2026 Naturals in Review: Breaking Records and Breakout Seasons

The 2026 season has come and gone, but before we wait for the 2027 Naturals to take the field, let’s look back at some of the top performers and performances of the year that was. From record breakers to breakout prospects, this year’s Naturals team had some standouts.

OF Carson Roccaforte finished the year amongst the league leaders in a handful of categories. The lefty was the first player in Naturals history to steal 20 bases and hit at least 20 homers in club history. He finished second in the Texas League with 30 home runs, seventh with 80 RBI, fifth in slugging at .523, ninth in OPS at .856, while tying for the league lead in triples with five. His 30 home runs are the second-most in a single season for a Naturals hitter, just one shy of the team record from Matt Fields in 2013. He also set the record for lead-off homers in a season, getting the Naturals on the board in the opening frame six times. His 35 career homers with NWA (2026-26) are the fourth-most in club history. Carson had his toolkit on full display all year in the outfield, playing in 102 games without an error to earn the Frank White Defensive Player of the Year award for the third straight year. Roccaforte was promoted to AAA Omaha in mid-August.

UTL Sam Kulasingam could play almost anywhere in the field, getting reps at first, second, third, left, and right fields. The switch-hitter was a weapon at the plate, too, slashing .249/.370/.396 with 12 home runs. He also set a new team record, walking 85 times in 2026. That bests Kila Ka’aihue’s old record of 80 from the 2008 team, the first season in Naturals team history. His walk total was the second-highest in the Texas League this year while scoring 82 runs, the sixth-most on the circuit. On September 6 in Little Rock, Kulasingam tied the team record for hits in a game (6) while breaking the team record for RBI in a single game after knocking in eight runs during a record-setting offensive performance by the entire team. Kulasingam finished the season with the Naturals.

OF Luke Pelzer joined the Naturals from High-A Quad Cities in July and took the Texas League by storm. From July 21 (when he made his AA debut) until the end of the season, Pelzer had the fourth-most hits in the league with 55. He also stole 14 bases, good for the seventh-most on the circuit. It didn’t take long for Luke to get comfortable at the plate. The lefty reached base safely in each of his first 19 games, the team-high until Kulasingam’s walk-off hit on the final day of the season. He also posted a 12-game hit streak from July 29-August 14, the longest of the season for an NWA hitter this year.

IF Brett Squires started off the year hot and didn’t spend a lot of time in Northwest Arkansas because of it. The big lefty earned both the Mike Sweeney Community Impact Award and the George Brett Hitter of the Year distinction after slashing .277/.351/.549 across AA and AAA this season. Squires hit 31 homers, the second-most in the entire organization behind Carson Roccaforte. Squires played in 32 games for the Naturals before his promotion to Omaha, batting .324 with six home runs.

INF Jack Pineda finished the year with a .351 batting average between Northwest Arkansas and AAA Omaha. That was the second-best in all of Minor League Baseball for any player with 300 or more plate appearances for the season. The left-hander thrashed the Texas League, batting .371 over 59 games with the Nats while hitting seven of his career-high nine home runs with NWA. Pineda was on base at a .443 clip with NWA, playing three infield positions at a high level as well.

OF Rudy Martin Jr. started the season with the Naturals, his fourth tour with the team after returning in 2025. Martin was a spark plug for the offense, slashing .261/.396/.406 with six home runs over 49 games before his promotion to AAA Omaha. After a brief stint with the Storm Chasers, Martin was traded to the Baltimore Orioles, where he was placed on the 40-man roster and then designated for assignment a few days later. The Toronto Blue Jays picked the 30-year-old up and stashed him in AAA. On September 11, after a 12-year career through the minors and international play, Rudy was called up to make his MLB debut. He appeared as a pinch runner the first night before starting in center field the next, earning a walk. Martin’s ascent to the big leagues was one of the most talked-about stories in baseball that week, with heaps of praise for his grit and perseverance.

