The 2024 Long Island Ducks finished 64-62 and missed the playoffs. With turnover in the roster, the same goal applies for Ducks’ skipper Lew Ford – getting back to the playoffs and winning a championship.
“I hope that we can keep everybody on the field,” Ford said. “The beginning of the year last year, we had a lot of turnover, but that’s the goal this year, to keep everybody on the field and healthy. We got a great team right now, and we want to make sure everybody is ready to go on Opening Day.”
The Ducks’ roster is headlined by starting pitcher John Gant and infielder Seth Beer. Gant played six seasons in Major League Baseball. He spent his first season in Atlanta with the Braves in 2016, then spent the next four-and-a-half years with the St. Louis Cardinals, before playing for the Minnesota Twins midway through his sixth season in the bigs.
“I’m very excited this year about the roster we put together, especially two of our veteran guys, here [Gant and Beer],” Ford said. “I think we have a balanced roster this year: pitching, speed, and defense. The game is moving a lot towards speed. Last year, I think our team stole 190 bases, and we’re looking to build off of that this year and really focus on it. We’re going to have back J.C. Encarnacion, who stole 39 bases, was our leader on the team.”
Gant pitched to a 3.89 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, and struck out 325 batters in 173 games. In 372.2 innings of work, the 32-year-old had a 24-26 record.
Zach Plesac is also in the rotation for Long Island. Plesac spent six years in the majors, the first five with the Cleveland Guardians. In 2024, the 30-year-old played for the Los Angeles Angels before heading cross-country to Long Island.
In 478.2 innings of work, Plesac fired a 27-28 record, 4.31 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, and sent 364 batters packing.
“Our pitching staff, we have really looked for guys that can throw strikes, that have pitch ability more than just being throwers,” Ford said. “We have a whole roster of guys that know how to pitch, but we’re still going to have definitely some guys that can light up the radar gun in there too. That’s the focus this year: Limiting free base runners and making the other team work.
“We have some power in the middle of the lineup with Seth and Mark Mathias. If you look at our lineup, we have 10 guys that’ve gone double-digit home runs and stolen bases – very balanced on the roster side.”
Ford added that the Atlantic League, along with MLB, has moved toward speed, and he decided to combat that by adding a player who can gun down runners on the basepaths.
“We wanted to have a catcher who can stop the running game, which is Justin O’Connor,” Ford said. “He’s thrown out 44% of runners in his career and 49% last year. We’re going to be ready for stolen bases.”
Beer played 43 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks over the course of the 2021 and 2022 seasons. In 120 Major League at-bats, he slashed .208/.294/.292 with 25 hits, two home runs, and 12 RBI.
“For me, it’s an opportunity at a very high-level place to play baseball to get back into affiliate – get back to the big leagues and to prove throughout an injury-plagued career towards my big league stint to show that I’m healthy,” Beer said. “What a great group of guys and a great clubhouse. They run a really tight ship over here and I’m very, very impressed.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint a team’s identity when they haven’t played any meaningful games yet, but every coach has an identity he’d like their ballclub to fulfill.
“I would love to see speed, our guys running around the bases and causing problems for the other team,” Ford said. “Some pitching and defense. Pitchers having quick innings and going deep in games, shutting guys down, and never letting up on anybody, no matter what the score is. That’s what I would love to see.”
The Ducks’ opening day is April 25, at home. The first pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. ET from Fairfield Properties Ballpark.
