With a new manager in the figure of Phillip Wellman, the El Paso Chihuahuas debut tonight in the 2023 Pacific Coast League season, marking their 10th year in minor league baseball.
The first pitch of the opening game is scheduled for 7:05 pm on the diamond of Southwest University Park and the first opponent is the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, against whom they will hold a series of three games.
The ninth from El Paso is presented as champion of the Eastern Division of the Pacific Coast League in 2022, with which they add five divisional titles since the franchise came to this baseball in 2014, taking into account that in 2020 the season will end. cancelled.
Wellman, with a long history in professional baseball, will manage for the first time at a level higher than Double-A. In this new adventure, the new manager of the canines will be in charge of many well-known players, whom he managed in San Antonio Missions, the Double-A branch of the San Diego Padres.
“If I’m not excited and anxious and nervous about Opening Day and I don’t get chills during the national anthem, it’s time for me to go home,” Wellman said Wednesday at media day. “I still feel the same. Once we’re in the field, you’ll feel good. If we can get into a routine for the next few days, it will feel good.”
A hot topic of conversation Wednesday was the status of Padres superstar Fernando Tatis Jr., who is still serving an 80-game suspension from last season for using banned, performance-enhancing substances.
Tatis is eligible to return to the Padres on April 20; the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Tatis would begin a 15-day rehab assignment with the Chihuahuas on April 4 while the team is in Sacramento for a six-game series.
