2023 Santa Fe Fuego Season Recap - The Worst Season in Fuego History

The 2023 Santa Fe Fuego season became the worst season in franchise history, a difficult summer defined by managerial turnover, pitching problems, enormous scores and constant change. Santa Fe finished 18-31 after entering the year with a completely different leadership structure from the previous seasons. Bill Rogan had left the Fuego to manage the Marysville Drakes, an expansion team located north of Sacramento, opening the door for Tom Fitzpatrick to take over in Santa Fe. Fitzpatrick's tenure would last only a few weeks before the Fuego were forced to make another change, with David Peterson eventually taking control of the team and managing through the final month of the season.

The problems with Fitzpatrick began almost immediately. On Opening Day, Fitzpatrick told Yvonne Encinias that he needed 30 jerseys for the players he intended to have with the team. Encinias reminded him that the Pecos League roster limit was only 22 players and questioned why the Fuego would need 30 jerseys. Fitzpatrick responded that he didn't care about the rules. For Encinias, that exchange immediately raised serious concerns about whether Fitzpatrick was the right person to manage the Fuego, and she wanted him fired that day. The organization didn't make the change immediately, and Fitzpatrick remained with Santa Fe for approximately two more weeks, but the Opening Day conversation became an early indication of the problems that were coming.

The difficulties quickly extended to the field. Santa Fe opened the season with three consecutive losses, falling 15-10, 8-5 and 24-14. Through only three games, the Fuego had already allowed 47 runs. Santa Fe finally broke through with an 8-2 victory and followed it with an enormous 22-1 win, briefly providing hope that the difficult opening weekend was simply a bad start. Instead, the Fuego soon returned to their losing ways, dropping games by scores of 9-3, 13-1, 18-6, 9-8, 12-8 and 19-12.

The early results demonstrated the problem that would follow Santa Fe throughout the season. The Fuego could still score runs, particularly in the offensive environment of Fort Marcy, but they couldn't consistently prevent their opponents from scoring even more. Santa Fe had experienced pitching problems during other seasons, but the 2023 staff struggled at a level that made it nearly impossible for the offense to keep the team competitive over an extended period.

Fitzpatrick's tenure ended only weeks after it began. What had started with the Opening Day disagreement over 30 jerseys and the 22-player roster limit quickly developed into another early-season managerial change for the Fuego. Santa Fe was already struggling in the standings, and now the organization also had to find someone capable of stabilizing the team and getting it through the remainder of the summer.

David Peterson eventually took over the Fuego and managed the club through the final month of the season. Peterson came to Santa Fe after previously serving as the pitching coach of the Rocky Mountain Vibes in the Pioneer League before being removed from that position. Taking over the Fuego gave Peterson another opportunity in professional baseball, but it was an extremely difficult assignment. He inherited a team that had already changed managers and a pitching staff that was struggling badly to get through games.

Despite the team's problems, the 2023 Fuego could still produce incredible offensive performances. Santa Fe won games 24-1 and 29-6 before producing an astonishing 41-12 victory. The 41-run performance was another reminder of the extraordinary baseball that could occur at Fort Marcy. More than a decade after the Fuego began playing at the approximately 7,000-foot ballpark with its short fences, Santa Fe was still producing scores that seemed almost impossible for a professional baseball game.

The Fuego had several outstanding offensive players. Ben Osborne became one of the most productive hitters on the roster, appearing in 40 games and collecting 69 hits in 154 at-bats for a .448 batting average. Osborne scored 54 runs, hit nine doubles and nine home runs and drove in 43. He also drew 36 walks, giving Santa Fe a hitter who consistently reached base despite the team's struggles.

Maurice La Fon was another major offensive force, appearing in 33 games and collecting 57 hits in 128 at-bats for a .445 average. La Fon scored 55 runs, hit 11 doubles and 15 home runs and drove in 59. Humberto Maldonado produced tremendous power during his 29 games with Santa Fe, collecting 51 hits in 119 at-bats for a .429 average while blasting 18 home runs and driving in 58.

Rafael Ramirez appeared in 44 games and collected 66 hits while batting .393. He scored 55 runs, hit 14 home runs and drove in 57 while drawing 45 walks. Omar Ortiz also played 44 games and collected 63 hits, scored 63 runs, hit 13 doubles and 11 home runs and drove in 51. Parker DePasquale returned to Santa Fe and produced another remarkable power stretch, hitting 13 home runs in only 18 games while collecting 36 hits and driving in 36 runs.

