Aug 16, 2022 4 min read

There is still plenty of baseball remaining to be played, but if the Frontier League season does not end next month with the Wild Things hoisting their first championship trophy, well, you can’t blame them for not trying.

The Wild Things went all in Monday with several roster moves at the league’s transactions deadline.

One move was signing a relief pitcher who has four wins in Class AAA this year, another was a trade that sent a Frontier League all-star outfielder, who has 22 home runs, to Washington.

The Wild Things signed lefty pitcher Zack Erwin, who was 4-5 this season for the Durham Bulls, the Tampa Bay Rays’ Class AAA affiliate. Erwin is a former fourth-round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox and had pitched in 47 career games in Triple-A before his recent release.

Washington also activated pitcher Rob Whalen off the injured list. That means the Wild Things’ pitching staff has two former major leaguers and a Class AAA guy, all on the active roster.

The move that had ’em talking in the Frontier League Monday night was the trade that sent all-star outfielder Anthony Brocato to Washington in exchange for a player to be named.

Brocato is fourth in league in home runs and brings a .308 batting average to Washington.

It was not a popular trade among the Florence players.

“Some things fell into place and came together at the last second that allowed us to make the moves we did,” said Washington manager Tom Vaeth.

The Brocato trade was completed a mere 18 minutes before the transactions deadline.

The early returns on the Wild Things’ moves were positive. Brocato made his Wild Things debut Tuesday night in the series opener against, of all teams, Florence. He helped Washington a 7-3 victory.

Brocato went 1-for-3 and drove in a pair of runs with an RBI groundout in the third inning and a sacrifice fly in the sixth. He doubled and scored in the fifth.

Ian Walters and Tristan Peterson hit back-to-back solo home runs in the fourth inning that gave Washington the lead for good at 4-3.

The Wild Things scored the game’s final seven runs.

Wagner Lagrange went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs.

Winning pitcher Hayden Pearce (6-5) tossed five innings to defeat Florence for the third time. He gave up five hits and three runs.

Kenny Pierson and Christian James followed with four shutout innings of relief. James pitched the final two innings, striking out four, for his fourth save.

“There are no guarantees about anything we do,” Vaeth cautioned, “but we’ve tried to put us in the best position we could. I do feel like we made the team stronger.

“I definitely wanted another lefthander in the bullpen. That was the move I had been most active trying to make. The Brocato deal came together in the final hour.”

To make room for the new players, Washington released relief pitcher Landen Smith, put center fielder Cole Brannen on the 7-day injured list and pitcher Jake Pilarski on the inactive list.

Notes

Walters left the game in the eighth inning after being hit in the face by a pitch from Florence reliever Karl Craigie. … Florence manager Brian White was ejected in the eighth inning by home-plate umpire Pearson Tahuka for arguing balls and strikes. … Vaeth said Whalen (11-2, 3.35), who leads the league in wins, will start Thursday’s series finale. … The addition of Brocato gives the Wild Things four players — Brocato, outfielder Jared Mang, Walters and Pierson — from last year’s Southern Illinois Miners squad. Southern Illinois ceased operations after the 2021 season.