BY DAN GLICKMAN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The 2026 Rochester Red Wings will take the field this Friday in Jacksonville with a roster that is a mix of new players, old players, and in the first full season of a new regime in charge of their parent club, the Washington Nationals.
It was something on full display during the team’s Media Day workout on Wednesday at the now-ESL Ballpark, where one-time megaprospect Dylan Crews stretched, while offseason trade acquisition Harry Ford practiced plays at the plate. Tres Barrera, a defensive-minded catcher who has returned to the Washington organization after two years elsewhere, had brought his son. More coaches than in previous years stood watching – even though the skipper, Matt LeCroy, remains the same.
The Red Wings went 59-88 in 2025, a disappointment after a 2024 season that saw them finish with a winning record for the first time since 2019. Things didn’t go much better for the parent club Washington Nationals, who finished in last place in the National League East with a 66-96 mark. The rough season for the Nationals led to massive changes: general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez were both fired in July. After the season ended, new leadership arrived in DC. Now heading things with the big club is President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni. Toboni, a longtime member of the Boston Red Sox organization, brought in Anirudh Kilambi as general manager and 33-year-old Blake Butera as manager.
And with the new bosses have come lots of changes for the Nationals – and the Red Wings. To hear LeCroy and some of the players, it’s something they’d noticed down in West Palm Beach, where the Nationals hold spring training.
“They did a good job running spring training,” said LeCroy on Wednesday. “Setting the tone of how they go approach things. The manager, the staff, did an awesome job of putting together really intense spring training days, which makes my job a lot easier her in AAA.”
The changes have been visible in Rochester as well.
“They’ve really invested in staff development, building out our staffs to help the players, and then they poured the resources into all the technology: we’ve put Trackman up in the batting cages, we have a Trajekt machines, a high-dollar machine,” said LeCroy, referring to the tracking equipment as well as the advanced Trajekt pitching machine that allows users to replicate the deliveries of specific pitchers.
“Everything that we can measure, we’ll measure,” he said. “I’m really excited.”
LeCroy is also excited by his lineup. The squad returns last year’s team MVP in outfielder Andrew Pinckney, who hit 20 home runs while slashing (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging) .269/.348/.431 and stealing 34 bases. Also back is fellow outfielder Christian Franklin, who hit .272/.390/.427 with 12 home runs and 19 stolen bases between Chicago’s AAA squad and Rochester. Other notable hitters back include Robert Hassell III, Yohandy Morales, and third baseman Trey Lipscomb. Shortstop Phillip Glasser, who was named the Nationals’ Minor League Hitter of the Year and a AA Eastern League All-Star in 2025, will start in AAA for the first time after playing 12 games for the Red Wings late last season.
Then there’s outfielder Dylan Crews, the former second-overall pick who starred for the Red Wings in 2024 before earning a call-up to the big leagues. His time in the majors hasn’t gone as planned, however, as he’s hit .211/.280/.352 while also dealing with injuries. Still only 24 years old, the Floridian and LSU alumnus knows he needs to fix some things to return to “The Show.”
“It’s obvious not what we want, what I want, but I have goals and things that I want to accomplish here-on-out,” he said on Wednesday. “This is definitely not the end of my story, for sure.”
Also returning to the Red Wings are several pitchers, most notably starters Andrew Alvarez and Shinnosuke Ogasawara. They’ll be joined by No. 6 MLB.com Nationals prospect Luis Perales, who arrived in a trade with the Boston Red Sox last year.
Perales is one of six from the Nationals’ Top 30 prospects list on the Red Wings roster, alongside Franklin (18), Pinckney (19), outfielder/first baseman Abimelec Ortiz (24), Morales (28), and the highest-rated prospect on the Rochester squad entering this year, third-ranked Harry Ford.
Like LeCroy was back in his playing days, Ford – acquired in a trade with Seattle – is a catcher. But that’s where the similarities end, according to the Red Wings skipper.
“I wish I was like Harry Ford,” said LeCroy of Ford, a .266/.405/.832 hitter across five minor league seasons who also saw a cup of coffee in eight games with the Mariners last season.
Ford, the son of British-born parents, spent a good chunk of the spring representing his heritage for Team Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic, including hitting a home run against Team Mexico. Between his new arrival in the Washington organization and his time spent in the WBC, his spring has been one of learning and unique opportunities.
“It’s been a good, but definitely a quick turnaround,” he said of his hectic spring training. “I didn’t have a ton of time, but it was all the time I needed to know everyone and to build a relationship on and off the field.”
As for his time at the World Baseball Classic, which saw a huge increase in fan interest and intensity this spring, he believes it has only helped him.
“It definitely teases you a lot, it taught me lessons of just managing a game [from behind the plate], learning how to control certain moments emotionally and on the outside, too,” he said Wednesday. “It was an amazing experience, it was cool getting to play against such high-level competition and to be playing good baseball for most of it.”
Should Ford play good baseball, it might not take too long for him to join the big club. It is also possible that he will be joined by other major prospects in the Washington system, such as Nationals’ No. 2 and No. 5 prospects Travis Sykora and Jarlin Susana, both right-handed pitchers in AA Harrisburg. And that, as ever, is the challenge and opportunity of minor league baseball in general and AAA baseball in particular: ultimately, the roster exists to serve the parent club.
It’s something that LeCroy knows fully. Now in his sixth year with the Red Wings and with a long resume before that, he knows how it works – and what he can focus on.
“I’m sure you’ll see a lot of up and down,” said LeCroy on Wednesday. “For me, we’re going to go about our business the right way, we’re going to work and compete. I’m a big believer in the culture in the clubhouse, and that starts with me.”
“It’s just part of AAA with the roster turnover,” he said. “But with the guys that are here, we’ve got a really good group of men that are athletic, and it’s up to us to try and maximize that through culture.”
The Red Wings begin their 2026 season on Friday at the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins affiliate) at 7:05 p.m. Their home opener comes on Tuesday, March 31, against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Yankees affiliate), with first pitch scheduled for 4:05 p.m.
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