The offensive statistics demonstrated why the Fuego remained capable of winning games despite everything going wrong around them. Santa Fe had multiple hitters batting over .400 and several players hitting home runs at extraordinary rates. On many nights, the lineup was capable of scoring 15, 20 or even 30 runs. The problem was that in 2023, even those totals didn't guarantee a victory.

The pitching staff simply couldn't consistently keep opponents under control. Marty Carnahan carried one of the largest workloads on the staff, making 10 starts and throwing 52 innings. Carnahan finished 2-6 with a 7.61 ERA while striking out 67. Anthony Williams showed promise during four starts, finishing 2-2 with a 6.63 ERA and striking out 37 hitters in 19 innings. Beyond those performances, however, Santa Fe struggled to find pitchers capable of consistently covering innings.

Brian Cantu finished with a 10.13 ERA, Aydan Rolph posted a 12.60 ERA and Sean Townsend finished at 14.64. Matt Sanchez had a 15.30 ERA, Alex Williams finished at 14.85 and Jordan Izzo finished at 17.80. The numbers illustrated the impossible situation facing the Fuego. Santa Fe had enough offense to compete with almost anyone, but the pitching staff regularly forced the lineup to overcome enormous deficits.

The pitching situation became so difficult that position players were used to cover innings. Phillip Buckingham made five pitching appearances, and other players were asked to take the mound simply because Santa Fe needed someone to get through the game. The Fuego weren't searching for dominant pitching by that point. They were frequently searching for enough available arms to record 27 outs.

The results became increasingly extreme as the summer progressed. Santa Fe suffered losses of 26-5, 39-4, 27-7 and 26-3. The 39-4 defeat became one of the most lopsided losses in franchise history. On other nights, the Fuego offense kept scoring but still couldn't produce a victory. Santa Fe lost games 30-23, 18-15, 17-15 and 23-21, demonstrating just how difficult it had become for the lineup to score enough runs to overcome the pitching problems.

Losing a professional baseball game after scoring 23 runs would be almost unimaginable for most teams. For the 2023 Santa Fe Fuego, it became part of the reality of the season. The Fuego could score 15 runs and lose. They could score 21 and lose. They could score 23 and lose. There was almost no offensive total that guaranteed Santa Fe would finish the night with a victory.

The season eventually reached its lowest point during a brutal stretch in which Santa Fe lost games by scores of 26-3, 19-11, 30-23, 18-15, 17-15, 30-10, 18-8, 14-9, 23-21, 20-12, 33-10 and 24-8. The Fuego weren't simply losing close games during this stretch. Opponents were repeatedly scoring at a level that made sustained success nearly impossible.

By the time Peterson took control through the final month, the objective was no longer simply trying to make the playoffs. He was attempting to stabilize a team that had already gone through managerial turmoil and get the Fuego through the remainder of the schedule. Peterson's background as a pitching coach gave him experience working with pitchers, but even that experience couldn't immediately solve the enormous problems Santa Fe had developed on the mound.

To the team's credit, the Fuego continued competing. Santa Fe won 21-2 and later earned consecutive victories of 14-10 and 10-8. After another difficult stretch that included losses of 26-17, 18-10 and 18-12, the Fuego survived consecutive shootouts with victories of 19-18 and 18-15. Even during the worst season in franchise history, Santa Fe remained capable of producing enough offense to occasionally overcome its pitching problems.

The final portion of the schedule provided one last surprising development. Santa Fe won 12-2, exploded for a 34-5 victory and finished with a 19-3 win. After spending much of the season enduring losing streaks and allowing enormous run totals, the Fuego closed the year with three consecutive victories.

Those victories couldn't change the overall story of the season. Santa Fe finished 18-31, completing the worst season in franchise history. The Fuego had won only 18 of their 49 games with decisions despite possessing one of the most explosive offenses imaginable. Santa Fe scored 41 runs in one victory, 34 in another and 29 in another, but also allowed 39 runs in a game, 33 in another and 30 runs multiple times.

The 2023 season demonstrated more clearly than almost any previous year that offense alone couldn't make the Fuego successful. Fort Marcy had always rewarded hitters and punished pitchers. Successful Santa Fe teams had been the ones capable of finding enough pitching to survive that environment. The 2014 championship team under Bill Moore had found that balance. The 2021 team under Bill Rogan had enough pitching to remain in the playoff race until late in the season. The 2023 Fuego never found it.

