In 2023, Salem finished 55-72, missing the playoffs. In 2024, Liam Carroll returns for his 2nd season as Salem's manager.
He took a fairly unique path to Salem, which started in London, England (& included a stop at UNLV where he received his B.S. in Physical Education).
Salem plays their home games at Carilion Clinic Field at Salem Memorial Ballpark which opened in 1995 & boasts a capacity of 6,300. Last season, Salem reported an attendance of 177,083 (about 2,789 per game).
Here's the A-Ball history:
Rotation
LHP Connelly Early
RHP Nicholas Judice
RHP Elvis Soto
RHP Luis Cohen
RHP Wandy Abreu
RHP Francis Hernandez
It will be an interesting mix in Salem because a lot of the guys projected for both the bullpen & the rotation have pitched either very little or not at all, including Early & Judice. Elvis is the only one in the projected starting rotation who pitched in Salem last year, pitching 24 pretty decent innings. Wandy was pretty bad in FCL & I wouldn't think they would want him in the A-Ball rotation. Hernandez was a good results, bad underlying guy, & he was mostly a reliever in the FCL last year (14 games, 27.1 innings), so I wouldn't expect him to be in the rotation either. I'm a big LuCo guy, though, & think he was the Red Sox best FCL pitcher last year...which wasn't that high of a bar unfortunately. I would expect the other 2 starters to come from the bullpen group of '23 draftees (Wehunt/O'Donnell/Feeney/Carlson), Mullins, or Stebens who, like Judice, was a multi-inning reliever in college. Willian Colmenares is someone who I would expect to take the Elvis route & be part of the Salem rotation a bit later in the year. Eybersson Polanco is another potential candidate for that mid-season promotion.
Bullpen
RHP Blake Wehunt
RHP Trennor O'Donnell
LHP Hayden Mullins
LHP Zach Fogell
LHP Connor Butler
RHP Garrett Ramsey
RHP Cade Feeney
RHP Max Carlson
RHP CJ Weins
RHP Isaac Stebens
RHP JoJo Ingrassia
The most interesting thing about this projected team are the giants...Wehunt & Judice are 6'8 & O'Donnell is 6'7. Seems good to have a group of large humans to bounce ideas off each other. The main thing is that Salem's pitching this year will be a big indication of the quality of Bloom's last draft class.
Inactive Pitchers
RHP Royman Blanco
RHP Smil Guzman
Not a Blanco guy. Would love to know what happened to Smil...he spent all last year on the Restricted List & I haven't been able to figure it out.
Lineup
C Johanfran Garcia
1B Armando Sierra
2B Marvin Alcantara
3B Antonio Anderson
SS Nazzan Zanetello
LF Caden Rose
CF Miguel Bleis
RF Natanael Yuten
DH Justin Riemer
Bench
C Brooks Brannon
C Daniel McElveney
IF Angel Pierre
OF Albertson Asigen
OF Stanley Tucker
Reserve
OF Karim Ayubi
C - As I mentioned in the Greenville thread, I would like it if Johanfran or Brannon show enough to start the season in Greenville instead of Enderso Lira, but if not, that will be an exciting position to watch. I also wouldn't be surprised if Andruw Musett or Kleyver Salazar push their way to Salem by the end of the year.
1B - Sierra is coming off an ok FCL season (104 wRC+) & it would make sense for him to move up, especially if Albert Feliz does. Sierra can also play corner OF. Johanfran or Brannon may get playing time at 1st, too.
2B - They have Alcantara here, but I would rather see a lot of Riemer until Alcantara gets better at hitting (58 wRC+ in 83 PAs in A-Ball last season). Alcantara can back up at 2B & SS. Pierre could also fit into this mix, & Tucker played 2 games at 2nd for Salem last season.
SS - Nazzan getting time here & in CF makes sense. Alcantara & Tucker can back him up. I also wouldn't mind seeing Fraymi De Leon or Freili Encarnacion in this mix.
3B - Anderson only played 3B (8 games) & DH (4 games) last season, so they seem to have him focused here, & it should be a good lane for him to play most days, backed up primarily by Pierre (and/or Fraymi). They might give him a bit of run at SS or 2B. His plus arm & slower twitch is probably best suited for 3B, though.
OF - Bleis should be out there every day if he's going to be in Salem not Greenville, & then a rotation of Yuten, Rose, Asigen (if he doesn't start in Greenville), Tucker & Ayubi works. Could see Nelly Taylor, Kelvin Diaz & Andy Lugo at some point, too.
How good Salem is will be a pretty good indication of the work Bloom has done in the last 2 drafts in terms of the depth pieces, as well as some of the recent IFA classes. A lot of uncertainty and wide variety of potential outcomes, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.
