Mustangs in the Pros Update
4/27/2026 1:00:00 PM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Minnesota Twins infielder Brooks Lee has battled his way out of an early season hitting slump.
One of four former Cal Poly baseball players who have played in the Major Leagues this year, Lee homered twice in a three-game series at Tampa Bay over the weekend, raising his batting average to .253.
In his first 11 games of the 2026 season, Lee's batting average was below .200. Then he put together a seven-game hitting streak, going 8-for-24 with his first two home runs of the year.
After a 5-for-30 start, Lee has gone 17-for-57 at the plate (.298), including back-to-back three-hit efforts against the New York Mets and Tampa Bay last week, and currently owns a .253 average with two doubles, five home runs and 15 RBIs in 26 games.
Cal Poly's other three representatives in the Majors are pitchers Bryan Woo of the Seattle Mariners, Justin Bruihl of the St. Louis Cardinals and Andrew Alvarez of the Washington Nationals.
Woo battled through a rough start Saturday at St. Louis, surrendering seven runs and nine hits over three innings. The best of his six starts so far in 2026 was on April 3 against the Los Angeles Angels as he tossed seven scoreless innings of one-hit baseball with one walk and six strikeouts. The right-hander was not involved in that decision as the Mariners scored three times in the 10th inning to break up a scoreless duel and win 3-1.
Woo currently is 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA and 27 strikeouts over 35 innings.
Bruihl has appeared in 15 games as a reliever for the Cardinals with no record and a 5.02 ERA. He has not allowed an earned run in his last three trips to the mound, lowering his ERA from a high of 8.00 and has struck out six batters with 10 walks over 14 1/3 innings
Alvarez started his 2026 season at Rochester before being called up by the Nationals on April 19 and pitching 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief for the win in a 3-0 triumph over the San Francisco Giants.
Alvarez was optioned back to Rochester the next day, where he is 2-1 with a 5.32 ERA and 29 strikeouts over 23 2/3 innings. Alvarez pitched five scoreless innings with one hit and 10 strikeouts against Scranton-Wilkes Barre on April 2 but on Sunday surrendered five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings of a 6-1 loss, also to Scranton-Wilkes Barre.
Another pitcher, Drew Thorpe, continues his recovery and rehabilitation from Tommy John Surgery which forced him to miss the entire 2025 season after making nine starts for the Chicago White Sox in 2024.
Thorpe began a 10-week bullpen period of recovery in March and suffered a setback three weeks ago with tendinitis in his right elbow. However, according to Scott Merkin of MLB.com, Thorpe threw a 20-pitch bullpen session of all fastballs last week and reported that Thorpe believes the recent spell of tendinitis will only set him back a couple of weeks in his overall recovery.
Eleven other ex-Mustangs are playing in the minors with another in the Mexican League and yet another in Japan.
Topping the list is outfielder Nick Torres, who signed a free agent contract with the New York Yankees in late December after six seasons in the Mexican League, compiling a .321 career average, 128 home runs, 501 RBIs and 60 steals in 691 games.
Torres is off to a hot start with the Double-A Somerset Patriots, hitting .467 in eight games with two doubles, a home run and six RBIs. The 32-year-old was 14-for-30 at the plate with two doubles before he was placed on the seven-day injured list April 18 with an undisclosed injury.
Taylor Dollard is 0-2 with a 6.94 ERA in three appearances on the mound at Everett as he continues his comeback from Tommy John Surgery in 2023.
Other updates:
• Jakob Wright is 0-0 with a 5.59 ERA in three starts for the Great Lakes Loons.
• Ryan Stafford is hitting .158 with two home runs and seven RBIs in 11 games at Frederick.
• Jake Steels sports a .278 average with one double, a triple and seven RBIs in six games for the Rome Emperors.
• Derek True is 2-0 with a 4.82 ERA in six games (all in relief), striking out 14 batters over 9 1/3 innings at Corpus Christi.
• Zach Daudet is off to a slow start with the Asheville Tourists, hitting .149 with two doubles, a home run and two RBIs in 14 games.
• Jack Collins is with the Hickory Crawdads but has yet to play a game this season. He hit .179 with two doubles and one RBI in nine games at Hickory in 2025.
• Bryce Warrecker opened his 2026 season on the seven-day injured list with the Hudson Valley Renegades. He was 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA in 40 games (one start) at Hudson Valley last year.
• Luke Kovach is getting ready to pitch in the Florida Complex League for the Blue Jays. The season begins later this week.
• Steven Brooks is 1-1 with a 1.74 ERA and 18 strikeouts over 10 1/3 innings pitching for the Greenville High Drive. He has made six appearances on the mound, all in relief.
• Erich Uelmen is pitching for the Saltillo Serapes in the Mexican League. He has started two games and is 0-1 with a 10.13 ERA and three strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Uelmen pitched for High Point in the independent Atlantic League last year.
• Spencer Howard is pitching for the Yomiuri Giants of the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan. The 29-year-old, who has appeared in 47 Major League games over five seasons (2020-24), is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA in two appearances on the mound for Yomiuri, striking out 14 batters over 9 1/3 innings.
