Tag Archives: Dominican Winter League

17 Nov

of local interest

On this date in 1992, MLB held an expansion draft for the new Colorado and Florida franchises to stock their rosters for the ’93 season. Four Mississippians were among the 72 players drafted from the other MLB organizations. Charlie Hayes, the former Forrest County AHS star, was the second pick — and No. 3 overall — by the Rockies, having been left “unprotected” by the New York Yankees. Pat Rapp, Southern Miss and Hinds Community College alum, was picked 10th overall by Florida and Greg Hibbard, a Mississippi Gulf Coast CC and Harrison Central High product, went two picks later to the Marlins. Mo Sanford, a former Starkville High phenom, was selected 62nd overall by Colorado. (Also picked in that draft were former Jackson Mets Chuck Carr, Tom Edens and Chris Donnels.) Hayes enjoyed his time in Colorado and Mile High Stadium, a hitter’s haven. He batted .305 with 25 homers and 98 RBIs in 1993 and hit 10 more bombs in the strike-shortened ’94 season. (He would wind up back with the Yankees in 1996 and earned a World Series ring.) Rapp went 4-6 with a 4.02 ERA for the Marlins in 1993 and would win 33 more games for the club over the next four years. (He did not pitch in the postseason when Florida won the 1997 World Series.) Hibbard, who won 57 games in six big league campaigns, never pitched for the Marlins; he was traded the day of the expansion draft to the Chicago Cubs. Sanford worked in 11 games for the ’93 Rockies, going 1-2, 5.30. That was his only year in their system. P.S. Southern Miss alum Nick Sandlin has rejected an outright assignment to the minors by Toronto (see previous post) and become a free agent. … Billy Hamilton, the ex-Taylorsville High standout, plays on at age 35, now with Jalisco in the Mexican Pacific League. Former big leaguer Hamilton is batting .273 with three steals and 10 runs in 13 games in the winter league. He has been in pro ball since 2009, when Cincinnati drafted him in the second round. He finished last season in the Cubs’ minor league system. … Ex-Ole Miss star Chris Ellis leads the Dominican Winter League with six saves for Cibao; the erstwhile big league has a spotless ERA over eight games.

03 Nov

ring it up

Justin Dean doesn’t have a big league hit on his resume, but he will have a World Series ring. The ex-Mississippi Braves star, who won a Double-A ring in 2021, was in center field for the final out of Game 7 on Saturday night and celebrated with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates after they won the World Series for the second straight year. Dean’s postseason line with the Dodgers is interesting: 13 games, no at-bats, one run, one steal, six putouts. He played in three of the Series games and made that heady move in Game 6, throwing up his arms to signal that a ball had gotten stuck under the outfield padding for a ground-rule double. Toronto likely would have scored a big run on the hit. Dean, in his MLB debut, went 0-for-2 in the regular season for L.A., appearing in 17 games and making seven putouts. He has played 689 minor league games, having spent parts of four seasons with the M-Braves. In 2024, the team’s finale at Trustmark Park, Dean stole 47 bases and set the M-Braves career record with 117 bags. He signed with L.A. as a minor league free agent in December. … Former M-Braves star Freddie Freeman earned a second ring with the Dodgers, as did ex-M-Braves pitcher Evan Phillips, a reliever who made seven appearances in 2025 before going on the injured list and having elbow surgery in May. P.S. Braden Montgomery, former Madison Central High star and top Chicago White Sox prospect, is listed among the Arizona Fall League top performers for week four of the season by mlb.com. Montgomery, completing his first pro season, went 5-for-15 last week with a homer, a triple and five RBIs. He is batting .385 overall in the AFL and has drawn 10 walks. … Ke’Bryan Hayes won a second Gold Glove at third base in the National League; his dad, Hattiesburg native Charlie, never got one of those but did win a World Series with the 1996 New York Yankees. … Former Ole Miss standouts Chris Ellis and Cooper Johnson are batterymates in the Dominican Winter League with Cibao. Ellis, who has pitched in the majors, has worked three scoreless innings. He posted a 3.66 ERA and 19 saves in the Mexican League in 2025. Johnson, who played in the Texas system this past season, is 4-for-15 in seven games in the DWL. … Veteran slugger and ex-big leaguer Bobby Bradley from Gulfport is toiling for Tucson, an expansion team in the Mexican Pacific League; he is hitting .250 with a homer in 15 games. Bradley has 254 career homers in pro ball.

