The 2026 season for the Double-A Akron RubberDucks begins Thursday.<\/p>\n
The RubberDucks released a preliminary roster today. Before we get started, some names are missing primarily due to injuries. They include pitchers Rodney Boone, Zach Jacobs, Davis Sharpe and Carter Spivey and position player Jonah Advincula. Here are the active players we have so far:<\/p>\n
Alaska Abney RHP, Dylan DeLucia RHP, Caden Favors RHP, Josh Hartle LHP, Matt Jachec RHP, Jack Jasiak RHP, Reid Johnston RHP, Zane Morehouse RHP, Carter Rustad RHP, Hunter Stanley RHP, Khal Stephen RHP, Adam Tulloch LHP, Matt Wilkinson LHP.<\/p>\n
From the looks of things, the starting rotation will be a major strength of the team early on as it will feature one of Cleveland\u2019s top pitching prospects in Khal Stephen, who was acquired from Toronto in the Shane Bieber trade. Also in the rotation will be Dylan DeLucia, Josh Hartle, Matt Wilkinson and Caden Favors. If Reid Johnston is ready to go, it will be his first appearance since 2023.<\/p>\n
Jacob Cozart LHH, Cameron Barstad LHH.<\/p>\n
Cozart was a defense-first catcher who had some pop, but he surprisingly put up above-average offensive seasons for himself at both High-A and Double-A while possibly being one of the best defensive catchers in minor league baseball. Barstad is a serviceable backup, but Cozart will be the feature and his prospect status will continue to rise if he can improve his offense.<\/p>\n
Angel Genao SH SS, Ralphy Velazquez LHH 1B, Alex Mooney RHH 3B\/SS, Christian Knapczyk LHH 3B, Tyresse Turner SH 3B, Juan Benjamin SH 2B\/3B.<\/p>\n
Two of the team\u2019s top offensive prospects are featured here in Genao and Velazquez. Genao is hoping to bounce back after a shoulder injury caused an average offensive season in 2025 while Velazquez\u2019s star erupted with one of the strongest second halves in recent memory that saw him break out, even after being promoted to Akron. Neither should stay in Double-A long if they get off to strong starts.<\/p>\n
Wuilfredo Antunez LHH RF, Jake Fox LHH CF, Guy Lipscomb LHH RF, Alfonsin Rosario RHH RF\/CF, Joe Lampe LHH LF, Nick Mitchell LHH CF.<\/p>\n
Most eyes will be on Alfonsin Rosario as one of the lone top right-handed hitting prospects in the entire organization who had a breakout year in 2025, but don\u2019t forget about Wuilfredo Antunez, who had a major power spike in the past year and Nick Mitchell, one of the returns from Toronto in the Andres Gimenez trade who flashed some elite bat speed and exit velocities this spring after an impressive offensive season in 2025.<\/p>\n
Akron is loaded with top 10 organizational prospects at nearly every position from its starting rotation to the infielders and the outfield. It should be destination viewing on both sides of the field.<\/p>\n
Which players are catching your eye as the Double-A season starts? Tell us in the comments below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 season for the Double-A Akron RubberDucks begins Thursday. The RubberDucks released a preliminary roster today. Before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,4926,2565,538,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-654965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-cleveland-guardians-prospects","12":"tag-clevelandguardians","13":"tag-guardians","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116325290167667484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}