Your 2026 Wilson Warbirds

[Jim Goulart]

WARBIRDS NOTEBOOK: Players come and go — and come back — as season heats up
Amid constant call-ups and returns in their inaugural season, the Wilson Warbirds juggle a shifting Brewers prospect roster, uneven offense, solid pitching and steady crowds
By Paul Durham, Wilson Times

As fans of the Wilson Warbirds become acclimated to the young talent in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, they might want to pay attention because the players might not be here long.

The Wilson roster was set at the outset of Single-A Carolina League play April 3 and didn’t change until April 18 when right-handed pitcher Enniel Cortez went on the Injured List. Since then, the Brewers have made 15 roster changes affecting the Warbirds as players come, go and come again.

Two of the newest Warbirds — outfielder/first baseman Tyler Rodriguez and catcher Rylan Mills — enjoyed a memorable first week in Wilson with homers that led to victories at Wilson Ballpark over the weekend.

Two players on the first Warbirds roster — RHP Garrett Hodges and utilityman Luiyin Alastre — earned promotions to the next rung in the Brewers organizational ladder to High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers over the last few weeks. Two more, catcher Eric Martinez and pitcher Joshua Quezada, were sent to Triple-A Nashville Sounds last weekend. However, Martinez, who just had 19 at-bats in Wilson, has been transferred to the Development List while Quezada returned to Wilson on Monday after throwing 1 1/3 hitless innings Saturday for the Sounds.

Warbirds manager Eddy Morgan is the person who gets to tell the players that they are getting called up and that’s definitely a perk of his job.

“That’s the coolest thing, right?” said Morgan, in his first season of pro ball after two decades as a college head coach in Wisconsin. “You see their face, and they’re like, oh, yeah, this is awesome! Yeah, to me, that’s pretty cool. A lot of people have a lot of influence. It’s just not the manager — coaches, our entire staff.

“I think our staff here is as good as I’ve been around. I know I’ve been in college for a long time, but just talking to people, this staff communicates well. I think we connect with the players really well. And to me, it has everything to do with the staff and (the player) versus the manager. But I get to tell him!”

Hodges, who played at Gardner-Webb University, went 2-1 in Wilson and notched his first victory at Wisconsin on May 13 while Alastre is hitting .310 for the Timber Rattlers after hitting just .160 in 15 games with the Warbirds.

“That’s what they’re all playing for, right?” Morgan said. “And no offense to Wilson — we love it here — but the goal is not to stay in Wilson. The goal is to advance and get to Wisconsin and then to (Double-A) Biloxi and Nashville and the big leagues. So, Hodges was the latest in the way he was throwing the ball. He deserved the call-up now. Ran his fastball to 98 the other day. Very confident. Looks in control. And so, he’s ready for that next stage. And I think we’ll see some more of these guys grow up.”

ATTENDANCE SO FAR

So far, the Warbirds have averaged 2,336 spectators per game with two sellouts (3,700) and Saturday’s game, May 16, with 3,475 in attendance. The smallest crowd so far was 1,003, the opening game of the second homestand.

The average per homestand has decreased from 2,333 in the first six games to 2,202 in the second to 2,164 for this past week.

This week’s games are the first of two back-to-back homestands for the Warbirds in their inaugural season. The next one will run June 30 through July 12 and will be followed by a two-week stretch without games at Wilson Ballpark. The MLB All-Star Game break is July 13-16, then the Warbirds head to Hickory for three games against the Crawdads before going to Charleston for a six-game series starting July 21.

NUMBERS GAME

The Warbirds offense has struggled much of the season with the team ranked last in the Carolina League in hits (248), runs (179), batting average (.202) and slugging percentage (.322) while No. 2 in strikeouts with 429.

However, there are some bright spots in the lineup. Center fielder Jose Anderson has hammered eight home runs, tying him for the Carolina League lead while right fielder Handelfry Encarnacion has slugged six homers. Both are in the top 10 in RBIs with 26 and 25, respectively.

While neither has enough at-bats to qualify for the league leaders, Wilson outfielder/DH Pedro Ibarguen is hitting .315 (23 for 73) and infielder Luis Lameda is batting at a .293 clip (24 for 82).

