{"id":668923,"date":"2026-04-07T18:51:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/668923\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:51:34","slug":"trenton-thunder-acquired-by-diamond-baseball-holdings-trentonian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/668923\/","title":{"rendered":"Trenton Thunder acquired by Diamond Baseball Holdings \u2013 Trentonian"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trenton Thunder are under new ownership.<\/p>\n

The managing partners and shareholders of the franchise announced on Tuesday they have agreed to sell the club to Diamond Baseball Holdings, subject to approval from the MLB Draft League, which is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly proud of what the Thunder organization has meant to this community over the past three decades,\u201d said Joe Plumeri, Managing Partner of the Thunder in a statement. \u201cFrom championships on the field to unforgettable nights at Samuel J. Plumeri Sr. Field, this club has always been about bringing people together. Our vision was always about families and building the community. We believe DBH is the right partner to build on that legacy and ensure the Thunder remain a vibrant part of the Mercer County and the Regional sports landscape for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond Baseball Holdings owns numerous minor league franchises across the country, including five of the Thunder\u2019s former Eastern League rivals. DBH was formed in 2021 to support, promote and enhance clubs affiliated with Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1994, the Thunder have held affiliations with the Detroit Tigers (1994), Boston Red Sox (1995-2002) and New York Yankees (2003-2020). It had been under the ownership of Plumeri, Joseph Finley and Joseph Caruso since it began play 31 years ago.<\/p>\n

Team president Jeff Hurley and general manager Jon Bodnar will remain in charge of the team\u2019s day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a little different because I owe so much of my career to those three guys,\u201d said Hurley, a Hamilton native who joined the organization in 2004 as a group sales executive. \u201cThey gave me so many different opportunities and I\u2019m so thankful to be able to have had the opportunity to work with them, grow with them and begin friends with them. It\u2019s been a great run and that is something that should be known and what they have done for the community and for the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThunderThunder president Jeff Hurley walks on the field before an MLB Draft League game at Trenton Thunder Ballpark. (Kyle Franko\/ Trentonian File Photo)<\/p>\n

The Thunder have operated as a member of the MLB Draft League \u2014 a six-team league featuring a split-season amateur-professional format \u2014 since the Yankees left Trenton following MLB\u2019s decision to take over the minor leagues and reduce the number of affiliated clubs.<\/p>\n

An affiliated team hasn\u2019t called the capital city home since the Triple-A Toronto Blue Jays played three quarters of the 2021 campaign here.<\/p>\n

Hurley has been upfront that the organization\u2019s main goal is to return to affiliated baseball. That seems closer to reality now that DBH is in the fold and the second phase of a $25 million renovation project to the ballpark is nearing completion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d welcome that opportunity in the future, but right now we\u2019re focused on the Draft League,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see where it goes from there. DBH has a lot of resources and they are going to make the Thunder stronger. I\u2019m looking forward to actually getting the season going and welcoming fans to the ballpark. Then we\u2019ll see where the future takes us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $5.7 million first phase was completed over the summer with upgraded clubhouses, weight room, dining facility, women\u2019s locker room, new safety netting and enclosed bullpens.<\/p>\n

The second phase is ongoing now with construction on a new playing surface, video board, sound systems and fan hospitably visible when you drive by the waterfront stadium on Route 29.<\/p>\n

Hurley said the renovations are on track to be completed in time for the season opener on June 2 despite construction crews dealing with two snow storms and bone-chilling cold in the winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get the comments all the time about so much going on at the ballpark and it\u2019s exciting to see all the construction going on in and around the ballpark and at every level of the ballpark,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great transformation of the ballpark. It\u2019s a great ballpark, it\u2019s in great shape and the Trenton Thunder as well as Mercer County identified some of the upgrades and I can\u2019t wait to show it off to everybody.<\/p>\n

\"TrentonTrenton Thunder Ballpark will begin a $5.7 million renovation soon. The upgrades to the 31-year-old stadium are being done to attract an MLB-affiliated team back to Trenton. (Kyle Franko\/ Trentonian Photo)<\/p>\n

If a major league club is in need of an affiliate in 2027, Hurley said Trenton is ready.<\/p>\n

Being in the Draft League hasn\u2019t deterred fans from showing up, with the Thunder leading the league in attendance and bringing in an average of 5,309 fans per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Thunder are a historic franchise in a terrific market with an incredibly loyal fan base \u2013 adding them to the DBH family was simply too good an opportunity to pass up,\u201d said Pat Battle and Peter Freund, Executive Chairman and CEO of DBH, respectively. \u201cThey have tremendous support from the state and county and are a perfect fit for our roster. We\u2019re excited to bring them into the DBH ecosystem and build on the strong foundation already in place at Trenton Thunder Ballpark.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trenton Thunder are under new ownership. The managing partners and shareholders of the franchise announced on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,2291,21338,4,1586,5786,185,10665,21370,21369],"class_list":{"0":"post-668923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","10":"tag-mercer-county","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-draft","13":"tag-new-jersey","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-trt","16":"tag-trenton","17":"tag-trenton-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116364935565519674","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668923","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=668923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}