The managerial instability only made the problem more difficult. Rogan's departure for the expansion Marysville Drakes created the opening that brought Fitzpatrick to Santa Fe. Fitzpatrick immediately clashed with the realities of Pecos League roster management when he requested 30 jerseys on Opening Day despite the 22-player roster limit. When Encinias explained the rule, Fitzpatrick said he didn't care about the rules. Encinias wanted him fired immediately, and although he remained for approximately two more weeks, his tenure was never able to establish the stability the Fuego needed.

Peterson eventually became the person responsible for leading Santa Fe through the final month. His stay with the organization would also be brief. After managing the Fuego in 2023, Peterson moved on to the Ottawa Titans of the Frontier League in 2024. His path from the Rocky Mountain Vibes in the Pioneer League to Santa Fe and then to Ottawa reflected the constant movement that exists throughout independent professional baseball.

The same was true of Rogan. After leading the Fuego during the previous seasons, Rogan went to California to manage the Marysville Drakes expansion team north of Sacramento. His departure started a chain of changes that left Santa Fe searching for stability throughout 2023. Rogan left for Marysville, Fitzpatrick took over and lasted only weeks, and Peterson eventually finished the season before moving on to Ottawa the following year.

Through all of the managerial changes, the Fuego still had players who produced memorable seasons. Osborne hit .448, La Fon hit .445 with 15 home runs, Maldonado hit .429 with 18 home runs and Ramirez hit .393 with 14 home runs. DePasquale hit 13 home runs in only 18 games, while Ortiz provided another productive bat. Those performances would have been enough to make many teams competitive.

For Santa Fe, they weren't enough. The pitching staff never stabilized, and one difficult night frequently created problems for the next game because relievers had already been exhausted. At Fort Marcy, where the altitude and short fences already created one of the toughest pitching environments in professional baseball, those problems could quickly become overwhelming.

The result was a season filled with some of the most extreme scores in Fuego history. Santa Fe could win 41-12 and lose 39-4. The Fuego could score 23 runs and still lose by seven. They could allow 33 runs one night and then eventually finish the season by winning three straight games. Almost nothing about the summer followed a predictable pattern.

The 2023 season therefore earned an unfortunate place in Santa Fe Fuego history. The franchise had experienced difficult years before. The inaugural 2012 team finished 23-47 and was famously dubbed the worst professional baseball team in America. The 2016 team experienced a first-week managerial change and tremendous pitching problems. But the combination of managerial instability, pitching problems and extreme losses made 2023 another level of difficulty.

The year began with a new manager asking for 30 jerseys when the active roster could only have 22 players. Within weeks, that manager was gone. The pitching staff never found stability, and the losses continued to mount. Eventually, David Peterson inherited the responsibility of getting the team through the final month of the season.

Somehow, the Fuego made it through.

They even finished with three consecutive victories.

Those final wins couldn't repair everything that had happened during the summer, but they allowed the players who remained to end the season on a positive note. Santa Fe won 12-2, 34-5 and 19-3 to close the schedule, three convincing victories that looked completely different from many of the games the Fuego had endured earlier in the year.

The final record was 18-31, but the record alone doesn't completely explain the 2023 Santa Fe Fuego. It was a season of constant change that began with Bill Rogan leaving for Marysville and continued with Tom Fitzpatrick's extremely short tenure. It was a season in which an Opening Day conversation about 30 jerseys immediately revealed a fundamental disagreement about how the team needed to operate. It was a season in which David Peterson eventually took over and managed through the final month before moving to Ottawa the following year.

It was also unmistakably a Santa Fe Fuego season. Fort Marcy produced absurd offensive numbers, hitters put together remarkable individual performances and scoreboards were pushed to their limits. Santa Fe could score more than 20 runs and still have no guarantee of winning. The Fuego remained one of the most unpredictable teams in professional baseball even when the results were going badly.

The franchise had experienced almost everything since arriving at Fort Marcy in 2012. Santa Fe had gone from being called the worst professional baseball team in America to winning the 2014 Pecos League Championship. The Fuego had survived managerial changes, rebuilding seasons and some of the highest-scoring games imaginable.

The 2023 season was different. The managerial problems began on Opening Day, the pitching never stabilized and the losses became increasingly extreme. No amount of offensive production could consistently overcome the number of runs Santa Fe was allowing.

For all of the remarkable hitters, enormous scores and unusual moments that occurred throughout the summer, the conclusion was unavoidable. The 2023 Santa Fe Fuego had experienced the worst season in franchise history, a year that began with managerial turmoil, continued through some of the wildest games ever played at Fort Marcy and finally ended with David Peterson guiding the team through the last month and the Fuego somehow finishing an unforgettable summer with three consecutive victories.