Before the 2023 minor league season started, outfielder Aaron Palensky, 24, and first baseman Spencer Henson, 25, were assigned to High-A Hudson Valley after each had spent the entire previous season there. For players of their age and level of experience, repeating Low-A is normally a bad sign, perhaps a precursor to being released. Catcher Ben Rice, 24, was coming off a season in which he played only 68 games for Low-A Tampa, and infielder Benjamin Cowles, 23, was returning to Hudson Valley after a late-2022 cup of coffee there.
Shortstop Alexander Vargas, 21, was being promoted to High-A despite a horrid statistical year in 2022 that left evaluators writing him off as a prospect.