Dragons 2024 Team Preview, Part 3: Second Basemen

The Dayton Dragons will open their 24th season in the Midwest League at Day Air Ballpark on Friday, April 5th against the Lansing Lugnuts at 7:05 p.m. The opening night contest against Lansing is the first of 66 home games for the Dragons in 2024, and the start to a 132-game season. Over the next four weeks, we will provide an eight-part positional preview of the candidates for the Dragons 2024 roster. For Dragons season ticket or group ticket information, go to daytondragons.com/tickets or call (937) 228-2287. Single-game ticket sales will begin on Friday, March 15.

Spring training is currently underway in Goodyear, Arizona and today, the Dragons open their spring training game schedule. The Dragons will be matched up against Lake County, the Cleveland Guardians High-A affiliate. Throughout spring training, players are assigned to workout groups corresponding to each of the Reds four full-season farm clubs, and the assignments are very fluid. If you watched the Dragons game in Goodyear this afternoon, you would probably be more likely to see a group of players more closely resembling the 2025 Dragons than the opening day Dragons for 2024. That is because of the “trickle down effect” coming from player assignments at big league camp. The Reds still have 44 players training with their major league team, and that number will be trimmed to 26 by the end of spring training. That means 18 players will be sent from the Reds to one of their minor league clubs (though some will be released or placed on the injured list). For every player coming down from the Reds to Triple-A Louisville, it also bumps a player to Double-A Chattanooga, and one to High-A Dayton, and then to Single-A Daytona. Thus, the rosters on March 12 for the farm clubs look nothing like they will look on April 5. There are about 165 minor league players in competition for roster spots within the Cincinnati Reds organization. Each Reds minor league team will play a spring schedule through March 31. The Dragons will arrive in Dayton on April 2.

Today, the Dragons starting pitcher is expected to be Jared Lyons, a product of George Mason University in the Atlantic 10 Conference who was drafted by the Reds in the 14^th round in 2022. He pitched for Single-A Daytona last season. He will be profiled in our pitcher preview. Lyons is one of many players competing for a roster spot with the Dragons. Time will tell if he sticks with the Dayton team or returns to Daytona to begin the year.

This is part three of an eight-part series previewing the 2024 Dragons. Players listed here are candidates for positions on the Dragons season-opening roster.

This preview is an unofficial projection of possible roster candidates. Minor League rosters are not established until April 2. Spring training variables including performance, injuries, trades, and additional player acquisitions will impact the roster accordingly.

The Second Basemen

Click links on each name for career stats and player information.

Candidates: Carlos Jorge, Dominic Pitelli.

Carlos Jorge (pronounced HOR-hay) is one of two positions players expected to begin the 2024 season with the Dragons who is ranked as a Reds top-10 prospect (third baseman Sal Stewart is the other). Baseball America ranks Jorge as the Reds #6 prospect while MLB Pipeline places him at #8. Jorge finished last season with the Dragons after spending most of the year with Single-A Daytona.

Jorge signed with the Reds at the age of 17 as an international free agent from the Dominican Republic in January of 2021. He has completed three minor league seasons in the Reds system and has played at an all-star level all three years. His career batting average is .294. Notably, Jorge’s primary position is second base, but the Reds began giving him experience in center field in 2023. Over the second half of the season, he began to play two games per week in the outfield, and that is presumed to continue in 2024.

MLB Pipeline summed up his skills like this: “Jorge has exhibited a solid overall line-drive approach at every stop since signing. He uses the whole field and can drive the ball to the gaps with some extra-base authority. He has plus speed and he’s stolen at least 27 bases in each of his three summers of pro ball heading into 2024.” Baseball America said this: “Jorge has a lot of ways to help a big league club thanks to his versatility, hitting ability, on-base percentage (career .395 mark as a pro), and base stealing prowess.”