Wilson’s pitching across the board has been better as the Warbirds rank fifth in both team ERA (4.35) and strikeouts (398) but they have given up a league-high 39 homers, with 24 hit in the cozy confines of Wilson Ballpark.

[Jim Goulart]

Brewers prospect Bonet eager to fulfill family MLB tradition
RHP Jarrette Bonet, from a family of MLB veterans, is turning a strong first pro season in Wilson into a bid to reach the majors on his own terms
By Paul Durham, Wilson Times

While playing professional baseball might be a family tradition for Jarrette Bonet, the Wilson Warbirds pitcher hopes to add to that heritage all the way to the big leagues.

Bonet, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound right-hander, is off to a pretty good start in his first season of pro ball after signing a free-agent minor league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers last summer. Bonet skipped Rookie ball altogether and came straight to Wilson at the conclusion of spring training.

So far, he’s been very impressive at times, if not consistent in his eight appearances, all starts, for the Single-A Carolina League Warbirds. Bonet is 1-2 with a 5.20 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 36 1/3 innings. Opponents are batting .246 against him and his WHIP is 1.35.

Bonet has cooled off a bit after a hot start that saw the Brewers name him their Minor League Pitcher of the Month for April after he went 1-1 with a 3.09 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings.

Bonet said that his success has come directly from hard work.

“I’m working really, really, really hard for this, waiting four years for the opportunities,” he said during a recent interview at Wilson Ballpark. “I’ll be here and there’s hard work every day — like every single day — but I’ll never quit. I think this is the reason I’m doing well right now. I think it’s like, my hard work and I never quit.”

Bonet, who hails from Manati, Puerto Rico, has played baseball in the United States before at San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College as well as with the Trenton Thunder summer collegiate team in the MLB Draft League. He said that experience helped him get to where he is, but the pro game is much different.

“My preparation right now is so much better,” Bonet said. “What I did in college, my first year in college, I was a little lazy, but I feel like here, you can’t do this. You need to work a lot. This is one of the adjustments I do, and I work on my mechanics a lot in the offseason, like in the spring training, too. So, I think it’s everything like this that has helped me a lot right now.”

Bonet was a key member of Puerto Rico’s team in the World Baseball Softball Confederation U18 Baseball World Cup in 2023. He threw 4 1/3 innings of hitless relief to get the win in Puerto Rico’s upset of No. 2-seeded United States. Bonet said that playing for P.R. pitching coach Dicky Gonzalez Baez was a great experience as well.

“He played in Japan, and I talked to him (very much), and he’s helped me a lot, like little things I need to learn,” Bonet said. “I think it’s helped me a lot.”

Bonet comes from a big-league family with uncles Jose Valentin and Javier Valentin playing a combined 26 years of MLB baseball while cousin Jesmuel Valentin played for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2018. All three, like Bonet, are from Manati, a town of less than 40,000 known for its lush tropical beaches. While Bonet hopes to follow in their footsteps, he’s not comparing himself to his relatives — or anyone else.

“No, for me, I don’t feel that pressure,” he said. “But probably, like the people say that you need to be good, like, same or better with your family. But I don’t feel that pressure. I play for me, for my future and for doing better, whether with my family or not.”

While Bonet is eager to climb the ladder in the Brewers organization, he likes the vibe in Wilson so far, especially Wilson Ballpark.

“The park, I think it’s that part of the city is, like, chill,” he said. “I think the teammates here, there’s a lot of good teammates, a lot of good people. I think it feels special here, like, it’s good.”

[Jim Goulart]

 

[MudcatsfaninBrunsCO]

In Brunswick County NC, About an hour from the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Going on Wednesday to pull on the Warbirds!