30 Oct

there and here

In light of Trey Yesavage’s dominant start for Toronto in World Series Game 5 on Wednesday night, mlb.com compiled a list of other outstanding performances by postseason rookies in other organizations. Brandon Woodruff, who debuted with Milwaukee in 2017, was still technically a rookie in 2018 when the Mississippi State product shined during the Brewers’ run to a Game 7 in the National League Championship Series. Woodruff made four appearances all told in the playoffs, yielding three runs in 12 1/3 innings with 17 strikeouts. He got the win in Game 1 of the NLCS with two hitless innings and famously homered off Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw. … Tim Elko, the ex-Ole Miss star who made his MLB debut in 2025, will miss the start of the 2026 season after having surgery to repair a torn ACL, according to an mlb.com report. He could be sidelined several months. Elko, 26, hit just .134 with four home runs in 23 games with the Chicago White Sox this season. He batted .292 with 26 homers and 70 RBIs in Triple-A in his fourth pro campaign. Elko suffered an ACL injury to the same knee during his senior year in Oxford before returning to help the Rebels win the national championship. … The MLB Players Association has named Ronald Acuna Jr. its NL comeback player of the year and Drake Baldwin the NL’s outstanding rookie. Both are former Mississippi Braves stars. … Former MSU standout Eric Cerantola, a prospect in Kansas City’s system, is pitching in the Dominican Winter League and has a 2.25 ERA in four appearances for Cibaenas. A fifth-round draft pick in 2021, he went 2-2 with a 4.04 era and a save in 38 games at Triple-A Omaha this past season. … Coming Nov. 7, MSU’s annual alumni game — the Diamond Dawg Classic — that will bring an impressive list of ex-Bulldogs to Starkville, including current big leaguers Adam Frazier and Jake Mangum. Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro will serve as managers of the two squads. Expected to participate are Mitch Moreland, Jonathan Papelbon, Hunter Renfroe, Tyler Moore, Reid Humphreys, Tanner Allen and current minor leaguers Dakota Jordan and Connor Hujsak. … Colt Keith, former Biloxi High star, is expected to again play a utility role for Detroit in 2026. The second-year big leaguer did time at first, second and third base as well as DH while batting .256 with 13 home runs. “The fact that he can play all three positions gives us a real advantage,” Detroit’s president on baseball operations, Scott Harris, recently told the Detroit Free Press. … Born on this date in 1986: Desmond Jennings, the ex-Itawamba Community College two-sport star who played seven years in the big leagues, all with Tampa Bay. He hit .245 with 55 homers and 95 steals; he also batted .303 in 11 postseason games.

29 Oct

carry on

Different season, different league, same old Thomas Dillard. The former Ole Miss slugger, who led the independent Atlantic League in homers this summer, has hit three bombs in 11 games in the Mexican Pacific League, Mexico’s winter league. Dillard, a switch-hitting first baseman, belted 39 homers for Lexington in his first year of indy ball and batted .258 with 100 RBIs. Now playing for Culiacan, Dillard is hitting .308 with nine RBIs. As a senior at Oxford High in 2016, Dillard led the nation with 16 homers and went on to hit 31 in three years at UM, including 14 as a junior in 2019. He spent three seasons in Milwaukee’s system, belted 12 homers for Double-A Biloxi in 2022 but was released after the season. Playing for Barry Lyons’ Counter Clocks in the Atlantic League — a Triple-A caliber loop — and now in the MPL, Dillard is showing that he still has plenty of thunder in his bat. P.S. Blaine Crim, the ex-Mississippi College star who played in Triple-A for Texas this season, mashed a home run in his first game in the Dominican Winter League but has just one hit since. He is 2-for-20 for Escogido. Crim hit 22 homers for Round Rock this summer and has 83 homers in his four-year minor league career. Southern Miss alum Chuckie Robinson, who had a good year (.290, 13 homers) in Triple-A for Cincinnati, is hitting .278 with three doubles for Cibao in the DWL. Also in the league is Ole Miss product David Parkinson, who got a win with three scoreless innings of work in his only appearance to date for Escogido. Parkinson, on a bit of a roller coaster since being drafted by Philadelphia in 2017, spent most of the 2023 season in Double-A, going 9-5 for Reading.

