Top Prospects Highlight Indians Preliminary Opening Day Roster

NDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Indians, in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Pirates, today announced their preliminary Opening Day roster for the 2023 season. Led by Endy Rodríguez – the No. 22 prospect in Minor League Baseball (Baseball America) – and Opening Day starting pitcher Luis Ortiz (No. 74), the Indians kick off their 121st campaign in franchise history vs. the Omaha Storm Chasers at 7:05 PM at Victory Field.­­

Indy’s daily roster will consist of 28 active players, 10 of whom are rated by Baseball America as top 30 prospects in Pittsburgh’s farm system. Rodríguez (No. 1) and Ortiz (No. 4) represent two of five top 10 Pirates prospects to open the season in Triple-A.

Rodríguez, 22, shined as one of MiLB’s brightest stars in 2022 and was named Pittsburgh’s Honus Wagner Player of the Year after a meteoric rise from High-A Greensboro to Indianapolis. The catcher ranked among full-season minor league leaders with a .997 OPS (5th), 39 doubles (T-6th), .590 slugging percentage (8th), 68 extra-base hits (T-8th) and 270 total bases (T-9th). He made his Triple-A debut on Sept. 20 and logged a .455 batting average (10-for-22), four extra-base hits and eight RBI in six games.

Ortiz, 24, is an electric arm in the Pirates system with a fastball that touches triple digits. In 30 games (29 starts) between Double-A Altoona (24 games/23 starts), Indianapolis (two starts) and Pittsburgh (four starts) last season, the right-hander collected an organization-leading 155 punchouts. His time with the Indians was short but memorable, as his second Triple-A start on Sept. 8 at Omaha featured 6.0 no-hit innings and nine strikeouts to earn him both International League Pitcher of the Week honors and a call from Pittsburgh. Ortiz then dazzled in his major league debut on Sept. 13 (2) at Cincinnati with 5.2 shutout innings.

Other members of Indy’s preliminary roster featured among Pittsburgh’s top 30 prospects include right-handed starters Quinn Priester (No. 5) and Mike Burrows (No. 9), infielders Nick Gonzalez (No. 8), Jared Triolo (No. 15) and Malcom Nuñez (No. 21), and right-handed relievers Carmen Mlodzinski (No. 22), Cody Bolton (No. 23) and Colin Selby (No. 26).

Pitchers (18):

RHP Cody Bolton, RHP Mike Burrows, RHP Osvaldo Bido, RHP Tyler Chatwood, RHP Yerry De Los Santos, RHP J.C. Flowers, RHP Carmen Mlodzinski, RHP John O’Reilly, RHP Luis Ortiz, RHP Quinn Priester, RHP Yohan Ramirez, RHP Hunter Stratton, RHP Colin Selby, LHP Cam Alldred, LHP Kent Emanuel, LHP Angel Perdomo, LHP Caleb Smith, LHP Daniel Zamora

Position Players (15):

C Tyler Heineman, C Grant Koch, C Endy Rodríguez, INF Josh Bissonette, INF Nick Gonzales, INF Mark Mathias, INF Malcom Nuñez, INF Chris Owings, INF Aaron Shackelford, INF Jared Triolo, OF Miguel Andujar, OF Cal Mitchell, OF Travis Swaggerty, OF Chavez Young, UTIL Tucupita Marcano