Season Wrap: Dominican Summer League
Photo Credit: Derwin Laya Instagram account
Here we have the sixth and final edition of a series of season wrap ups for the Giants’ system as we head all the way down to the Dominican complex. Before we start looking forward (which will be the next project!), it’s always good to look back and remember the year that was! Today we check in on kids who are trying to get off the island.
2021 Dominican Summer League
Giants Orange: 27-27 (4th place Northeast Division)
Giants Black: 24-28 (7th place San Pedro Division)
Overview
It was a difficult and complicated summer in the Dominican. After missing an entire year to year and a half of development work due to the pandemic, the Dominican Summer League was the last to start up professionally, and there were murmurs right up to the end that the league might not start at all, as the COVID situation worsened in the Dominican Republic. It did finally start on July 12, but disruption was a persistent problem throughout the summer.
For the Giants, this was their first summer fielding two teams and, in part due to satisfy COVID safety protocols, they split their roster of young players into two separate facilities, using an older facility previously used by the Braves for the players who made up the Giants Black team. The players on the Giants Orange team were housed in the Giants Felipe Alou complex. Whether or not this separation ended up playing a part in what happened with Team Black is, of course, unknowable.
Almost from the beginning, cancellations began peppering the scheduled games. Giants Orange lost two games in the first week because their opponent (one of the Orioles’ teams) had a COVID outbreak. Soon enough, the Giants would be dealing with their own slate of positive COVID tests and symptomatic players on the Giants Black team. COVID protocols would ultimately keep Team Black off the field from July 30 to August 9, and, while the team was able to contain the outbreak, there is, of course, reason to believe that this outbreak had longer lasting effects on some of the 17 and 18-year-olds on the team who had contracted the virus.
As if ten days with a serious health issue wasn’t enough to deal with, on the very day that Giants Black was finally able to return to the field, a series of tropical storms began passing through the island, which further complicated attempts to play baseball (and posed even more public safety issues for the community). Five times between August 9 and 21, both Giants Orange and Giants Black had games rained out, with the Orange losing a sixth game during that stretch as well and Black having a game postponed in the late innings.
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