Woodpeckers 2024 Season Recap

SEASON OVERVIEW: The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (Single-A, Houston Astros) finished their fifth season in franchise history with a 55-75 overall record, an identical win mark to the 2021 and 2022 season and tied for the fewest wins in a single year. Fayetteville broke out to its best start in franchise history, going 15-8 over the first 23 games, before spiraling to a 40-67 record the rest of the way. The late stages of the second half was marred by an 11-game losing streak which tied a franchise record and cost the Woodpeckers a chance to contend for a Carolina League playoff spot. The club produced nine separate three-game winning streaks but was unable to win four in a row at any stage. In the south division standings Fayetteville finished tied for 3rd place over the first half of play followed by a 5th place finish out of six teams in the second half.

LEAGUE LANDSCAPE: The 2024 season marked the Woodpeckers last as a member of the Carolina League south division. The Woodpeckers will switch to the north division at the start of the 2025 season with the new league member Hickory Crawdads (Single-A, Texas Rangers) entering the south. This season Fayetteville went 34-44 against south division opponents and 21-31 in matchups with the north division. Fayetteville won head-to-head series over the Augusta GreenJackets (Braves Affiliate) and Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Cubs Affiliate). The club had a .500 record of 32-32 while at home and a 23-43 record on the road.

HEAD COUNT: 64 total players suited up for the Fayetteville Woodpeckers during the 2024 season. The club sent 35 different pitchers to the mound and started 29 different position players over the course of the year. In total, Fayetteville made 82 different roster transactions encompassing call ups, send downs, and IL stints. Of the 64 players, one was a MLB rehab assignment player in RHP Penn Murfee.

GLOBAL IMPACT: The Woodpeckers welcomed players from five different countries during the 2024 season. 29 ballplayers were from the United States, 21 from the Dominican Republic, seven from Venezuela, five from Cuba and two from Mexico.

WOODPECKERS ON THE MOVE: Across the entire season 14 total Fayetteville Woodpeckers earned a full-time promotion to High-A Asheville. Three pitchers, James Hicks, Ethan Pecko and Alimber Santa, along with position player Yamal Encarnacion even made it all the way to Double-A Corpus Christi by year's end.

YEAR OF THE WALK OFF: The Woodpeckers had a flare for the dramatic, setting a franchise record with eight walk-off victories. On two occasions Fayetteville walked off an opponent twice in a series (vs. Down East 4/23, 4/25) (vs. Columbia 8/2, 8/3). The club won ballgames in a variety of ways including on a walk-off walk, walk-off balk, throwing error, three walk-off singles, a double and home run. Waner Luciano provided two of the game-winning swings, one of an RBI double on August 2nd against Columbia and the other on a mammoth blast to left-center field that defeated Charleston on July 20th. 30 of Fayetteville's 55 wins came in games in which they trailed at one point.

BIG LEAGUE WOODPECKERS: It was a massive year for former Fayetteville Woodpeckers going on to make their MLB debuts. Eight former Woodpeckers have made it to the show since April including Joey Loperfido, Spencer Arrighetti, Zach Dezenzo, Shay Whitcomb and Jake Bloss who received the call from the Houston Astros. In other organizations, infielder Will Wagner made his MLB debut with the Toronto Blue Jays, RHP Chayce McDermott with the Baltimore Orioles and RHP Valente Bellozo with the Miami Marlins. Since the start of the Woodpeckers franchise in 2019, 30 total players have made the full journey to the big leagues.

PECKERS PROSPECT WATCH: 11 of the 30 Houston Astros top prospects according to MLB.com played in Fayetteville this season. The highest on the list was the #8 overall prospect and #2 pitching prospect Anderson Brito, who has launched up the rankings after just 15 pro appearances across three different levels of the farm system. The 20-year-old from Venezuela finished his breakout campaign with Fayetteville pitching to a 2.63 ERA with 38 strikeouts over 27.1 innings.

BREAKOUT BATS: The Woodpeckers had multiple standouts this year at the plate. Notably Kenni Gomez, who paced the club with 87 hits in 87 games, including 23 doubles which tied for the third most in a single season in franchise history. 19-year-old Nehomar Ochoa Jr. led the club with 10 HR over his first full professional season, and Will Bush finished at the top of the team RBI leaderboard with 45. Bush was one of Fayetteville's hottest hitters down the stretch, slugging .489 with an .850 OPS over his final 30 games played. Infielder Trevor Austin finished with the best offensive numbers amongst players from the 2024 signing class, slashing .293/.376/.347 with four doubles and 11 RBI over his first 20 pro contests.

1,000,000 FANS: Segra Stadium reached a major milestone during the final homestand of the regular season. The ballpark, which opened in April of 2019, welcomed its 1,000,000th fan inside the gates for a Fayetteville Woodpeckers game. After five seasons a total of 1,007,704 fans have attended a Fayetteville Woodpeckers game, an average of 201,540 per season.

2025 OUTLOOK: The sixth season in Woodpeckers franchise history begins on Friday, April 5th at home with a three-game series against the Lynchburg Hillcats (Single-A, Cleveland Guardians). It will mark Fayetteville's first season as a member of the north division where they will compete directly with Lynchburg, Fredericksburg, Delmarva, Carolina, and Salem. Stay tuned to fayettevillewoodpeckers.com and Woodpeckers social media platforms for upcoming offseason coverage and updates.