[Jim Goulart]

WARBIRDS NOTEBOOK: Wilson’s play peaks in 12-game homestand
During a 12-game homestand, the Wilson Warbirds have surged to 23-22 and a tie for second in the Carolina League North behind improved offense, solid pitching and strong clubhouse chemistry
By Paul Durham, Wilson Times

As May heads into June, the Wilson Warbirds are playing their best baseball of the Single-A Carolina League season thus far. Despite coming up short in a 4-3 loss to the Delmarva Shorebirds in the second game of a doubleheader Sunday, May 24, at Wilson Ballpark, the Warbirds went into Monday’s off day with wins in eight of their last 10 games and stand 23-22 (.521) and tied for second place with the Hill City Howlers in the North Division.

“It seems like it’s a different guy, like every game, or a couple different guys,” said manager Eddy Morgan. “It’s not one or two guys carrying us, particularly on the offensive side, even on the pitching side.”

Wilson’s pitching has been solid all season as the Warbirds rank fourth in the Carolina League with 450 strikeouts although their team ERA has slipped to ninth at 4.66.

Jarrette Bonet, who earned the Milwaukee Brewers Minor League Pitcher of the Month for April, has been stellar, if not consistent, while another right-hander, Carlos Carra, has been resilient despite losing his first five decisions. Nearly everyone on the staff has had a lights-out performance along with a not-so-memorable one.

“It’s like different pieces when you have them, when you can get production from your bullpen, from the starters, from up and down the lineup on different days,” Morgan continued, “then I think everybody’s like, hey, if I’m not going well, they don’t necessarily feel the pressure that they have to carry us.”

Offensively, however, is where the Warbirds have improved the most. From ranking at or near the bottom of most significant offensive categories, Wilson sits sixth in runs with 229 and RBIs with 196. The Warbirds are still at the bottom of the league in team batting at .211 and slugging percentage at .335 but the latter number should grow as they settle into hitter-friendly Wilson Ballpark.

Individually, outfielder Pedro Ibarguen and shortstop Brady Ebel have led the May turnaround. Ibarguen now is hitting .314 with a .429 on-base percentage and .442 slugging percentage overall after posting .373/.492/.569 in May so far.

Ebel is hitting .324/.443/.521 with 14 RBIs, two homers and 13 stolen bases so far this month. That boosts the No. 32 overall pick of the Milwaukee Brewers last summer to .242/.388/.362.

Center fielder Jose Anderson leads the Carolina League with 10 homers while ranking fifth with 30 RBIs. He also leads the league with 76 strikeouts.

The Warbirds have shown a penchant for striking out with 477 but that number ranks fourth after Wilson led the Carolina League in that category for much of the early going. Still, the players seem to shrug off the strikeouts.

“For as young as they are, it’s a very mature group,” Morgan said. “They don’t let frustration boil over too much. They don’t have bad body language, for the most part. Where you can see maybe some other teams, when they get down a little bit, it’s like a lot of that.”

DONE WITH DELMARVA

After a home series and an away series against Delmarva, the Warbirds won’t play their North Division foes again in the regular season as a quirk of the Carolina League scheduling.

Wilson will play North foes Hill City and Salem twice more, including the next homestand against the RidgeYaks, after already playing each of them twice. The Warbirds have not met North and Carolina League leader Fredericksburg Nationals but will see them three times starting in late June.

Wilson is playing its first games against a South Division foe as it visits the Myrtle Beach Pelicans this week. The Warbirds will host series against South foes Charleston, Kannapolis, Columbia and Hickory this summer.

‘BIRDS VIBIN’

One aspect of these first Warbirds is their love for the game and affection for one another. Given that they are group of 18-to-22-year-olds thrown together, the camaraderie in the dugout and throughout the clubhouse is evident.

“The clubhouse vibe is really good,” Morgan said. “Seems like they all get along, they’re all pulling for each other, but I got to give kudos to our coaching staff.”

Morgan, in his first season of professional baseball after two decades as a college head coach in Wisconsin, lauded his staff of hitting coach Jose Garcia, pitching coaches Paul Moeller and Jesus Hernandez and bench coach Ricky Carvajal along with trainers Matt Pawlik and Tyler Shumake and strength and conditioning coaches Emily Young and Matt Gallo.

“Jose is doing a tremendous job with the hitters, keeping them nice and calm,” Morgan said. “Ricky, our bench coach, is doing a great job with our infielders and I believe we have the best infield defense in the Carolina League.”

