New-look Majors off to strong start

Around the Diamond: Kaiden Cardoso’s bat turning heads early; Payano’s performance crucial in ‘24; Is Travis Keys pleasant surprise on mound?; de Oleo picks up where he left off. Our latest news & notes …

Kaiden Cardoso (right) congratulates Starling Joseph after scoring a run in the Majors’ home-opening win over Welland Friday, May 17, 2024. Both players homered in the game. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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Coming off a down year, the London Majors, re-tooled and rejuvenated, couldn’t have asked for a better start to their 2024 season. They’ve won their first four games of the year – the first, a 7-5 road victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on May 12, and the most recent a 15-12 win over the expansion Chatham-Kent Barnstormers on Tuesday night.

In between? A big 10-4 win over the defending champs, the Welland Jackfish, and a 5-1 victory over the Brantford Red Sox. If they were looking to forget about last year’s disappointing eighth-place finish, the Majors have done exactly what’s needed to turn the page and make that a distant memory.

But the focus, of course, has been on a new year, from day one, and the early returns suggest this is a team that could return to being a contender in the Intercounty Baseball League. Let’s not forget, this is a team that’s only two years removed from winning back-to-back league championships. And it’s a franchise that made it deep into the playoffs several times before that.

It’s a mixture of familiar and new faces this year for London, and so far, at least according to the results, this looks like a team that is meshing well already. The players have certainly produced in the early going. Can they keep it up during a busy three-game weekend? It’s Kitchener at home Friday, Guelph on the road Saturday, and Hamilton back home on Sunday …

1) Come on down, Cardoso. If the Majors thought it might take the league a bit to learn that newcomer Kaiden Cardoso is a significant threat at the plate, they underestimated the damage he’d do right away. In the first four games, Cardoso, an Abbotsford, BC, native has gone 7-for-16 (.438) with a team-leading three home runs.

The 23-year-old has picked up a hit in each game so far, and has homered in each of the last three contests. He has five runs scored, six RBIs and more walks (3) than strikeouts (2) as he’s proven early to be a talented left-handed bat.

Not that his early IBL success should come as a big surprise. In his senior collegiate season in 2023, Cardoso had a monster season at Antelope Valley in the NAIA, putting up an eye-popping .450 batting average, 16 home runs, 19 doubles and 52RBIs for the Pioneers. His video game-like 1.387 OPS was tops in the California Pacific Athletic Conference (CPAC).

But it can be tough to gauge how collegiate numbers will translate into IBL competition, particularly at levels below Division I ball. At least in the early going, it seems they’ll translate very well for Cardoso, who has earned a premium spot in the batting order for his early success. If the infielder is able to produce a season like a Jakob Newton or a Taylor Wright did in 2022, it would provide the Majors with a huge boost in their efforts to go deep in the playoffs.

2) Payano passes early test. A lot didn’t go right for the Majors in 2023, but chief among them was import starting pitchers that didn’t pan out. The team seemingly had a revolving door of import arms that either didn’t perform or had to leave for personal reasons. With most teams relying heavily on import pitchers, that really hurt the team. So, the early success of newcomer Victor Payano has to be a relief for Majors manager Roop Chanderdat.

Though he was a bit shaky in his debut in Toronto on May 12, allowed three runs (one earned) on five hits and three walks while throwing 103 pitches in just 4 2/3 innings, the left-hander was a force last Friday against Welland. Following Jose Arias’ five innings, Payano came on to toss a nearly perfect four innings to earn a save.

The lefty allowed just a walk in the relief appearance, striking out five along the way. That gave him 10 strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings, with just five hits allowed during that span. And because two of the three runs he allowed in London’s season opener were unearned, he sports a nifty 1.03 ERA through two outings heading into a new weekend.

Perhaps no roster spot is more important than Payano’s, the second import arm behind Arias. So far, so good for the 31-year-old, who hails from San Juan, Dominican Republic. Especially with the absence of local arm Owen Boon this year, Payano will have to perform very well for the Majors to be contenders.

The London Majors on the third base line for the national anthem on their home opener, Friday, May 17, 2024. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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3) Handing over the Keys. It’s hard to know how newcomers will perform in their first IBL action – especially if they’re coming in having most recently played at a lower level of competition. That’s exactly the scenario pitcher Travis Keys is in this year. The local arm, who played at both the NAIA and NCAA levels in college, hasn’t pitched in high level leagues since graduating back in 2021.

Most recently, he pitched for the Ilderton RiverHawks in the Southwestern Sr. Baseball League. But in an outing against Brantford last Sunday, Keys showed he should be taken seriously as an IBL arm. The lefty turned in an impressive eight scoreless innings on the road, allowing just three hits and a pair of walks while striking out five in an eventual 5-1 London win.

The 25-year-old’s first appearance wasn’t as smooth, as he appeared in London’s season opener against Toronto, allowing two runs in an innings and two-thirds, but his body of work through two appearances is certainly encouraging. You can’t argue with a 1.86 ERA through 9 2/3 innings. If Keys can be a legitimate No. 3 or No. 4 starter, he’ll be a real asset with the Majors.

Eduardo de Oleo hit a home run during the Majors’ 10-4 home-opening win over Welland. He finished the game 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

4) IMPORTant bats. Just as import pitchers are crucially important for IBL teams, so are the bats brought in from outside Canada (teams are allowed a total of four import players, and the Majors generally go with two pitchers and two position players). Both import bats from last year, catcher Eduardo de Oleo and outfielder Starling Joseph, have returned, and both have produced early in the 2024 season.

de Oleo is coming off a two-homer game against the Chatham-Kent Barnstormers in a high-scoring London win Tuesday. The 31-year-old catcher finished the game 3-for-6 with three runs and four RBIs. Through the team’s first four contests, he’s matched Cardoso for most homers (3), and he’s batting .333 (6-for-18) with five runs and a team-leading nine RBIs.

Joseph, meanwhile, has already had two three-hit games in four outings – including a 3-for-6 performance against Chatham where he scored twice and drive in a pair of runs. The 25-year-old Dominican native is batting .368 (7-for-19) with six runs and four RBIs in the team’s first four games. He’s also stolen a base.