He took a fairly unique path to Salem, which started in London, England (& included a stop at UNLV where he received his B.S. in Physical Education).
https://www.mlb.com/news/liam-carroll-is-making-international-baseball-history-in-the-minor-leagues
Salem plays their home games at Carilion Clinic Field at Salem Memorial Ballpark which opened in 1995 & boasts a capacity of 6,300. Last season, Salem reported an attendance of 177,083 (about 2,789 per game).
Here's the A-Ball history:
Here is the way-too-early A-Ball roster projections from SoxProspects (https://www.soxprospects.com/2024.htm):
Rotation
LHP Connelly Early
RHP Nicholas Judice
RHP Elvis Soto
RHP Luis Cohen
RHP Wandy Abreu
RHP Francis Hernandez
It will be an interesting mix in Salem because a lot of the guys projected for both the bullpen & the rotation have pitched either very little or not at all, including Early & Judice. Elvis is the only one in the projected starting rotation who pitched in Salem last year, pitching 24 pretty decent innings. Wandy was pretty bad in FCL & I wouldn't think they would want him in the A-Ball rotation. Hernandez was a good results, bad underlying guy, & he was mostly a reliever in the FCL last year (14 games, 27.1 innings), so I wouldn't expect him to be in the rotation either. I'm a big LuCo guy, though, & think he was the Red Sox best FCL pitcher last year...which wasn't that high of a bar unfortunately. I would expect the other 2 starters to come from the bullpen group of '23 draftees (Wehunt/O'Donnell/Feeney/Carlson), Mullins, or Stebens who, like Judice, was a multi-inning reliever in college. Willian Colmenares is someone who I would expect to take the Elvis route & be part of the Salem rotation a bit later in the year. Eybersson Polanco is another potential candidate for that mid-season promotion.
Bullpen
RHP Blake Wehunt
RHP Trennor O'Donnell
LHP Hayden Mullins
LHP Zach Fogell
LHP Connor Butler
RHP Garrett Ramsey
RHP Cade Feeney
RHP Max Carlson
RHP CJ Weins
RHP Isaac Stebens
RHP JoJo Ingrassia
The most interesting thing about this projected team are the giants...Wehunt & Judice are 6'8 & O'Donnell is 6'7. Seems good to have a group of large humans to bounce ideas off each other. The main thing is that Salem's pitching this year will be a big indication of the quality of Bloom's last draft class.
Inactive Pitchers
RHP Royman Blanco
RHP Smil Guzman
Not a Blanco guy. Would love to know what happened to Smil...he spent all last year on the Restricted List & I haven't been able to figure it out.
Lineup
C Johanfran Garcia
1B Armando Sierra
2B Marvin Alcantara
3B Antonio Anderson
SS Nazzan Zanetello
LF Caden Rose
CF Miguel Bleis
RF Natanael Yuten
DH Justin Riemer
Bench
C Brooks Brannon
C Daniel McElveney
IF Angel Pierre
OF Albertson Asigen
OF Stanley Tucker
Reserve
OF Karim Ayubi
C - As I mentioned in the Greenville thread, I would like it if Johanfran or Brannon show enough to start the season in Greenville instead of Enderso Lira, but if not, that will be an exciting position to watch. I also wouldn't be surprised if Andruw Musett or Kleyver Salazar push their way to Salem by the end of the year.
1B - Sierra is coming off an ok FCL season (104 wRC+) & it would make sense for him to move up, especially if Albert Feliz does. Sierra can also play corner OF. Johanfran or Brannon may get playing time at 1st, too.
2B - They have Alcantara here, but I would rather see a lot of Riemer until Alcantara gets better at hitting (58 wRC+ in 83 PAs in A-Ball last season). Alcantara can back up at 2B & SS. Pierre could also fit into this mix, & Tucker played 2 games at 2nd for Salem last season.
SS - Nazzan getting time here & in CF makes sense. Alcantara & Tucker can back him up. I also wouldn't mind seeing Fraymi De Leon or Freili Encarnacion in this mix.
3B - Anderson only played 3B (8 games) & DH (4 games) last season, so they seem to have him focused here, & it should be a good lane for him to play most days, backed up primarily by Pierre (and/or Fraymi). They might give him a bit of run at SS or 2B. His plus arm & slower twitch is probably best suited for 3B, though.
OF - Bleis should be out there every day if he's going to be in Salem not Greenville, & then a rotation of Yuten, Rose, Asigen (if he doesn't start in Greenville), Tucker & Ayubi works. Could see Nelly Taylor, Kelvin Diaz & Andy Lugo at some point, too.
How good Salem is will be a pretty good indication of the work Bloom has done in the last 2 drafts in terms of the depth pieces, as well as some of the recent IFA classes. A lot of uncertainty and wide variety of potential outcomes, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.