Morgan paused and grinned before bringing up Moeller.

“And then obviously Paul,” he said. “Paul’s a little fighter, so I love it, so he balances us guys up that are pretty stable. He’s doing an accurate job getting those pitchers ready, so, and our trainers, our strength people — I think it just has to be everybody, so not just the clubhouse, but the coaching staff as well. I think we’re all on the same page, and playing on the road is going to be tough, but we’ll see if we get some momentum off this homestand and keep it rolling.”

[Jim Goulart]

Big changes for Warbirds’ Mills since graduating high school a year ago
A year after planning to play college ball at Southeast Missouri State, former Oran High star Rylan Mills jumped from Arizona rookie ball to Single-A Wilson and adjusting to life on his own
By Paul Durham, Wilson Times

Last year about this time Rylan Mills was a high school senior in Dexter, Missouri, preparing for his upcoming graduation from nearby Oran High.

Mills was planning to play summer collegiate baseball in preparation for a career at NCAA Division I Southeast Missouri State University, also nearby. But all those plans changed when the Milwaukee Brewers made Mills an 18th-round pick in last summer’s MLB First-Year Player Draft.

A year later, Mills sat in Wilson Warbirds manager Eddy Morgan’s office at Wilson Ballpark following the team’s Single-A Carolina League doubleheader Sunday, May 24, marveling at the pace his life has taken over the past 12 months.

“It’s pretty crazy, it really is just to look how far I’ve came in a year, and how far the other high school guys have came in a year,” he said. “It’s pretty special to be in this place. Yeah, it’s exciting to see how much things can change in the future, and it just makes me look forward more to the future.”

Mills, who helped Oran win the Missouri State High School Activities Association Class 1 championship in 2024, said that the uncertainty of the draft made college seem more attractive.

“No, I was not 100% on being drafted,” he said. “I didn’t know what that held. So, I was going to school at Southeast Missouri State University, that’s a Division I, just right by the hometown. So, yeah, I wasn’t sure about being drafted, so I went and played summer ball in a collegiate league to try to prepare for college, just because I wasn’t sure what the future held. So I was getting ready to go play at SEMO, and then when the draft came around, I got the call from the scout and then I didn’t really have to think about it much.”

Mills signed with the Brewers last summer as the No. 545 overall pick but didn’t play Rookie League until this spring when he was assigned to the Arizona Complex League. He made the adjustment from high school pitching to pro arms fairly quickly. In just six games in the ACL, which started its season May 2, Mills was hitting .350 (7 for 20) with seven RBIs, two home runs and a .458 on-base percentage.

That was enough for the Brewers to pluck Mills from Rookie League and buy him a plane ticket to North Carolina. When he got the word from ACL Brewers manager Rafael Neda, Mills was excited, to be sure.

“Yeah, I was fired up!” he said. “I really wasn’t sure how this year was going to look, where I was going to be, but I was trying to just be where my feet were and play to the best of my abilities, wherever I was. Then our manager there called me over after a game and told me, and I was kind of speechless, like I was shocked, didn’t really know what to say, so I just thanked him, and he told me I had a flight in the morning, so I went back and packed up my stuff, and then here I am.”

Mills was called up to replace catcher Eric Martinez after he was promoted to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds on May 15. Mills, who joined the Warbirds in the middle of a 12-game homestand, hit a home run in his first game in Wilson on May 17. He added RBI doubles in two games before wearing the collar (0 for 4) in Wilson’s 6-2 loss at Myrtle Beach Pelicans on Tuesday evening.

Heading into Friday’s game at Pelicans Stadium, Mills is batting .211 (4 for 19) in five games with Wilson, with a homer, two doubles and six RBIs. His on-base percentage has dipped to .250 as he adjusts to Single-A pitching. Mills said it’s just a matter of finding ways to succeed at each level.

“Yeah, it’s been tough,” he said of his progression from high school to pro baseball. “It really has, just because each level has its different things. It’s like it’s the same game, but it’s different every time you go up higher. So, even like now, I’m just trying to get adjusted to the differences in the game. It’s easy for the game to speed up, just trying to figure out the way to slow it down.

