The season began for Triple-A teams on Friday, but the rest of the levels had to wait to get their seasons started. The Dayton Dragons and the Midwest League will get underway on Thursday, but the roster is now set for the season opener (it is subject to change before opening day, but that rarely happens).
Here’s the first look at the 2023 Dayton Dragons Opening Day roster:
There’s a good mix of players returning to Dayton and guys making their first trip to the Midwest League. The Dragons roster has four Top 25 Cincinnati Reds prospects on it. Jay Allen II is the only Top 25 Prospect that’s returning to Dayton. He spent the final month of 2022 with the Dragons, hitting .230/.301/.297 in 18 games.
The top prospect on the team when the season begins will be Edwin Arroyo. I had heard a lot of very good things about him from his time out in Goodyear this spring. He’s coming off of a strong season, too. Last year he hit .293/.366/.480 with 25 doubles, 10 triples, 14 home runs, and he stole 27 bases while playing a strong defensive shortstop as an 18-year-old splitting time between Modesto when he was in the Seattle Mariners organization and with the Daytona Tortugas after a trade brought him into the Reds organization.
The pitching staff for the Dragons will be anchored by two Top 25 starting pitchers in Julian Aguiar and Javi Rivera. Aguiar, the 20th rated prospect in the organization, threw 88.1 innings with Single-A Daytona with a 3.16 ERA, 22 walks, and 103 strikeouts before making two starts for Dayton last year at the end of the season. Rivera, the 25th rated prospect, posted a 2.81 ERA in 73.2 innings that saw him walk 18 and strike out 88 with Daytona before making five starts at the end of the year with the Dragons, is also returning.
Jose Acuna is making the jump up to High-A after having thrown just 39.1 innings last season in the Florida State League between his time with Daytona and St. Lucie (Mets). He was dominant last season, posting a 2.91 ERA – including the 25.2 innings he threw with the complex level Mets team. Still, it’s an aggressive promotion for the 20-year-old who hasn’t had a lot of experience in full-season ball.
Tyler Callihan is making a return to Dayton after spending the second half of 2022 there. The infielder had a strong spring training from reports that were shared with me at the end of March. That’s good to hear because Callihan could use a full, healthy season under his belt. He missed much of 2021 after needing Tommy John surgery. Then he missed time in 2022 after a wrist injury. And all of that came after everyone missed out on the 2020 minor league season.
The outfield could be a very intriguing group. While Jay Allen II is the only Top 25 prospect out there, all five of the players are tooled up and have some parts of their game to really get excited about. Austin Hendrick has light tower power and over the last month of the season in 2022 he really cut down on his strikeouts. Over the offseason he made some swing changes and the results in the spring had people talking.
Blake Dunn have four above-average to plus tools. He walked nearly as often as he struck out last season, and has stolen 25 bases in 26 attempts in 48 games as a professional. He missed much of the 2022 season, though, getting just 127 plate appearances during the year.
Jack Rogers began the 2022 season in Dayton and had a nightmare start to the year. He was sent down to Daytona after a few weeks and the change of scenery worked wonders as he turned things around and hit .285/.357/.510. His average exit velocity was well above-average in Daytona (93.2 MPH), but he’ll need to work on making more contact – he struck out 133 times in 358 plate appearances a season ago.
Justice Thompson is another guy with plenty of tools to work with. He can run, has good power potential, can play good defense…. but he’s struggled to find consistency on the field. He played in 91 games with the Dragons last year and hit .247/.364/.385 with 20 stolen bases.