Goldeyes’ long winter of discontent almost over By: Taylor Allen Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, Mar. 28, 2019 Last Modified: 7:35 PM CDT Thursday, Mar. 28, 2019 Updates

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This article was published 27/03/2019 (2058 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The snow is melting, the Canada Goose jackets are slowly going back into the closet, and the ice scrapers and shovels are being put to rest.

All of these glorious signs of spring mean baseball season is almost here.

Yes, Major League Baseball may have had their Opening Day today, but Winnipeg’s boys of summer — the Goldeyes — and the rest of the American Association will have to wait a bit longer before they hit the field.

The Goldeyes will open the regular season May 16 on the road against the Texas AirHogs. But this year, the Fish might be even more eager to get the ball rolling. After winning the league championship in 2016 and 2017, the Goldeyes took a gigantic step back in 2018. They missed the playoffs for only the sixth time in their 25-year history and finished with a 41-59 record — their worst mark in franchise history.

“We didn’t play good baseball at times, we got hurt a lot, had a lot of guys go down with injury,” said Goldeyes outfielder Josh Romanski, who’s returning this summer for his fourth season with the club.

“It just didn’t happen for us last year. I’m not going to make excuses but we had a tough schedule. We had a bunch of injuries on top of a 31-game stretch in a row. It was tough, but you know what, last year was last year. It was a bad year but we’re going to be right back in the middle of things again this year.”

Romanski, 32, is one of eight returning players from a season ago. He’ll be rejoined in the outfield by 38-year-old Reggie Abercrombie, the league’s all-time hits, RBIs and home run leader. Abercrombie dodged retirement once again and will play his sixth season in Winnipeg.

A couple notable arms will be back in the fold, too. The team’s top two starting pitchers — Kevin McGovern and Mitch Lambson — are returning to the rotation and so will their most reliable bullpen arm, Victor Capellan. Capellan broke the team’s single-season save record last year with 22. Also back will be catcher Kevin Garcia, who will look to rebound from a season-ending leg injury he suffered in June. Relief pitchers Jack Charleston and Brandon Bingel round out the returnees.

“I’m looking forward to seeing those guys out on the field and what they bring to the table. So far, you know, I think we look pretty good on paper”
– Goldeyes outfielder Josh Romanski

To help get this team back to their winning ways, the Goldeyes brought in a familiar face that knows a thing or two about winning. Third baseman Wes Darvill makes his return to the Fish, after spending last season playing affiliated ball across three levels in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization. Darvill, a member of both Goldeyes’ championship runs in ’16 and ’17, won another ring last year, as he helped the Tulsa Drillers win the Double-A Texas League championship. Darvill has, literally, a handful of minor-league championship rings, as the 27-year-old Richmond, B.C., native won championships with the Carolina League’s Myrtle Beach Pelicans in 2015 and the Florida State League’s Daytona Cubs in 2014 as well.

“It was sort of a tough offseason for me and I think some other free agents out there on the market,” Darvill told the Free Press in a phone interview from Richmond. “It wasn’t the greatest to find opportunities to play affiliated ball. But if I was going to play independent ball again, I know in my mind I wasn’t set on playing anywhere other than Winnipeg. I didn’t even think about anywhere else.”

Romanski, a California native who got his first taste of winter this year as he spent the offseason in Winnipeg, is ecstatic that Darvill will be back on the hot corner for the Fish.

“I love Wes. Wes brings a grinder mentality and is a true baseball player in every sense of the word,” Romanski said. “He’s a gamer. It’s going to be good to get him back in the clubhouse. I think a lot of the things that happened last year were because of a lack of presence from guys like Wes, who are just all about baseball, working hard, and playing 100 per cent. I can’t be any happier than to get him back.”

Darvill wasn’t the only big splash made by the Goldeyes this offseason. The Fish signed 26-year-old outfielder Willy Garcia, who last played in 2017 where he played 44 games for the Chicago White Sox. The club also added to their already impressive outfield by trading for Frontier League Most Valuable Player James Harris. Harris, 25, had a .305 batting average with 16 home runs and 64 RBIs for the Washington Wild Things last season. The Oakland, Cali., native also impressed with his glove, as he only made two errors in 92 games in centre field.

“I’m looking forward to seeing those guys out on the field and what they bring to the table,” Romanski said. “So far, you know, I think we look pretty good on paper.”

Fans can get their first glimpse of the Goldeyes on May 8 and 9, as the team will play a pair of preseason games against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks at Shaw Park. The club currently has 23 players signed for the upcoming season. They can carry up to 28 players on the roster through training camp before trimming the team back down to 23 while meeting all classification rules by May 14. The team is mostly filled, but the Goldeyes will likely look to add a second baseman and another starting pitcher to the rotation before the season begins, as those are currently their biggest holes in the line-up.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Eighteen years old and still in high school, Taylor got his start with the Free Press on June 1, 2011. Well, sort of...

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