Jorge began his professional career with the Reds Dominican Summer League affiliate in 2021 and batted .346 in 47 games. In 2022, he moved up one level to the AZL Reds in Goodyear, and while he hit just .261, he connected on seven home runs in 42 games and his OPS of .934 ranked fourth in the league. He led the ACL in stolen bases with 27, which was 11 more than any other player. Then in 2023, his first year in a full-season league, he started with Daytona and batted .295 in 86 games, hitting nine home runs with an .883 OPS. He moved up to the Dragons for the final month of the season and appeared in 23 games. He got off to a 1 for 14 start and after 16 games with the Dragons he was hitting just .180, but he hit .370 over his last 10 games with a pair of home runs including a grand slam and finished at .239 for the Dragons. Overall in 2023, combining his numbers with Dayton and Daytona, he hit .282 with 12 home runs, 32 stolen bases, and an .838 OPS in his first year of full-season baseball. He is expected to improve greatly in 2024.

NO WAY, JORGE!!! 💪 Back to back nights with a GRAND SLAM for the Dragons! #FeelTheFire pic.twitter.com/5UcHsvq4i4

— Dayton Dragons (@DragonsBaseball) September 7, 2023

Baseball America closed out their profile of Jorge with this: “Jorge wore down in 2023 in his first foray in full-season ball—he had totaled just 89 pro games in his first two seasons—so training to handle the demands of a five-month season is a point of emphasis as he readies to return to High-A Dayton to start 2024.”

Dominic Pitelli is a candidate for a utility infield role with the Dragons and would be a player that could play second base on nights when Jorge is stationed in the outfield. Pitelli was the Reds seventh round draft pick in 2023 out of the University of Miami. Pitelli is a native of Miami who played high school baseball at Doral Academy and led his team to four district championships, two regional titles, and a state runner-up finish. In 2019, Pitelli was one of five rising high school seniors to be invited to the Perfect Game National Showcase at Chase Field in Phoenix and then eventually drafted by the Reds. The others were outfielder Austin Hendrick, pitcher Ty Floyd, first baseman Jack Moss, and catcher Jackson Miller.

Pitelli went on to play college baseball for the Hurricanes at Miami and immediately earned a starting position as a freshman in 2021, starting 50 games at shortstop that spring, though he batted just .219. As a sophomore in 2022, Pitelli started all 60 of his team’s games and showed some improvement at the plate, batting .249 while lifting his home run total from four to eight. Then in 2023 as a junior, Pitelli took a bigger step forward as a hitter, batting .294 with 13 home runs (most of any shortstop in the ACC) in 63 games with 10 stolen bases and an OPS of .905. He earned Atlantic Coast Conference Second Team honors and was one of 25 players selected as semi-finalists for the Brooks Wallace Award, given to the nation’s top shortstop. In the 2023 NCAA Regional, hosted by Miami, Pitelli hit two home runs in four games, including a three-run homer against Texas in the final game, though the Hurricanes lost, 10-6.

After being drafted by the Reds following his junior year at Miami in 2023, Pitelli played briefly for the Arizona Complex League club in Goodyear before being assigned to Daytona. He filled a utility role at Daytona, starting nine games at shortstop, nine at second base, and one at third base. In 21 games with the Tortugas, he hit .203 with one home run and four stolen bases. Pitelli will start the 2024 season in either Dayton or Daytona. He has shown the ability to improve each season, based on his career at Miami.

Baseball America had this to say: “Pitelli has shortstop actions in the middle of the dirt and should stick at the position at the next level, with reliable hands, a quick transfer and plus arm strength. He has impressive body control and balance, with the ability to throw from angles all over the diamond and without his feet set—and he also has an advanced internal clock and knows when to fully let loose with his throws. Pitelli’s offensive performance could create more optimism about a well-rounded game, but he still looks like a glove-first shortstop at the next level who will make all the plays you need and then some.”

Trey Faltine is a third possibility to play some second base with the Dragons in 2024. Faltine, who spent the entire 2023 season with the Dragons, will be previewed at shortstop, his natural position.

Next up: Shortstops