81 different players, 195 transactions. Is it any wonder the Red Wings struggled in 2022?

Sal Maiorana
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Matt LeCroy had the Red Wings in first place as late as mid-July.
  • The Red Wings were 35-19 and in first place two months into the season.
  • The team suffered through a franchise-record 19-game losing streak

One of the hardest things in professional baseball is to win a division title or a league championship, especially at the Triple-A level.

The never-ending roster churn, especially for teams whose parent club is either have a terrible spate of injuries or just a terrible season which warrants looking at as many young players as possible, kills any hope for establishing consistency in the lineup.

Rochester Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy understands this, and he’s not complaining about how the Washington Nationals raided his team the way no parent team has ever raided a Red Wings roster. He’s just stating a fact: It made it difficult for his club to maintain the hot start it got off to which had Wings fans dreaming of the team’s first playoff berth since 2013.

“I think we broke the Red Wings transaction record,” LeCroy said, referring to the fact they made 195 transactions, involving 81 players who suited up for at least one game. “When you’re a Triple-A manager, you know it’s going to happen, but you weren’t expecting it to happen this much.”

The good news, at least from the Nationals perspective, is that LeCroy helped prepare several players who went up and contributed in Washington and some in that group will be counted on to become regulars in 2023 including middle infielders Luis Garcia, Lucius Fox and C.J. Abrams, first baseman Joey Meneses, outfielders Josh Palacios and Alex Call, and pitchers Cade Cavalli, Jackson Tetreault, Reed Garrett, Jordan Weems, and Sam Clay.

“The guys we sent to the big leagues, the majority of them made some really good impacts and helped them win some games, so from that perspective, I was proud of what happened,” said LeCroy, whose second Red Wings team finished eighth in the 10-team International League East division with a record of 67-81, a vast improvement over the 49-77 record in 2021.

Here are five things to know about 2022:

1. Rochester Red Wings got off to a great start

Josh Palacios was cut by the Blue Jays, signed by the Nationals, and he made an immediate impact on the Wings.

On the afternoon of June 5 the Wings blew out Buffalo 11-2 at Frontier Field and moved to a season-best 16 games over .500 at 35-19 and were sitting in first place by 3.5 games. They were getting key contributions both at the plate and on the mound from a core group, and they were finding ways to win games that, in past years, they weren’t.

And then it all began to collapse. They hit the road for a disastrous 12-game stretch where they lost all six in St. Paul and four of six in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and they never really recovered.

Still, they hung tough and were tied for first at 47-41 after beating Omaha on July 15, and then they made ignominious franchise history.

2. Red Wings' 19-game losing streak derailed the season

Alberto Baldonado and the Wings suffered through a terrible losing streak that ruined the season.

It began on July 16 with back-to-back losses to Omaha leading into the All-Star break. And then it continued with a three-game sweep in Buffalo, a pair of six-game sweeps at the hands of Scranton at home and Columbus on the road, and then two more at home to Norfolk before it mercifully ended on Aug. 11.

The streak shattered the previous Wings record of 12 consecutive losses and it capped a stretch where the Wings went 12-41.

During the 19-game losing streak the Wings were outscored 129-74, they batted just .235 as a team which was second-worst in the IL in that stretch, they gave up a league-worst 112 earned runs, and had 15 multi-error games.

The Wings treaded water the rest of the way, going 20-21 after they snapped the streak but they still finished 18 games behind first-place Durham.

3. Joey Meneses was the feel-good story of the year

Joey Meneses hit 20 home runs for the Wings before being called up to Washington.

The 30-year native of Mexico had been in professional baseball since 2011 without ever sniffing the big leagues, even after a 2018 season when he was named IL player of the year playing in the Phillies system.

He signed with the Nationals in the spring, came to Rochester and just raked from day one. In 96 games he hit .286 with 20 homers and 64 RBI, and when the Nationals traded Juan Soto and Josh Bell to the Padres at the Aug. 2 deadline, Meneses finally got to the show and was inserted at first base.

He has been one of the great stories of the baseball season and as of Oct. 2 he had played 53 games and was hitting .327 with 13 homers, 34 RBI and an OPS of .947.

“He’s helped them win a lot of games while he’s been there and I’m super proud of him," LeCroy said. That’s the joy of being a minor league coach.”

4. Rochester Red Wings offense slipped throughout the year

Andrew Stevenson led the Wings in almost every offensive category in 2022.

When you lose players like Meneses, Garcia and Palacios, they’re tough to replace and it showed. They finished 17th in the 20-team league with 688 runs, and while their team average of .254 was eighth, their on-base percentage was just .326 which was 18th. They did steal 153 bases which was the second-most in franchise history.

Andrew Stevenson was a stud all year as he joined the Wings after being designated for assignment and was here all season, hitting .279 with 31 doubles, 9 triples, 16 homers, 67 RBI, 39 stolen bases and an OPS of .801. His 152 hits were tied for the most in the IL.

“He’s kind of an old timey baseball player that never quits, he works extremely hard, plays as hard as he can," LeCroy said.

Jake Noll had a solid season which was cut short by an injury. He hit .256 and finished with 26 doubles, 10 homers and 53 RBI.

When Palacios was here, he played in 76 games and hit .298 with an on-base of .382 and an OPS of .815 while stealing 19 bases. He was red hot and after trading Soto, the Nationals brought him up.

One player to watch in 2023 is third baseman Jake Alu. He came up from Double-A in July, played in 59 games and hit .323 with 11 homers and 45 RBI in just 236 plate appearances.

“This kid was a late draft pick, never really started on a minor league team, always had to kind of work his way into a lineup and boy, he has put himself on the map with the Nationals,” LeCroy said. “His defense improved and this guy can flat out hit.”

5. Red Wings set franchise record for strikeouts

Logan Verrett was the winning pitcher the day the Wings ended their 19-game losing streak.

As a staff, the Wings set a new franchise record with 1,341 strikeouts, though that was more a function of how the game is played these days with the three true outcome approach.

Logan Verrett anchored the rotation as he made 21 starts and compiled a 3.80 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP.

Top prospect Cavalli started slowly but really came on at the end before he was called up in August. He made 20 starts and had a 3.71 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP and struck out 102 in 97 innings.

Jackson Tetreault had a 4.19 ERA in 12 starts before going up, but like Cavalli, he ended the season on the injured list. Both are good bets to be in the Nationals rotation next season.

In the bullpen, Jordan Weems was struggling early, made some mechanical adjustments, and wound up saving 16 games in 17 opportunities with an ERA of 2.70.

The iron man was Alberto Baldonado who made 56 relief appearances and had a 3.84 ERA with 81 strikeouts in 63.1 innings and LeCroy said pitching coach Rafael Chaves was instrumental to Baldonado and the rest of the staff.

“He is a top notch pitching coach and hopefully he’ll get a big league job," LeCroy said. "He deserves it.”

As for LeCroy, he’s under contract for 2023, assumes he’ll be back, and he said, “I’m looking forward to getting that new wave of young players back up to Triple-A and see our organization turn back into a championship one.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's new twice-a-week newsletter, Bills Blast, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast