Finally, Gwinnett Stripers baseball is back. After 603 days since the last game (Game 4 of the 2019 International League Semifinals at Columbus on September 7, 2019), the Stripers head to Truist Field in Charlotte, NC to begin the 2021 campaign tonight. As Opening Night finally arrives, let’s look at how the 12th season of Gwinnett Stripers baseball will shape up in 2021.

Pertinent Prospects

The Stripers open the year with four of the top 10 prospects in Atlanta’s system (according to MLB.com), including two of the top five. No. 2 prospect Drew Waters made his Stripers debut in 2019, playing 26 games near the end of the season. Waters played at Coolray Field for the Braves’ Alternate Training Site last year. He will try to replicate his success from Double-A Mississippi in 2019, a year in which he won the Southern League batting title (.319) and shared the M-Braves’ Co-Player of the Year award with current Braves outfielder Cristian Pache. The then 20-year-old also earned the SL Most Valuable Player award, the first ever Mississippi player to win the accolade.

On the mound, the Stripers expect to have Kyle Muller (No. 5 prospect), Tucker Davidson (No. 8 prospect) and Jasseel De La Cruz (No. 9 prospect) in their starting rotation. Muller went 7-6 with a 3.14 ERA and led the Southern League with 22 starts with the M-Braves in 2019. Davidson made four regular-season starts with Gwinnett in 2019 (1-1, 2.84 ERA) on top of sharing Mississippi’s Pitcher of the Year award with current Atlanta starter Ian Anderson that season. De La Cruz rose from Single-A Rome to Mississippi in 2019 and will make his Gwinnett debut (along with Muller) this year after spending last year at the Braves’ Alternate Training Site.

Kyle Muller gets Cristian Pache with the high heat 🔥 pic.twitter.com/FdNYbemJiJ

— Bally Sports South (@BallySportsSO) August 15, 2020

Most of this year’s Opening Night roster has been playing since April at Atlanta’s Alternate Training Site at Coolray Field. Like an extended spring training, this has given the team a chance to work together and help each other before the season, according to Davidson.

“We’re all super competitive, we all push each other, we all feed off of each other’s different energy,” said Davidson. “If Muller has a great outing the night before me, I definitely want to top him. Everybody is just feeding off everybody and we like to get on a roll.”

Back in Pinstripes

There are 10 returnees on the Opening Night roster. Headlining that group are starting pitchers Bryse Wilson and Kyle Wright. Wilson made two starts for Atlanta in April (1-1, 5.00 ERA, 9.0 IP), picking up the win in front of a national Sunday Night Baseball audience over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 18 (5.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 SO). Wright pitched the Friday before against the Cubs on April 16 and went 4.1 innings in a no-decision (Braves won the game 5-2). Both hurlers have had great success with Gwinnett in years prior. Wilson finished 2019 with the lowest ERA among qualified starters (3.42 ERA) in the International League. Wright finished 11-4 with a 4.17 ERA in 21 starts with the Stripers in 2019.

Another successful Striper to return is outfielder Travis Demeritte. Demeritte hit .286 with 20 homers and 73 RBIs in 96 games with Gwinnett before being shipped to Detroit at the trade deadline in 2019. He made his MLB debut on August 2, 2019 for the Tigers and hit .225 to finish that season. Demeritte was claimed off waivers by Atlanta in the 2021 preseason after playing 18 games with Detroit in 2020.

New Faces in Gwinnett, Familiar Faces in Baseball

This year’s Opening Night roster includes 21 new Stripers, the most first-time Gwinnett players on an Opening Night roster in the Stripers era. Headlining a few of those new players are MLB veterans, like former Milwaukee Brewers infielder Orlando Arcia and former Chicago White Sox infielder Yolmer Sánchez. Arcia was traded by Milwaukee in exchange for pitchers Chad Sobotka and Patrick Weigel on April 6. He appeared in 59 games for the Brewers last season, hitting .260 with 10 doubles, five home runs and 20 RBIs. Sánchez signed with Atlanta after spring training (played 15 spring games with Baltimore before being released). He logged just 11 games for the Chicago White Sox in 2020 after playing in 149 games in 2019 and 155 in 2018 for the south-siders.

“The veterans are going to be patient,” Davidson said. “They’re going to look for their pitch. They’re going to foul off the good pitches and wait for your mistake. That’s something we’ve had to learn …You have to throw it in the zone and let them hit it.”

Other first-time Stripers include former MLB veterans like Jesse Chavez, Carl Edwards Jr., Trevor Kelley, Ryan Goins, Abraham Almonte and Phillip Ervin.

New League, Opponents and Series format

While Gwinnett continues to be the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, there are plenty of new opponents that fans will see at Coolray Field this summer. The Stripers are now part of the 20-team Triple-A East, which replaces the 14-team International League.

Fourteen of the 20 teams come directly from the International League, including four of the seven in the Southeast Division. However, the Stripers will welcome new division rivalries with the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Memphis Redbirds and Nashville Sounds this season. Jacksonville was promoted from Double-A to Triple-A (Miami Marlins), while Memphis (St. Louis Cardinals) and Nashville (Milwaukee Brewers) join the division from the former Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Old IL foes the Charlotte Knights (Chicago White Sox), Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays), and Norfolk Tides (Baltimore Orioles) are also in the Southeast Division.

Another new aspect of Minor League Baseball is the six-game series format as part of an effort to reduce travel. Instead of playing varying two, three or four game series, the Stripers will stay home or be on the road from Tuesday through Sunday. All teams also share a common off-day, every Monday.

The Stripers will play almost entirely within the Southeast Division this season, with a couple visits into the Midwest Division (two series vs. Louisville and one series at Columbus).

“Having to pitch twice against the same team, that’s going to be a challenge for guys,” said Davidson on the series length. “You might go out and dominate them on Tuesday and then you have to throw against them on Sunday. They know what you’re going to throw. They know the way you set them up earlier that week. You’re really going to have to bear down and execute.”

Goals for the Season

After winning the IL South Division in 2019, the Stripers are seeking their second-straight division title in 2021. Davidson wants to go out and win as many games possible this season.

We’re going to be really good; I think all of us know that,” Davidson said. “We’re just going to go out there and compete. Throw our stuff and be confident. Just keep growing as a team throughout the year …We won a division the last time we played a Stripers season. We have to go back-to-back is what I’m thinking.”

For new manager Matt Tuiasosopo, his focus is to prepare his staff and players for each game.

“We’re going to play with passion, we’re going to play together,” said Tuiasosopo in an April interview with Dave Lezotte. “I hope we bring a lot of joy to the people that have missed this game that love coming and supporting us. I hope that we can put a lot of smiles on people’s faces.”