New manager follows ‘championship behaviors’
The Hudson Valley Renegades opened their 2025 baseball season with a winning weekend, besting the Jersey Shore BlueClaws in two of three games at Heritage Financial Park (formerly Dutchess Stadium). The ’Gades lost the season opener, 3-1, on April 4 in front of 3,600 fans but bounced back, winning 8-7 on Saturday and 6-2 on Sunday.
The team will finish a six-game road series with the Brooklyn Cyclones on Sunday (April 13) then return to Wappingers Falls for a six-game homestand with the Wilmington Blue Rocks beginning Tuesday.
The Renegades, the High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, have a new and an “old” look going into their 132-game season in the South Atlantic League North Division. (The five minor-league levels are Rookie League, Single-A, High-A, Double-A and Triple-A.)
The entire coaching staff is new, led by manager James Cooper, 42, who takes over from Nick Ortiz, who left for the Houston Astros organization. Cooper previously managed the Yankees’ Single-A affiliate, the Tampa Tarpons, and coached at Grambling State University in Louisiana for 12 seasons. As a player, Cooper was drafted by the Astros in 2004 and played two seasons in the minor leagues and a season in Canada.
Although the Renegades players range in age from 18 to their early 20s, this is an experienced team. The opening roster included 21 veterans of the 2023 and 2024 squads along with nine newcomers. Nineteen of the 30 players are pitchers. The squad has six of the Yankees’ top 20 prospects, including infielder George Lombard Jr. (No. 2) and pitcher Ben Hess (No. 4). The others are pitchers Bryce Cunningham (No. 6), Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz (No. 8), Carlos Lagrange (No. 19) and Kyle Carr (No. 20). The No. 1 prospect, Jasson Dominguez, is on the Yankees’ roster.
The 2025 Renegades have a long tradition of winning to live up to. The team won 73 games last season and reached the league championship, where it lost to Bowling Green. It was the Renegades’ 12th consecutive winning season. Since 2012 the Renegades have recorded the highest winning percentage in the minor leagues.
Asked on April 1 if he feels added pressure coming to a franchise where winning is the default, Cooper said “for me to leave this place better than I found it, we have to win it [the title]. That’ll be the mission.”
Cooper knows many of the players, having coached them in the past on other teams, including Lombard. “You understand what gets a player going if you’ve had a relationship over the years,” he said. “We just want to do everything we can to develop these guys, put them in positions to go out here and dominate and give them a chance to move up.”
Before receiving a $3.3 million signing bonus in 2023, Lombard, 19, played shortstop at Gulliver Prep in Pinecrest, Florida. In 2024 he played 91 games with the Tampa Tarpons before joining the Renegades for 29 games.
This spring Lombard attended the Yankees training camp. “The thing you learn from those guys is their attitude, the mindset and confidence they bring to the game every single day,” he said. “It takes a different type of confidence to be successful at the level they are.
“It was a good being here last year, getting a little taste of it,” he said. “Physically, I’m just trying to get faster and stronger every year, trying to become an all-around better baseball player.”
Founded in 1994, the Renegades were part of the Texas Rangers’ organization until 1996, when they moved to the Tampa Bay Rays. They won league titles in 1999, 2012 and 2017 and division titles three times since 2021.
Heritage Financial Park is located at 1500 Route 9D in Wappingers Falls, just north of Beacon. For tickets, which start at $6, see milb.com/hudson-valley.
