DAYTON, Ohio — When Dayton Dragons manager Vince Harrison arrives at Day Air Ballpark every day, he’ll walk through the team’s clubhouse to make sure his players are out of their street clothes and into their workout gear.
“Go clock in,” Harrison will tell those still in what they wore to the park.
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It’s not an overbearing statement, but it’s a way to get his message across. There is downtime in the clubhouse, there is food and there is time to hang out, but it’s also a workplace.
“If one of the coaches wants to work with them, I don’t want to ever hear them tell a coach, ‘Let me go get dressed,” Harrison said.
The Dragons, members of the High-A Midwest League, are the second full-season step on the ladder to the big leagues with players ranging from 27-year-old pitcher John Murphy to 19-year-old third baseman Cam Collier. Some of the players are in their first full year of pro baseball, while others have more experience. While it would seem that it’s much further from Cincinnati and the big leagues than the hour drive down I-75 would suggest, Dragons players all gathered last month to watch their former teammate Rhett Lowder make his big-league debut for the Reds.
That mix of youth and proximity is a big reason why Harrison, a graduate of Princeton High in Cincinnati, has made a concerted effort to teach his young team how to be professionals, from their pregame attire and work to how they play on the field.
“When you first get here, you’re just excited to be playing baseball for money,” Harrison said. “Then you start to see the demands are a little bit tougher and the competition is tougher, and for a lot of guys, you’re failing for the first time at a rate that you’re not used to. There are so many things you can’t control, I want them to be able to control the things they can — which is being on time, clocking in when you get here and getting ready to work every day.”
In his first year as the Dragons’ manager, Harrison has helped lead Dayton to its first playoff appearance since 2017. The Dragons will face first-half winners Lake County in the first game of the best-of-three series on Tuesday at Day Air Ballpark. The Dragons won the Midwest League’s second-half title with a 40-26 record and finished with a winning record in each half of the season for just the second time in franchise history.
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The Dragons are one of the franchise’s two minor-league affiliates to advance to the playoffs, with Low-A Daytona starting the Florida State League playoffs against the Palm Beach Cardinals on Tuesday at home. The Florida State League also plays a best-of-three series for the first round of the playoffs.
Both the Dragons and Tortugas have kept their rosters intact for much of the season instead of promoting some of their position players to higher levels later in the season. That was by design, said Jeremy Farrell, the team’s senior director of player development.
“It goes back to something we believe strongly, that winning is part of development,” Farrell said. “When they had an opportunity to fight and get to the playoffs and all the emotions that go with it, we wanted to let them compete. When they get to that point in the big leagues, it won’t be the first time they’ve experienced it.”
CAM COLLIER THREE-HOMER GAME ‼️
The @Reds prospect becomes just the second member of @DragonsBaseball to notch the milestone at Day Air Ballpark!@RedsOnTheRise | @MLBDevelops pic.twitter.com/Qin1PXAJJK
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 24, 2024
Leading the Dragons is Collier, the Reds’ first-round pick in 2022. Collier, who followed Bryce Harper’s lead by graduating early from high school and enrolling in junior college to enter the draft a year early, doesn’t turn 20 until November. The third baseman carried the Dragons in the first month of the season, hitting .298 with seven homers in 20 games. Collier cooled, but then was the Most Valuable Player in the Futures Game before returning to Dayton. He finished the regular season hitting .248/.355/.443 with 20 home runs and 74 RBIs for Dayton, even as the third-youngest player in the league.
Collier said he was never told that he was going to spend the entire season in Dayton, but he didn’t really think about it.
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“I’m cool with knowing that when they think I’m ready, they’re going to get me out of here,” Collier said. “I’d just rather focus on playing and leave that to the people whose job is to make those decisions. You do what you’ve got to do, they’re going to get you out of here. I love their decision, now we’re in the playoffs.”
The Dragons did lose their top hitter, Sal Stewart, to a hand injury in July, as well as catcher Logan Tanner and leadoff hitter Carlos Jorge.
The Dragons also saw their best pitcher, Lowder, promoted quickly, not that it was a surprise to anyone. Collier said it was obvious after Lowder’s first start that Lowder didn’t have much to learn at High A.
The rest of the team, though, has improved throughout the season. Their opponents in the first round of the playoffs, the Lake County Captains, won the first half with a 41-25 record. The Cleveland Guardians affiliate went 7-5 in the first two series against the Dragons this year before Dayton took four of six in August.
Although the August team had a similar roster, the time together had made it a better team.
“It’s something I’ve thought a lot about, even being drafted last year and having the opportunity to play with some of these guys in Daytona, being able to understand these guy’s strengths and how they operate, it’s crucial for this game,” outfielder Ethan O’Donnell said. “I know the range of our infielders, what they can do on different balls. It’s just little things that you don’t necessarily think about, but it’s confidence in guys, and at this point in the season, that’s massive.”
(Photo of Cam Collier shaking hands with Ken Griffey Jr. at the All-Star Futures Game: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)
C. Trent Rosecrans is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Cincinnati Reds and Major League Baseball. He previously covered the Reds for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post and has also covered Major League Baseball for CBSSports.com. Follow C. Trent on Twitter @ctrent