“It was the same thing in high school — just trying to figure it out — and then I got drafted and was in the ACL. Same thing, just trying to figure out how to slow the game down and just like roll with the punches and just create rhythm, stuff like that. Now I’m here trying to try to do the same thing.”

So far, Mills has impressed his new manager with his moxie and his defensive prowess.

“He’s fearless,” Morgan said of his 19-year-old catcher. “You could tell that from the get-go that he wasn’t going to be overmatched at the plate, that he was going to go in there and get his A swing off. And then defensively, he’s a rock star, and only going to get better. So, we’re excited to have him. Once he gets more games underneath his belt, and I’ll tell you this right here, once he gets rhythm, he’s going to be a force at the plate.”

Mills didn’t stay long in Arizona, which was fine with him, considering the landscape was a bit alien to the Missouri native. But he’s already found Wilson to be to his liking.

“The town, I like the town, it reminds me of Missouri,” he said. “It does, because I was in Arizona for so long, and that couldn’t be any farther from Missouri. So, when I got off the plane out here, I actually sent my mom a picture of trees and grass, and I said, ‘Look, Mom, there’s green here.’

“I just thought that was hilarious, because in Arizona, there’s not really any green. So, being here, I like the town, like I said, reminds me of home, and that’s pretty cool.”

He really likes Wilson Ballpark, the newly constructed downtown stadium that brought the Carolina Mudcats to town to become the Warbirds.

“The park is really nice,” he said. “I didn’t get to experience the Mudcats facility, but I’ve been told this is quite a bit nicer, just the facilities and the field and everything. It’s cool to be able to play here in the first year of it being opened. The facilities are amazing, feels awesome.”

Mills is navigating life on his own, like many people his age, for the first time.

“So it was definitely an adjustment moving hours away from home in a matter of four days — not a whole lot of time to prepare for that — but it’s been fun,” he said of moving to to Arizona and then North Carolina. “Obviously, we have roommates here and stuff — and the same way in Arizona — just getting to experience living on your own and kind of going through that with some other guys.

“When I first got to Arizona, one of the other high school catchers that they drafted, I was rooming with him, so we were both kind of like figuring things out on our own, like how to live on your own, getting out of the house, really, for the first time.”

In Wilson, Mills is rooming with pitcher Jayden Dubanewicz, another recent arrival who did play for the Mudcats at the end of last summer. All the Warbirds players are living at Centro at Pine Nash Apartments just a few blocks from the ballpark.

“I’m with Dubanewicz, which it’s fun being with him, kind of a little bit older guy that’s been through it,” Mills said. “So he’s helping me out a little bit with the stuff that needs help. It’s good, though.

[Ro Mueller]

1 hour ago, Jim Goulart said:

“I’m with Dubanewicz, which it’s fun being with him, kind of a little bit older guy that’s been through it,” Mills said. “So he’s helping me out a little bit with the stuff that needs help. It’s good, though.

Dubanewicz is 3 months and 5 days older than Mills (but a year older in MILB baseball experience, of course). Too funny. Great article. Love the insights.

[snoogans8056]

https://centropinenash.com/

That is the apartment complex they have the players staying at... Dang.

[MudcatsfaninBrunsCO]

On 5/29/2026 at 4:21 PM, snoogans8056 said:

https://centropinenash.com/

That is the apartment complex they have the players staying at... Dang.

How did you figure that out?

[Jim Goulart]

41 minutes ago, MudcatsfaninBrunsCO said:

How did you figure that out?

It's mentioned in the next-to-last paragraph in the Mills article just above.

[snoogans8056]

 

1 hour ago, MudcatsfaninBrunsCO said:

How did you figure that out?

It’s in that article. Pretty sweet setup seeing as guys were staying with host families not too long ago.

Good to see the Brewers taking care of them.

[Jim Goulart]

1 hour ago, snoogans8056 said:

 

It’s in that article. Pretty sweet setup seeing as guys were staying with host families not too long ago.

Good to see the Brewers taking care of them.

Host families are a thing of the past for all organizations as per the relatively new minor league CBA.