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'A new way to win': Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp take on first Triple-A final in 57 years
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- 'A new way to win': Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp take on first Triple-A final in 57 years
Before Neil Armstrong's one small step. Before consolidated Jacksonville united city and county. Before divisional baseball. Before the Beatles broke up.
That's how long it's been since Jacksonville last played for a Triple-A baseball championship. Until now.
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For the first time in more than 55 years, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are rolling out the red carpet for Triple-A playoff baseball, beginning the best-of-3 International League Championship Series at 7:05 p.m. Sept. 23 against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders at VyStar Ballpark.
Jacksonville has captured Double-A championships during the franchise's Suns days, but for a Triple-A trophy, First Coast baseball fans have waited two generations.
Until the 2025 Jumbo Shrimp, a collection of prized prospects and minor-league veterans, several of them former teammates on the Pensacola Blue Wahoos when they won the Double-A Southern League in 2022.
They've had these dates marked down since they erased an eight-game deficit in two weeks to snatch the first-half championship in June. That meant a series a second-half champion to be determined later — as it turned out, the RailRiders, Triple-A affiliates of the New York Yankees . That meant playoff baseball, what Jumbo Shrimp veteran Bennett Hostetler calls "baseball at its purest form."
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"It seems like every night," Hostetler said, "we find a new way to win."
Astronomy says the seasons just changed. Jumbo Shrimp manager David Carpenter says otherwise. As long as baseball championship dreams flourish, summer is still hanging on.
"It's another day at the office that you get to enjoy, another day of summer," Carpenter said. "We can continue to push fall and winter away as far as we can."
MAKING MINOR LEAGUE HISTORY
When the city last played for a Triple-A baseball championship, on Sept. 18, 1968, the first pitch flew in a different world.
Jacksonville was two weeks from formally entering its consolidated era, which would begin on Oct. 1, 1968. Artis Gilmore was a year removed from Jacksonville University legend status, still in junior college at Gardner-Webb. Shad Khan was a University of Illinois undergraduate, part of Beta Theta Pi during 1968-69. And the top of the Billboard charts the following weekend? None other than Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley P.T.A."
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Even with the likes of Tug McGraw, Amos Otis and Steve Renko on board, Jacksonville's franchise, at that time called the Jacksonville Mets , had to take the hard road to the playoffs.
Jacksonville survived near wall-to-wall doubleheaders at season's end to grasp the fourth and final playoff spot under manager Clyde McCullough. They upset the Toledo Mud Hens 3 games to 1 in the first round, then swept the Columbus Jets in four to win the International League trophy, called the Governors' Cup. A seventh-inning homer from Duffy Dyer, who went on to catch 14 seasons in the majors, struck the final blow.
The times and the prizes have changed, but if the Jumbo Shrimp win this best-of-3 series, they would earn a Saturday trip to Las Vegas for a single-game Triple-A championship against the still-to-be-determined winner of the Pacific Coast League. Plus a place in Jacksonville sports history.
"We're able to prepare for it the way we need to, go out there and execute," Carpenter said. "I think if we're able to do that, we have a really good chance to bring home some hardware, and that's something they're going to be able to talk about for a long time."
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STAYING THE COURSE
Triple-A life is a revolving door. Jacksonville is no exception.
So far in 2025, 19 former Jumbo Shrimp players — the majority of them promoted to Miami for the first time this year — have made their MLB debuts. Players like Janson Junk , Troy Johnston and Jakob Marsee , all key parts of Jacksonville's first-half title, now hold important roles for the Marlins .
"When the rosters came out in spring training, we knew we had a pretty special group," pitcher Patrick Monteverde said. "Even with all the turnover we've had, guys haven't really missed a beat."
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It shows in the numbers. Jacksonville's went 47-28 for the first-half championship and nearly matched that with a 42-33 second-half mark. Constants are few, but 27-year-old catcher and utility man Hostetler is among them, working with the new pitchers.
"My main focus is always communication," he said. "Obviously, with the development side of the minor leagues, maybe they have a new pitch, new delivery, whatever it may be."
BULLPEN: SECRET WEAPON
If there's a secret ingredient to the Jumbo Shrimp's success, it's been the bullpen.
"Our whole bullpen, the entire year, has been the key to this," Monteverde said.
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Jacksonville's 44 saves are tied for the International League lead, even without a specifically assigned closer. Six Jumbo Shrimp have earned four or more saves this year.
Even the team's wins leader is a reliever, Christian Roa , a Swiss army knife of a pitcher with a 10-2 record, 2.83 ERA and a pair of saves in 50 games.
"The guys' mentalities are that I can pitch as the first guy out of the bullpen or I can come in to close a game," reliever Matt Pushard said. "I think it just shows the guys are just locked in, every pitch, every time."
ACES WILD
More than anything else, pitching has carried the Jumbo Shrimp to postseason.
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Jacksonville leads the International League in team earned run average at 3.73, limiting opponents to a league-low .228 batting average. Heading the charge are Robby Snelling and Thomas White (4-3, 2.31 ERA), the Marlins' top minor-league prospect in the MLB.com evaluations.
"We've had some horses come through here this year," Monteverde said. "It started off with Junk when he was way hot, and now Robby's really rolling."
Really rolling might be an understatement for Snelling. The 21-year-old from Nevada has mowed down opponents since arriving in Jacksonville, going 6-2 with a rock-bottom 1.27 ERA, an 0.99 WHIP and 81 strikeouts in 63 2/3 innings.
"We're giving him the opportunity to go out there and just trust in the stuff that he has, knowing that it's good enough, and get him that exposure to this level," Carpenter said. "I'm excited to see what he will do at the big league level, because he's a special pitcher."
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SPEEDY SHRIMP
During the season's first half, the Jumbo Shrimp's base stealing left opponents trailing behind in the dust.
Even though the stolen base chase has cooled off a bit in recent weeks, following the promotion of players like Marsee to the Miami Marlins, Jacksonville still ranks second to Nashville in the International League with 305 steals. They average more than two per game.
They've needed that speed, because consistency with the bat isn't the Jumbo Shrimp's strong suit. Their .330 on-base percentage ranks 18th of 20 league clubs, while their 162 home runs rank in the middle of the pack.
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Still, they keep scoring. They keep winning.
"The team that we had in April, in May and in June is completely different now," Carpenter said. "There might be a philosophy that we have, but our strength is in the guys that we have."
INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES SCHEDULE
Game 1: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Jumbo Shrimp, 7:05 p.m. Sept. 23
Game 2:Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Jumbo Shrimp, 7:05 p.m. Sept. 24
Game 3(if necessary): Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Jumbo Shrimp, 7:05 p.m. Sept. 25
Winner advances to Sept. 27 Triple-A Championship against Pacific Coast League champion in Las Vegas.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp: International League Championship preview