RHP Drew Beam entered the season as the highest-rated Royals prospect on the Naturals roster. The University of Tennessee product was the horse of the staff, leading the team with 26 starts and 129.0 innings of work. Beam just missed a triple-digit strikeout season with 99 punchouts on the year, but 10 of his starts went 6.0 innings or more. All of those outings were quality starts, meaning he went at least 6.0 innings while holding the opposition to three earned runs or less. Beam walked two or fewer batters in 20 of his starts this year; that’s 77%. He finished third in all of AA baseball in innings pitched and tied for first in the league in innings and starts while tying for second in the Texas League in wins. Beam finished the year with a 9-11 record and a 6.49 ERA, pitching entirely for Northwest Arkansas.

LHP Hunter Owen made some history of his own late in the year. The southpaw out of Vanderbilt was in his second season with the team and took off, finishing his last six starts with the Naturals with a 2-1 record and a 1.64 ERA. The lefty struck out 53 over 33.0 innings with just 16 walks while holding opposing batters to a .188 batting average. Owen reached his career-high in strikeouts (9) twice before making a historic start on August 15 in Springfield. The big lefty struck out 12, the most he’s collected in his career, over 7.0 shutout innings while holding the Cards to one hit. The dozen strikeouts are the second-most in a single game in club history, falling one shy of Danny Duffy’s franchise record of 13 from 2013. It was the first time since his Naturals teammate, Steven Zobac, punched out 12 on the road against the Amarillo Sod Poodles in 2024. Hunter struck out 45 total hitters in August, the fifth-most in all of professional baseball. Owen was promoted to AAA Omaha at the end of the season.

Another LHP in Hunter Patteson, turned the corner in 2026 as well. Patteson made 22 appearances and 21 starts for the Naturals this year, going 7-5 with a 4.52 ERA. Over his last 12 outings, Patteson really locked in. He was 5-2 with a 3.52 ERA while holding opposing hitters to a .216 batting average. Patteson was promoted to AAA Omaha on August 18.

Two players who finished the season strong were infielders Justin Johnson and Connor Scott. Scott became a primary first baseman for the first time in his career, making 56 starts at the position after having played just twice in the spot since his pro career began in 2018. Scott had a .990 fielding percentage for the year and while that was impressive, the way he closed out the season at the plate opened eyes. Heading into the month of August, “Scooter” had a .185 average for the season. Scott batted .310 over his final 29 games, raising his average to .231 for the year.

Johnson was another infielder who got hot at the perfect time to finish strong. Praised for his dynamic and high-energy style in the field, Johnson set a career-high in homers with NWA in 2025 after mashing eight long balls. Ahead of July 26, the righty had just two homers and was batting .132. From that point on, “JJ” hit .313 with 11 home runs in his final 36 games, boosting his season average to .205 while setting a new career mark with 13 blasts for the season. He finished the season third on the team in home runs behind Roccaforte (30) and Jorge Alfaro (14).

The Naturals had some big moments as a team, too. In the final road game of the season, the Naturals offense erupted while at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock, AR, with a 24-4 win over the Travelers. The 24 runs are the most in a single game in franchise history, surpassing the previous record of 21. NWA's 29 hits blew past the previous high of 22, which was also set against the Travelers on May 22, 2010. The team's 23 RBI also breaks the old high-water mark of 20, accomplished twice in 2013 and 2022. The Naturals had 48 total bases, breaking the old record of 40 set on May 22, 2010 against the Travs and tied on August 2, 2026 against Tulsa.

NWA finished the season with 10 walk-off wins. It’s the third time in team history the Nats have had that many in a single year and the first time since 2019. They were just one shy of the team record set in 2009. Three of those finishers were thanks to walk-off homers, which tied the team record for the fourth time. The 2009, 2014, and 2022 teams all had three walk-off home runs. For the first time in club history, they also had a walk-off grand slam. Carson Roccaforte’s bases-loaded blast on June 6 against Midland was the first time in NWA history a granny ended a game with the Nats getting the win. The 10th walk-off win came in the season’s final game with a gutty comeback in the ninth inning against Tulsa, while Sam Kulasingam tied the final ribbon of the season with an RBI single to end the 2026 Naturals campaign with a 5-4 win.