Apr 23, 2024 By Chris Dugan 3 min read

Managers and coaches from the 16 Frontier League teams gathered behind home plate at Wild Things Park Tuesday evening, following a grueling eight hours of baseball on the second day of the league’s annual open tryout, hoping to find the next Ryan Hennen.

Who is Ryan Hennen?

He was a player that Washington drafted at the tryout in 2021. Hennen had not thrown a pitch over the previous three years in anything more competitive than an adult summer league, but the Wild Things’ coaching staff liked his arm and his competitiveness.

All Hennen did was win the Frontier League’s Pitcher of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards that season, and on Sunday he was credited with a save for the Baltimore Orioles’ Class AA affiliate in Bowie (Md.) as it defeated Altoona.

Washington made three selections in this draft, opting for a catcher, pitcher and outfielder.

With the seventh pick in the first round, the Wild Things selected switch-hitting catcher Raul Ortega from Nutley, N.J. In the second round, they chose left-handed pitcher Ken Williams of Renton, Wash., and their final pick was outfielder Sheldon Johnson, who played his high school ball in the WPIAL.

Ortega is needed because the Wild Things have only two catchers on their roster, Ricardo Sanchez and J.C. Santini. Sanchez was signed in the offseason after splitting time between catcher and second base last year for Trois-Rivieres.

Washington manager Tom Vaeth said Ortega should have plenty of opportunities with only three catchers in camp.

Ortega has had a much-traveled career. He played for five college programs – Howard Junior College, Tennessee Tech, Texas-Rio Grande Valley and Illinois-Springfield. He also played in the MLB Draft League last summer for the State College Spikes. He even played in six games in the Cape Cod League in 2021.

“He’s a switch-hitting catcher and we liked what we saw out here from him,” Vaeth said. “He received the ball well and we liked the way he communicated with the pitchers.”

Ortega said he attended a Boston Red Sox workout in New Jersey when it was suggested to him that he should attend the Frontier League tryout. He drove to Washington, went through the first day of workouts Monday, then returned Tuesday for the game-simulation portion of the tryout. During the eight hours, Ortega had only three at-bats.

“I thought I was able to show some of my talents,” he said. “I had a hard-hit ball through the right side, a strikeout against a good pitcher and a walk.”

Williams had played at Arkansas-Fort Smith and with the Black Sox, the team of unsigned free agents who have been based out of Wild Things Park. Johnson played his high school ball at Woodland Hills, graduating in 2018, before going on to Lincoln University in eastern Pennsylvania. Johnson is currently an assistant coach at Woodland Hills.

“I want to play baseball as long as I can,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of guys from my side of Pittsburgh who never got the chance.”

Casey Bargo, a 6-8 right-handed pitcher out of Ball State, was the first pick in the draft, going to the expansion New England Knockouts. Former Point Park pitcher Easton Klein was the sixth pick of the first round – one before Washington – and taken by Tri-City. Bloomsburg University first baseman Ben Newbert was selected by Evansville.