BY DAN GLICKMAN
On Tuesday, the Rochester Red Wings played their first game of the second half of the 2026 International League season. It continued a trend: winning.
The Red Wings in the Nationals era have often struggled. While there have been moments to remember, big-time prospects to come through, and historic games, the results on the field have often left something to be desired. Only once since the Nationals took over the Red Wings roster after Major League Baseball’s controversial rearranging of Minor League Baseball during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21 has the team finished above .500 (77-71 in 2024).
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That has made the 2026 Red Wings quite the change of pace, at least through the first half, as they went 45-28 to finish 17 games over .500 in the opening part of their schedule, only to finish a heartbreaking one game back of a playoff spot to the Memphis Redbirds in the International League’s split-season format. Even Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy – a man who will stand up for and find the positive in almost all of his players – recognized it.
“I don’t think last year we won [45] games until maybe August,” he said after Sunday’s loss.
Although the Red Wings came up short, it was still a very memorable first half. The Red Wings at one point won 11 straight games – their longest such streak since 1992 – and had some notable games, including a comeback from down 7-1 and a historic game that saw them score 11 runs in a single inning en route to a 14-1 victory.
It also had memorable players, some of whom weren’t expected.
In sharp contrast to some previous squads, such as the 2024 team that saw much of their production come from big-time prospects like James Wood and Dylan Crews, this season has seen the Red Wings led by less-heralded stars like first baseman Abimelec Ortiz (No. 25 prospect for the Washington Nationals on MLB.com Pipeline) and corner infielder Yohandy Morales (No. 28 Nationals prospect on MLB.com Pipeline). Ortiz hit .249/.349/.498 with an .847 OPS in the first half and was among the team’s top power-hitters with 13 home runs (tied for second on the team) and 52 RBI (tied for third in the International League). Morales, meanwhile, was among the best players in the league in the first half, period: his .320 batting average was fourth in the league, his .951 OPS was fifth, his 16 home runs were tied for seventh, and his 47 RBI were tied for ninth.
Another key contributor, right-handed starter Chandler Champlain, has had perhaps his best year as a pro, going 5-1 with a 3.43 ERA in 13 games this season, an unexpected improvement, as he went 4-9 with a 7.84 ERA in AAA Omaha (Royals organization) in 2025. With Andrew Alvarez called up to the big leagues and Riley Cornelio being used primarily as a long reliever, Champlain, in many ways, has taken the role of ace for the club, and his ERA is second in the IL among qualifying starters.
That isn’t to say the Red Wings have lacked prospects this season. Shortstop Seaver King (No. 6 Nationals prospect), catcher Harry Ford (No. 7 Nationals prospect), and pitcher Luis Perales (No. 9 Nationals prospect) have all been with the team for periods of time. King, who arrived in Rochester in May, almost immediately made an impact, hitting .290/.336/.495 in the first half with an .831 OPS and five HR in 26 AAA games. Ford had underperformed through much of the season so far, but had hit better in each passing month, although there is some worry about his health after he was hit by a pitch on the head in the second half opener. Perales has become a regular part of the rotation as his pitch count has increased as he works his way back from an injury suffered during his time in the Boston organization.
Other key players in the opening half were utilityman Trey Lipscomb (tied for second on the team with 13 home runs), second baseman Phillip Glasser (.290 batting average), and Brady House, who slashed .283/.314/.434 in the first half since being sent down by Washington, and has remained an excellent defensive third baseman.
Long a liability for the Red Wings, this season, the Red Wings’ bullpen was a strength in the first half. Eddy Yean finished the half tied for the league lead in saves with nine and was a workhorse with a league-leading 34 appearances. Andre Granillo tied for the league lead in holds, with seven, while Jack Sinclair tied for fourth with six. Red Wings relievers had a 4.19 ERA in the opening half, the fourth-best in the league, and held opponents to a .237 average, tied for fifth.
While it’s likely, as always happens in Minor League Baseball, that there will be roster turnover throughout the rest of the season, there is some reason to believe the Red Wings will be able to weather it better than in some years. Part of this is because of depth: Glasser, despite being one of the team’s leaders in batting average, doesn’t play every day and is often in the lower part of the order when he does play. As another example, the team has several quality outfielders but only three spots to put them in each game.
