Roughly a week into the 2022 Major League Baseball season and the Coastal Plain League is already making noise on the player development side. Two CPL alums, Josh Winder (pictured right) and JP Sears, made their debuts this week.
Winder, a former Peninsula Pilots pitcher, debuted for the Minnesota Twins on April 12. Starting the fifth inning in relief, Winder surrendered one run on a sacrifice fly, walked two and struck out one in one inning of work versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Drafted in the 7th round in 2018 out of Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Winder spent the 2016 summer with the CPL’s Pilots. He started four games and made one relief appearance for Peninsula, going 3-1 with an impressive 2.70 ERA. Totaling 20 innings on the mound, Winder only gave up seven runs – six earned – on 18 hits, while walking just five and striking out 26. In only three minor league seasons before his call-up, he held an impressive 14-3 record as a starter to go along with a 2.82 ERA and 240 strikeouts in 236 and a third innings pitched.
Meanwhile, Sears (pictured right) made his debut the next day for the New York Yankees on April 13. He entered in relief and pitched a hitless ninth inning for New York in their 6-4 lost to Toronto. He faced three batters and struck out one to leave with a perfect 0.00 ERA.
Sears also played in the CPL in 2016, but with the Lexington County Blowfish. Starting three games that summer, he finished with unblemished with a 2-0 record and 2.37 ERA. He pitched 19 innings, giving up just five runs on 13 hits, walked three and struck out 18. The lefty hailed from The Citadel and went on to be drafted in 2017 by the Seattle Mariners in the 11th round. In four minor league seasons, Sears posted a 16-13 record with a respectable 3.07 ERA through 66 games, 34 of them starts. He struck out 286 batters in 234 and a third innings of work and earned five saves.
Winder and Sears’ debuts mark the first debuts by CPL alums in 2022, and the 152nd and 153rd all-time respectively. Over the last five years, the CPL has put an average of 11 players in the Bigs each season.