PEORIA, Ill. – The boys of summer will soon take the field at Dozer Park in downtown Peoria.
The 2024 season for the Peoria Chiefs, the High-A minor league baseball affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, will start Friday night against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The Chiefs’ home opener will take place on April 9th against the Beloit Sky Carp.
The Chiefs players and coaching staff met with media members and held a workout at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex on Wednesday.
Chiefs’ Director of Media and Baseball Operations Cody Schindler says he is looking forward to seeing fans fill Dozer Park again this season.
“Just the opportunity to see the ballpark packed again, it’s what I’m really rooting for and what I’m really excited to see, because attendance has gone up each of the last three seasons coming out of the pandemic, and no reason why they won’t continue,” said Director of Media and Baseball Operations for the Chiefs, Cody Schindler.
Schindler says about half of last year’s team that made the playoffs is returning to Peoria this year. He says some of the new faces will be mainly on the pitching staff, which he expects to strike out a lot of batters this season.
“Couple left-handers, Brycen Mautz, Pete Hansen, both top 30 guys, they were both with Palm Beach last year, they’ll be right in the mix right away, you’ll see them early on,” Schindler said. “Zack Levenson is a name, an outfielder, he had some success in spring.”
Schindler says fans in Peoria will also enjoy Won-Bin Cho from South Korea, the first amateur signing from Asia for the Cardinals.
Patrick Anderson returns for his third season as skipper for the Chiefs, the 6th manager to spend at least three seasons in Peoria. Edwin Moreno returns as pitching coach. Elvis Rodriguez is a new face on the coaching staff, and will be the hitting coach after spending the past two seasons in the Houston Astros organization.
Anderson says he’s ready to see the team take the field.
“Seeing them be able to get after it, against competition, somebody else other than the uniform in spring training, under the lights, and see what they’re made of. That excites me, the work everyday, and to help these kids go about their business everyday to help them get to the major leagues,” Anderson said.
Anderson says the number of returning players this season shows the depth of the Cardinals’ minor league organization, along with bringing veteran leadership to the team.
He says one of those returning Chiefs, left-hander Cooper Hjerpe, will be the Opening Day starter in Wisconsin Friday night.
Schindler says some of the big promotions this year include a raffle for two tickets at the June 29th game against Quad Cities to the Taylor Swift concert in Indianapolis on November 2nd. The team has three planned bobblehead nights; mascot Homer on June 15th, and former players Victor Scott and Ivan Hererra on July 19th and August 2nd, respectively.
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