Four Emeralds Named To NWL All-Star Team & Three Take Home Season-Long Awards

EUGENE, OR – Minor League Baseball announced the league award winners and All-Star teams for the three leagues that make up the High Class-A classification in Major League Baseball’s player development system. The Emeralds have four different All-Stars, and won three out of the four season-long awards.

Starting with the All-Stars, the Emeralds had two different hitters and pitchers named to the team. Dakota Jordan was named to the team as an outfielder, and Jhonny Level was named to the team as a utility player. On the pitching side, Jacob Bresnahan was announced as a starting pitcher and Ryan Vanderhei was named as a reliever.

There are four different season-long awards separate from the All-Star team selections. The Emeralds almost completed the clean sweep, winning three out of the four awards. Jacob Heyward was named as the Manager of the Year. Jacob Bresnahan won Pitcher of the Year and Jhonny Level took home the top MLB prospect.

Jacob Bresnahan: For the third straight season, Bresnahan has taken home the Pitcher of the Year award in his respected League. He was named the ‘24 ACL Pitcher of the Year & the ‘25 California League Pitcher of the Year. Bresnahan made his 2026 debut with the Ems on April 26th, and made 20 starts before officially getting called up to the Richmond Flying Squirrels on August 27th. Bresnahan ended the year with a 7-3 record to go along with a 2.92 ERA which was the lowest in the NWL amongst pitchers with 50 or more innings. He collected 118 strikeouts to only 38 walks. He posted a 1.04 WHIP and opposing batters hit just .185 against him. He took home two accolades during the season, winning NWL pitcher of the week on June 21st and was the pitcher of the month in August.

Jacob Heyward: Heyward managed the Emeralds to a 79-52 record, the best in the NWL by 12.5 games. The Emeralds won both the first half and the second half for just the third time by any team in the NWL High-A era. The 79 wins marks the most wins by a first year manager of the Emeralds since 1969 (88 wins managed by Frank Lucchesi) and is just the third time ever a first year manager has reached 79 wins in their first season with the team. Heyward has now won consecutive manager of the year awards, after being named the 2025 ACL Manager of the Year. At just 31 years old, Heyward was the youngest manager in the NWL.

Dakota Jordan: At the time of Jordan’s promotion on July 10th, he was tied for the NWL lead in home runs (18), and led the league in total bases (171), RBI’s (66) and games played (81). Jordan ended his time in Eugene hitting .290 to go along with his great counting stats. His last game in an Ems uniform on July 10th was his most notable, as he hit three home runs in his first three plate appearances at PK Park against the Spokane Indians. He became the first Ems player in the High-A era to complete this feat, and ended the game with 14 total bases which was the most by any player in a game this season in the NWL.

Jhonny Level: Level was named to the All-Star team as well as being named the Top MLB Prospect in the NWL this season. Level appeared in 69 regular season games with the Emeralds, officially making his debut on June 2nd. He hit .302 with eight home runs and 40 RBI’s to go along with 53 runs and 34 extra-base hits. He was a hit machine at just 19 years old, while being the youngest player in the NWL for the majority of the season. He is currently the fourth ranked prospect in the Giants farm system according to MLB Pipeline, and is widely regarded as a top-50 prospect in all of baseball according to most scouting services.

Ryan Vanderhei: Vanderhei was nails out of the Emeralds bullpen to start the 2026 season. After being a reliable arm out of the Ems pen in ‘25, Vanderehi hit the ground running this season. He posted a 4-0 record across 17 outings out of the bullpen to the tune of a 1.71 ERA. He also was perfect on save opportunities and converted all three chances. He struck out 31 batters while allowing only eight walks. He posted a 0.76 WHIP while opposing batters hit just .133 against him. He officially got promoted to the Richmond Flying Squirrels on June 2nd.

2027 season ticket inquiries are available online at: https://www.milb.com/eugene/tickets/2027ticketinquires or by phone at 541-342-5367.

The Eugene Emeralds are the High-A affiliate of Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants. The Eugene Emeralds are dedicated to providing the best in family