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Wild Things make roster shakeup, get rained out

4 min read
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The Wild Things went on a six-game road trip and returned to Washington with a new team.

OK, that’s stretching it a bit. But today’s Wild Things don’t resemble the group that ended the previous homestand on June 4.

In other words, manager Tom Vaeth had seen enough of his team’s erratic pitching and is taking steps to correct the problems before the Wild Things sink any deeper in the Frontier League’s West Division standings.

Last week, Washington acquired pitcher Hayden Shenefield to complete a previous trade and signed pitcher Robert Gonzalez and outfielder/pitcher Brett Carson. After returning from the road trip Monday with four losses in six games, the Wild Things released pitchers Zach Blankenship, Anthony Boix, Andrew Mitchell and outfielder Harrison Ray and placed third baseman Ian Walters on waivers. Signed in their place were pitchers Justin Goossen-Brown, Ray Pacella and Will Solomon and infielder Tommy Caufield.

Washington still has an open roster spot.

“It wasn’t getting any better,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said prior to the Wild Things’ game Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators being rained out.

“We were averaging two wins a week. Keeping at that pace is not going to get you where you need to be.”

Washington entered Tuesday with a 5.76 team ERA, which ranked 12th in the hitter-friendly Frontier League. In 27 games, the Wild Things have only four quality starts – at least six innings and no more than three earned runs allowed – and two of those were by Kobe Foster, who is currently on the injured list. Only the Empire State Greys have fewer quality starts (3) than Washington.

Since bolting to a 6-1 record in the season’s opening days, Washington relief pitchers have combined for a 7.10 ERA. Washington is tied with Quebec for the most blown saves (8) in the league. The starting pitching hasn’t been much better, with a 6.89 ERA over the same period.

“The young pitching wasn’t getting it done. The only way to fix young pitchers is to get experienced pitchers,” Vaeth said.

“We had patience with the young pitchers, and one of the reasons for that was the injury to Kobe Foster and the state of flux our rotation was in. The addition of Hayden Shenefield and Robert Gonzalez has helped solidify the rotation and Kobe is close to coming back. Until all those pieces came in, we had to be patient.”

Vaeth, however, could wait no longer for his young pitchers to figure it out. As a result, he has given his pitching staff an extreme makeover.

Of the latest signings, Vaeth has seen two of them, Solomon and Goossen-Brown, pitch during their days in the American Association. Solomon is a 30-year-old lefty who spent six years in the American Association and won 10 games in 2018 for Fargo-Moorhead. He hasn’t played a full season of pro ball since 2019.

The 27-year-old Goossen-Brown played college ball at San Diego State and has been in independent leagues since 2019. He pitched briefly for York in the Atlantic League this year.

“Solomon got enough of my lefty hitters out when I was the hitting coach at Winnipeg,” Vaeth said. “(Goossen-Brown), I’m more familiar with his brother, who played at Wichita Falls, but what I know about that family is those guys won’t shy away from the big moment. They want the ball. Solomon is the same way.”

Pacella is a sidearming lefthander who played this spring at Marshall University. Caufield also is a true rookie who was first team all-PSAC, hitting .341 for a Millersville team that made the NCAA Division II World Series.

Notes

The Wild Things and Titans will begin their three-game series with a doubleheader today beginning at 5:05 p.m. Spencer Johnston (2-3, 4.82) and Shenefield (0-0, 4.00) are expected to pitch for Washington. … This is Ottawa’s first regular-season game at Washington. The Titans did play one preseason game at Wild Things Park last year.

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