At the fun level, the team won the second-half East Division title, finished with a full-season record of 74-58, and made the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
“Development is key, and we won’t ever get away from that,” Harrison Jr. said. “But it’s sure a lot more fun when you’re winning.”
Now Harrison Jr. returns for a second season pushing for more of everything.
“The bar has to be raised,“ he said. ”That’s the only way we can do it from my standpoint to my passion, my energy, the way we’re going to work to get guys better."
Spring training begins soon, winter weather will pass and the chilly April nights will mean the start of Dragons home games for a 25th season at Day Air Ballpark. The Dragons open April 4 at West Michigan. The home schedule begins April 8 against Fort Wayne.
Harrison Jr. remembers the cold opening night in Dayton last year.
“We looked like a bunch of scuba divers going on the field,” Harrison Jr. said. “And the place is like half full, and I couldn’t believe it.”
Now he knows better now how to prepare his players for the weather, the big crowds in Dayton and the typically tiny crowds on the road.
“It’s really easy to get caught up in that because a week later we go somewhere else and we’re playing in front of like 40 people,” he said. “What you take from that is we can’t just take things for granted. We have to embrace every opportunity. And sometimes part of what stops development in the minor leagues is guys getting comfortable. It’s really easy to get comfortable in a place like Dayton.”
Harrison Jr. won’t know until the end of spring training exactly how young his team will be. But he learned more last summer about how to guide them through failure. Many players like Cam Collier and Sal Stewart were 19 and 20 years old and had never experienced hitting in the .200s.
“Failing at a rate like this for the first time it made us all better in the long run,” Harrison Jr. said. “I’m prepared for having to work from day one and trying to do my best to collaborate with our staff to do what we can to get these guys ready to move up.”
Harrison Jr. will have a new coaching staff this season with former major-leaguer Willie Blair handling the pitching staff, Troy Gingrich as the hitting coach and Peterson Plaz returning to Dayton as a coach. He was the performance coach in 2023.
Blair pitched in the majors from 1990-2001 and became a pitching coach in 2010. He joined the Reds in 2023 and was the pitching coach the past two season in Low-A Daytona. Blair coached pitchers who are likely to start this season in Dayton and some who might return.
“Some of the guys that played some big pieces for us I know Willie was really integral in their development,” Harrison Jr. said.
Harrison Jr. and Blair also have a basketball connection. Harrison Jr. graduated from Kentucky, and Blair grew up in Kentucky. They had lots to talk and text about last year in spring training during tournament time.
“I’m a Kentucky grad, and Willie is a bigger UK fan than me,” Harrison Jr. said. “He bleeds blue.”
Gingrich is new to the organization and new to Harrison Jr. Gingrich began coaching in 2004 in the Expos/Nationals organization. He was the minor-league hitting coordinator from 2014-23.
“His experience as a coach and a coordinator and being at higher levels is going to be humongous, specifically because he has dealt with pretty much every level of player in the system,” Harrison Jr. said. “This will be such a blessing for our guys to have a guy with with his knowledge and experience.”
Harrison Jr. is also looking forward to the experience of working close to home again this season. He attended Princeton High School and lives with his family in Liberty Township.
“It’s just an honor to be able to do what I love and to be able to do it with the proximity that I do have to to my family,” Harrison Jr. said. “Last year was big in our household as far as creating core memories — a lot of things that we will always cherish.“
Harrison Jr.‘s goal this season is to finish a winner. Two one-run losses in the three-game division series to Lake County were difficult to get over.
“Last year we kind of ended on a sour note,” Harrison Jr. said. “But we lost two tight games by one run in the last inning with a bunch of young guys trying to figure it out. So I’m excited for the direction we’re going and excited to try to bring this next wave of guys on.”
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