Another possible reason for optimism: AA Harrisburg. Although the Senators finished their first half under .500 at 34-35, the squad featured eight players on MLB.com Pipeline’s top 30 prospects list for the Nationals. While the two most prominent on that list (pitchers Travis Sykora and Jarlin Susana) have dealt with injuries most of the season and some, like slugging infielder Devin Fitz-Gerald, have struggled since making the jump earlier in the year from A-ball, it’s likely that at least some of Harrisburg’s best players will make the leap to Rochester in the second half. In fact, some of them already have, with King, reliever Robert Cranz, and infielder-turned-reliever Erick Mejia joining the Red Wings this season.
But whether it’s the team Rochester has now or the one it ends up with, the second half is underway. The Red Wings will need to either finish with the best record in the league over the half or finish with the second-best record for the whole season, in a scenario where Memphis again wins the half, in order to qualify for the playoff series, which will be held in Memphis in September. The Red Wings could, in theory, finish the season with the best record overall in all of the league and miss the playoffs, for example if they finish second again, but to a team other than Memphis.
It’s not a system that LeCroy – and several others – like, but it’s the system they are left with:
“It’s really frustrating, as an organization, as far as player development, that the playoff system is the way it is,” he said Sunday. “I mean, there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t have that type of power, but it’s kind of frustrating when you have a team that’s where we’re at in our overall record and can’t get in, so we have to rely on the second half. But it’s just the way it is.”
But it’s something Lecroy is prepared to lead his team through:
“We’ll fight [through] the challenge, and hopefully win the second half,” he said.
The Red Wings continue their first series of the second half on Wednesday in Charlotte at 7:04 p.m. Champlain is scheduled to start against Charlotte righty Mason Adams.
excellent summary Dan. Yes there is much to like about the 2026 Red Wings. It was just so darn deflating to see them crash and burn Sunday, when it mattered most. And a pox on MLB for what they have done to AAA baseball. When does winning your division end up counting for nothing when it comes to post season?
Having said that, the only ‘disagreement I have is the bullpen. The 4.19 ERA notwithstanding, the ‘eye test’ tells a different story. You have to be good when it counts the most and last week they were not good and they cost the team a shot at the playoffs. I question LeCroys management of the pen as well, but we have already discussed that. The main (perhaps the ONLY) job a reliever has in baseball life is to come into a game ready to throw strikes. Walks and long counts are death in the late innings of close games. How often does a leadoff walk turn into a game tying or game winning run. How many full counts does it take before a reliever is burned out?
We saw a ton of that toward the end of the first half. Being unable to throw strikes has to be the bane of all manager’s existence. And going 0-2 on a hitter only to see the count go full, then foul ball after foul ball, followed by a walk, or a meatball right down the middle hammered 450 feet is bad baseball.
The truth is our hitters made our bullpen look better than it really was. Wings were able to score a lot of runs. They ran out of magic Sunday when even our most reliable hitters simply failed; our young starter didn’t have it; and the only reliever who could get batters out was removed after only 2 solid innings.
I don’t think this pitching staff can sustain another big run, but I’d like to be wrong of course. In the last 3 games they have allowed 28 runs. Last night they were crushed 10-2. Night before our 10-2 lead became a very shaky 10-9 win. Sunday they were never in the game at all.
Gnats will probably hang around the final wild card this season so they may tinker with our roster more 2nd half. Major props to our fans, who showed up in real decent numbers during the Toledo series. Meanwhile in Memphis, the crowds were tiny. Life often isn’t fair. When will it be our turn again?
There has been lots of talk about Dylan Crews ‘finally ready to take his place in the majors’. His numbers since being recalled are not very impressive overall. However he has shown a bit of an uptick over the past 13 games, going 13-52 (.250) and getting hits in 10 of those games. Those aren’t eye-popping numbers for sure but maybe its a sign that he is slowly starting to figure it out.
Nats will probably not send him down again unless he really starts to struggle. while in Rochester to start the season, he was just ‘ok’. He didn’t set the league on fire.
Time will tell if he is the goods, or just another highly touted prospect who just didn’t make the grade.