, good #'s in DSL P Juan Mieses: 20 P Ismael Obregon: 18 P Angel Peralta: 19 C Luis De Leon: 19, low k% bodes well IF Anderson Arienamo: 19, the one guy I'm genuinely excited about, showed speed (17 SB in 51 g), contact (16% k), power (6 HR in 51g), and patience (14% bb) OF Luis Quesada: 20, limited to corners OF Edwin Sanchez: 21, good size, minor league Rule 5 pick from Dodgers, not sure what the deal was, he had 4 very good seasons in the DSL but was never brought over.
Two more arms signed today: RHP Michael Cuevas and LHP Jordan Carr. Cuevas was a 23rd-round pick of the Nationals in 2019 out of Brennan High School in San Antonio. The Nats had been his only organization until he became a minor league free agent at the end of last season. Cuevas won’t be far from home as he was assigned to Corpus. Carr was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Twins out of the College of Charleston following the 2021 draft. He’s apparently a switch-hitter too. Carr was assigned to Asheville. Filler arms.
Joseph Sullivan is 3-4 with two solo blasts (4) for Corpus tonight. He's been in a 3-32 slump over the last couple of weeks, so this is good to see.
Ryan Verdugo @ Charleston: 5 IP, unearned run, 5 BB, 4 K The run scored on an error that he committed. The play was scored as a fielder's choice.
Asheville and Corpus in action early today... Ethan Frey hit his first home run of the season for the Tourists.
Yeesh, Ryan Forcucci's return hasn't gone swimmingly. Guess he joins the Alonzo Tredwell "Forget about him for a season or two until he's a guy again" club.
Well, both Corpus and Asheville got whipped in the early games. Justin Thomas went 2-4 with two stolen bases and scored three times for Asheville. Max Holy also had two hits; he stole a base and scored a run. Bryce Mayer struck out eight in four innings for Corpus Christi... but he also allowed three runs, two of which came on a homer.
Nick Potter allowed a hit, walked three, and struck out three over three scoreless for Fayetteville. Xavier Neyens has an RBI double.
Where's Forrest Whitley? He was a Luhnow pick (#17 first round). Do you want me to look up the other top 1 to 10 round Luhnow picks?
Please do, Bregs/Correa/LMJ would be a good start and being able to trade Beer/Buskaskus for players that help win a championship as well as Appel. Part of drafting is knowing when to trade a prospect instead of holding onto said prospect. Too bad they held onto Whitley/Martes too long but nobody is perfect.
Something tells me 3 top picks, and multiple picks in the top 40 every season would have lead to slightly better results for Click.
Something we will never know. What we do know is Luhnow had a plan, executed his plan regardless of what people thought and we as fans reaped the rewards of his vision.
