Dayton Dragons 2023 Preview, Part 1: the Catchers

March 1, 2023 – Midwest League (MWL) – Dayton Dragons News Release

Dayton Dragons catcher Mat Nelson
(Dayton Dragons)

The Dayton Dragons will open their 23rd season in the Midwest League with a road series at the Lake County Captains in Eastlake, Ohio beginning Thursday, April 6th at 6:35 p.m. The Dragons annual home opening night game at Day Air Ballpark is scheduled for Tuesday, April 11th against the Great Lakes Loons at 7:05 p.m. The home opener on April 11 is the first game of a six-game set with Great Lakes, and the first of 66 home games for the Dragons in 2023. Over the next four weeks, we will provide an eight-part positional preview of the candidates for the Dragons 2023 roster.

By this weekend, the Reds will have 160 minor league players at their spring training camp in Goodyear, Arizona. That total includes 49 players who were brought in for early work in mid-February. The Reds remaining minor league pitchers and catchers reported to camp on February 24, and all remaining position players will report on Friday, March 3. Additionally, the Reds currently have 66 players training at their major league camp in Goodyear, and with a major league opening day roster limit of 26, that potentially could result in another 40 players from big league camp eventually being assigned to a Reds minor league affiliate (the number will not be quite that high due to injuries or releases). That means there are approximately 200 players competing for jobs with one of these Reds four full-season affiliates:

Louisville Bats (Triple-A)

Chattanooga Lookouts (Double-A)

Dayton Dragons (High-A)

Daytona Tortugas (Single-A)

Each Reds minor league team will play a spring schedule from March 13-April 2. The Dragons will arrive in Dayton on April 3.

Some players who do not earn spots on any of the four affiliate rosters will continue to work at the spring training complex in Arizona in what is commonly referred to as “Extended Spring Training,” playing an informal schedule against players from other organizations before a fifth Reds farm club, the Arizona Complex League Reds, begins its season in June.

Again this season, all 132 Dragons games (home and road) can be heard on radio on WONE 980 AM, on the internet at wone.com, and via the Dragons Mobile App. The Dragons will again televise 25 games on the Dayton CW.

This is part one of an eight-part series previewing the 2023 Dragons. Players listed here are candidates for positions on the Dragons season-opening roster.

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