19 Jan

on comeback trail

There will be a small crowd of Mississippi-connected pitchers on the proverbial comeback trail when major league spring training camps open next month. MLB veterans Spencer Turnbull, Garrett Crochet and Drew Pomeranz and minor league prospects Ryan Rolison and Colby White missed the entire 2022 season rehabbing from arm injuries that required surgery. Ole Miss product Rolison and Mississippi State alum White appeared to be on the brink of their big league debut last season before injury shut them down. Turnbull, the ex-Madison Central High star, hasn’t pitched in a game since May of 2021. The Detroit right-hander had Tommy John surgery that summer, shortly after throwing a no-hitter on May 18. He was 4-2 with a 2.88 ERA over nine starts in 2021 and is 11-25, 4.25, for his MLB career with the Tigers. He is penciled in as one of their top starters, assuming he regains his 2021 form. Ocean Springs native Crochet, a flame-throwing left-hander with the Chicago White Sox, had Tommy John surgery last spring, a blow to the White Sox’s bullpen. Crochet, 23, exploded on the scene in 2020, shortly after being drafted out of Tennessee. He has a 2.54 ERA over his two MLB campaigns with 73 strikeouts in 60 1/3 innings. It’ll be interesting to see how his velocity is affected by the injury. Former Ole Miss star Pomeranz, now with San Diego, went down with a flexor tendon injury late in the 2021 season and had surgery that off-season. The big left-hander made some rehab appearances last summer but never made it back to the Padres’ active roster, missing all the drama of their ’22 season. Now 34, the former first-round pick had a 1.75 ERA as a key bullpen piece for the Padres in 2021 and carries a 3.91 career ERA. Rolison, another UM alum and former first-rounder, was derailed by shoulder surgery last year. The 25-year-old lefty, who has slipped on Colorado’s prospect list to No. 22, reached Triple-A in 2021. Over three minor league seasons, he is 12-12, 4.35, in 50 games. He’ll likely debut with the Rockies sometime this season. White, a Hattiesburg native drafted out of MSU in 2019, had Tommy John surgery last April after going to camp with Tampa Bay as a non-roster invitee. He made the 40-man this off-season. In 2021, the right-handed reliever, now 24, rose through four levels of the minors with the Rays. He had a 1.86 ERA at Triple-A Durham and in 58 pro games overall has a 1.76 ERA and 12 saves. His MLB debut may be coming soon. P.S. Here’s a prep player to watch in 2023 and beyond: Samuel Richardson, a junior third baseman at Lewisburg, was recognized by mlb.com as one of the top hitting prospects at last weekend’s DREAM Series in Arizona. Richardson, who played at Senatobia last year, was among the 80 players, predominantly African-American, invited to the annual instructional event held on MLK Day weekend and sponsored by MLB and USA Baseball. … Mel Rojas Jr., who played for the Mississippi Braves in 2016, got the walk-off hit on Wednesday night as Licey won the Dominican Winter League championship. Ex-M-Braves catcher and longtime big leaguer Jesus Sucre also plays for Licey.

30 Nov

rivalry renewed

Ryan Rolison and Ethan Small currently are polishing their pitching skills — and renewing their college rivalry — in the Dominican Winter League after finishing last season in Triple-A. When next we see these highly rated prospects in the States, they might just be rivals in the major leagues. Rolison, a left-hander out of Ole Miss, recently was added to Colorado’s 40-man roster; he’ll go to spring training vying for a rotation spot. Small, a lefty out of Mississippi State, likely will go to Milwaukee’s spring camp as a non-roster invitee with a real shot at making the club. Both have pitched exceedingly well in the DWR. Rolison, who had an injury-riddled 2021 minor league campaign, is 1-1 with a 3.15 ERA in five starts for Licey with 24 strikeouts in 20 innings. Small had a 1.98 ERA between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville and has carried that stuff into the winter season, going 2-1, 1.80 over five starts for Escogido.

17 Nov

winter is here

Scanning the stat charts from the Dominican Winter League, a few familiar names pop up, including two Mississippi college products. Ex-Mississippi State star Nate Lowe, who played 21 games for Tampa Bay this past season, is getting some bonus work with Escogido, while former Ole Miss standout Chris Ellis, who became a free agent last spring, is pitching for Cibao. Lowe, a 25-year-old first baseman, spent most of 2020 in the Rays’ alternate camp. He hit seven homers as a rookie in 2019 and four more this season; he played in one wild card game but was not on the postseason roster thereafter. “We believe that (Lowe’s power) can be an attraction in the league,” Escogido’s GM, Jose Gomez Frias, told en24.news. Ellis made one MLB appearance with Kansas City as a Rule 5 pick in 2019, then was returned to St. Louis’ system. He had a shaky ’19 season in Triple-A and ultimately was released last May when big league clubs were purging their minor league rosters. Once a highly rated prospect, Ellis, 28, has 164 minor league appearances under his belt. He went 8-2 for the 2016 Mississippi Braves, two years after winning 10 games for Ole Miss. … The DWL season began Sunday. The Mexican Pacific League season also is under way; no Mississippians appear on the current rosters.

