COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The 2021 Minor League Baseball season is set to get underway Tuesday evening after a year-long hiatus in which MiLB was held without a 2020 season due to COVID-19.
Maryland is well-represented in the minors, as eight former Terps are set to compete across four different levels of the MiLB system.
Mike Shawaryn – one of the most decorated Maryland pitchers in program history – begins his 2021 campaign with the Omaha Storm Chasers – the Triple-A affiliate of the Royals. Shawaryn's first appearance with the Storm Chasers will be his debut in the Royals organization, as the 2016 fifth-round draftee was released by the Red Sox in late April and subsequently picked up by the Royals. Shawaryn pitched in 14 Major League games in 2019 with Boston.
Kevin Smith will continue his rise through the Blue Jays' system, beginning his 2021 season with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons. Smith spent the 2020 season on the Blue Jays' 60-man roster, where he trained at the alternate site after a 2019 season in which he led the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats with a league-high 19 homers. Smith – currently a Top-30 prospect in the Blue Jays' organization – could become the 27th all-time Terrapin to earn the call to The Show.
Brian Shaffer (Montgomery Biscuits/Tampa Bay Rays), Andrew Bechtold (Wichita Wind Surge/Minnesota Twins), Nick Dunn (Springfield Cardinals/St. Louis Cardinals), and Marty Costes (Corpus Christi Hooks/Houston Astros) will begin their 2021 seasons at the Double-A level. Bechtold, Dunn, and Costes will be making their Double-A debuts this season, while Shaffer got a taste of Double-A experience in 2019 before he was deprived of a 2020 season.
Maryland's latest draftees – AJ Lee (Asheville Tourists) and Hunter Parsons (St. Lucie Mets) – prepare to hit the diamond for their first full MiLB seasons in 2021. Lee will begin his campaign in the High-A level of the Astros organization, while Parsons will be utilized out of the bullpen for the Low-A Mets.
The 2021 minor league season officially kicks off Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET, as two Double-A Northeast games get underway – the Portland Sea Dogs host the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, and the Bowie Baysox visit the Altoona Curve. The 2021 season also marks the first season of the newly constructed Minor League format, as prospects will advance across four levels with varying rule and location changes new to the summer of 2021.
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