Dragons 2025 Team Preview, Part 4: Shortstops

The Dayton Dragons continue preparations for their historic 25^th season at Day Air Ballpark. The Dragons home Opening Night game is set for Tuesday, April 8 against the Fort Wayne TinCaps at 7:05 pm at Day Air Ballpark. The Dragons will officially open their season on the road in 2025, four days prior to their home opener, when they battle the West Michigan Whitecaps in Grand Rapids, Michigan at 6:35 pm on April 4.

The Dragons will open their 25^th season with a special game on March 25 when the Cincinnati Reds battle a team of minor league prospects in Dayton at 6:10 pm. Minor League spring training games are ongoing in Arizona and continue through March 29. There are roughly 180 minor league players currently in competition for roster spots within the Reds organization in Arizona.

This is part four of an eight-part positional preview of the candidates for the Dragons 2025 roster. 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 1. Spring training variables including performance, injuries, trades, and additional player acquisitions will impact the roster accordingly.

For Dragons season ticket or group ticket information, go to daytondragons.com/tickets or call (937) 228-2287.

The Shortstops

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

Candidates: Sammy Stafura, Leo Balcazar

Sammy Stafura looks like a strong candidate to be the Dragons everyday shortstop this season, and if the opening night roster does include Stafura, he would be the most highly-ranked prospect on the team, at least among position players.

Stafura, just 20 years old, is rated as the #8 prospect in the Reds organization. He was selected in the second round of the 2023 draft out of Walter Panas High School in Cortlandt Manor, New York, about 40 miles north of New York City. Stafura was the Gatorade High School Player of the Year for the state of New York in 2023, when he batted .516, and was committed to play at Clemson.

Many observers felt Stafura would be a late first round draft pick in 2023, but the Reds got him with the fourth pick of the second round and signed him for $1.6 million. Not many high school players from northern states are taken that highly. Stafura was just the third high school hitter from New York taken within the first 50 picks of the draft in the last 10 years.

Stafura’s scouting report describes a well-rounded shortstop. He projects to be at least major league average in every area. His best tool is his speed; he is blazing fast. Baseball America referred to him as “a bouncy, quick-twitch athlete…has added size, strength and speed while retaining his athleticism.” Stafura is now listed at 6’0”, 201 lbs. Defensively, he has the range and arm strength to remain at shortstop all the way up the minor league ladder to the big leagues.

As a 19-year-old in his first professional season in 2024, Stafura began the year with the ACL Reds in Arizona, playing against a level of competition similar to his own age and experience. He tore up the league, batting .345 with seven extra base hits including two home runs in his first 15 games, and that was good enough for the Reds to move him up a level to Single-A Daytona in the Florida State League. He spent the rest of the 2024 season there and more than held his own in a very tough league for hitters while batting against pitchers who were typically 2-4 years older than he was. While the league average in the Florida State League in 2024 for hitters was just .229, Stafura hit .255 and belted six home runs in 77 games. His OPS of .754 was better than the league average of .679. He also stole 31 bases in 2024 between Daytona and the ACL, playing in a total of 93 games. Stafura has played in three Major League spring training games for the Reds this month and is 3 for 6 with a home run.

In conversations with Reds minor league infield coordinator Jose Nieves last season, Stafura’s name frequently came up. Nieves, the Dragons manager from 2013-2015, raved about Stafura’s mental makeup, competitive fire, leadership, maturity, and overall intangibles, describing them as being completely off the charts. Stafura visited Dayton this winter as part of the Reds Caravan tour.

At this point, Stafura would rank as the Reds second best shortstop prospect, behind only 2023 Dragons infielder Edwin Arroyo. Of course, the Reds have a player in the big leagues that they hope will be the shortstop for many, many years in former Dragon Elly De La Cruz, but they will still look to develop Stafura at his natural position for the foreseeable future.

As stated in our second base preview, there is also a chance that 2024 Dragons shortstop Leo Balcazar could return to the Dragons in 2025. Balcazar will be in competition this spring to make the roster at Double-A Chattanooga, and if he makes it there, as some expect he will, he will probably move to second base while Arroyo plays shortstop. If Balcazar does return to Dayton, he could play shortstop with Stafura starting the year back in Daytona, or Balcazar could play second base for the Dragons alongside Stafura in the middle infield.

Balcazar was coming off a serious knee injury in 2024 and made the jump to Dayton from Daytona as a 19 year old. It took him several months to really settle in. At the all-star break in July, Balcazar’s batting average stood at just .232 without a single home run on the year in 61 games. At that point, it seemed to be a virtual certainty that Balcazar would return to Dayton in 2025, hoping for better results. But as his knee got better, his performance dramatically improved in the final months of the 2024 season. From July 19 through the end of the season, Balcazar hit .309, and he connected on six home runs in 41 games. His slugging percentage over those final seven weeks was a very strong .475.

I think it could be a close call for the Reds and farm director Jeremy Farrell, but my best guess at this point is that if everyone is healthy, Balcazar will start at second base in Chattanooga with Stafura in Dayton at shortstop, Peyton Stovall at second base for the Dragons, and Victor Acosta in a utility role here. But I will not be surprised if Balcazar is back in Dayton and one of the two up-and-comers (Stafura or Stovall) starts back in Daytona.

Next up: Third Basemen