18 Nov

arm strength

Following up on a fairly dominant 2019 season in Texas’ system, Demarcus Evans has posted seven scoreless outings in nine appearances in the Dominican Winter League. The big right-hander out of Petal High has a 2.60 ERA with nine strikeouts and seven walks in 10 innings for Escogido. In his fifth pro season, the 23-year-old Evans started 2019 in high Class A and finished it with Double-A Frisco, where he had an 0.96 ERA, six saves and 60 strikeouts in 37 2/3 innings. He was, according to Baseball America, the only minor league pitcher to record triple-digit strikeouts in 60 or fewer innings. BA named Evans as the relief pitcher on its all-classification Minor League All-Star team, and he also made MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Year. Oddly enough, Evans, who became a fulltime reliever in 2017, is not currently among the Rangers’ Top 30 in MLB Pipeline’s prospect rankings. He has a career 2.53 ERA and has averaged 13.7 punchouts per nine innings. … Ole Miss alum Chris Ellis has been extremely effective out of the bullpen for Monterrey in the Mexican Pacific League. He has a 0.50 ERA in 18 one-inning appearances. Ellis, 27, made one MLB appearance (for Kansas City) last season and spent the rest of the year with Triple-A Memphis in St. Louis’ system.

14 Oct

wintering

After a rough season in Triple-A, Chris Ellis is trying to iron some things out in the Mexican Pacific League. The former Ole Miss (and Mississippi Braves) right-hander has made two appearances for Monterrey, yielding a run on two hits in two innings. Ellis made his big league debut in March with Kansas City as a Rule 5 pick but was promptly returned to the St. Louis organization and spent the season at Triple-A Memphis. He was 5-5 with a 7.18 ERA. … Also playing winter ball are Mississippi State product Jacob Robson and Southwest Mississippi Community College alum Kade Scivicque, both Detroit farmhands. Robson, who batted .267 with nine homers and 25 steals at Triple-A Toledo, is off to a 3-for-9 start with a homer for Aguilas Cibaenas in the Dominican Winter League. Scivicque, a onetime M-Braves catcher, is 2-for-7 in two games for Gigantes del Cibao of the DWL. He hit .295 with nine homers this year between Triple-A and Double-A. P.S. Neither of the Mississippi college products on the National League Championship Series teams has had an impact heading into Game 3 tonight in Washington. Former Southern Miss standout Brian Dozier played two innings at second base for the Nationals as part of a double-switch in Game 2. He didn’t bat. Ex-MSU star Dakota Hudson is slated to start Game 4 for St. Louis on Tuesday; he did not work in the first two games.

09 Nov

up in arms

Cody Reed’s strong finish this past season has attracted attention. The left-hander out of Horn Lake and Northwest Mississippi Community College is ranked the No. 2 prospect in Cincinnati’s organization by Baseball America. Reed, a second-round pick by Kansas City in 2013, reached Double-A in the Royals’ system last summer before being traded to the Reds as part of the Johnny Cueto deal. He went to Double-A Pensacola of the Southern League and put up a 6-2 record with a 2.17 ERA in eight starts for a Blue Wahoos team that made the postseason. The 6-foot-5 Reed had 60 strikeouts and just 16 walks in 49 2/3 innings. Rated the No. 9 prospect by mlb.com, Reed’s big league arrival date is projected as 2018. He may get there well before that. … Wondering if Chris Stratton, the ex-Mississippi State All-American from Tupelo, might work his way into San Francisco’s rotation next spring. The 6-foot-3 right-hander, rated the No. 14 prospect in the Giants’ system by mlb.com but not yet on the 40-man roster, finished 2015 at Triple-A Sacramento, going 4-5 with a 3.86 ERA. Stratton was a first-round pick in 2012 whose pro career got off to a rocky start when he was hit in the head by a batted ball during a practice. But he may have proved himself ready for a chance at The Show last summer, and the Giants need some arms. … Jackson native Donnie Veal, in his 11th year of pro ball, is pitching in the Dominican Winter League, where he has not allowed a run in seven appearances (2 2/3 innings) for Cibaenas. Veal spent some time with Atlanta last season (14.54 ERA) and Triple-A Gwinnett (no earned runs in 16 innings) before landing in the independent Atlantic League. The left-hander had a 1.45 ERA in 20 games for Long Island. … Also in the DWL is Hattiesburg native Robert Carson, another erstwhile big leaguer who pitched in the Atlantic League (with Bridgeport) this season. Carson, a lefty, has a 4.76 ERA in eight games for Cibao.