A Lugnuts' Fans Guide to the 2025 Wild Card Round

Of the 12 teams in the Midwest League, six are affiliated with Major League teams playing in the eight-club Wild Card Round.

And, no, the A's/Lugnuts aren't involved, but there's still Nut representation: The Cubs started Matthew Boyd in Game 1 against the Padres, while San Diego countered with Mason Miller out of the bullpen. Boyd gave up one run in 4 1/3 innings, Miller struck out the side in a perfect inning of relief, and the Cubbies bested the Pads, 3-1.

Taking a look, series by series, at each team's 25-man roster with an eye toward Midwest League alumni:

Detroit Tigers (17 of 25 players are MWL alumni) at Cleveland Guardians (20!)
This past Midwest League postseason saw a West Michigan/Lake County first round clash, and the Major Leagues are following suit, pitting the Whitecaps and Captains' parent clubs against one another.
- Former Whitecaps on the Tigers include Brant Hurter, Troy Melton, Keider Montero, Tarik Skubal, Will Vest, Dillon Dingler, Riley Green, Parker Meadows, Spencer Torkelson and Wenceel Pérez. Other former Midwest Leaguers: Jack Flaherty and Javier Baez were Peoria Chiefs, Jahmai Jones was a Burlington Bee, Jake Rogers was a Quad Cities River Bandit, Kyle Finnegan was a Beloit Snapper, Gleyber Torres was a South Bend Cub, and Zach McKinstry was a Great Lakes Loon.
- Former Captains on the Guardians include Tanner Bibee, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, Cade Smith, Gavin Williams, Bo Naylor, Angel Martínez, José Ramírez, Brayan Rocchio, Daniel Schneeman, Chase DeLauter, Petey Halpin, C.J. Kayfus, Jhonkensy Noel, Johnathan Rodríguez, George Valera. Other MWL squads represented: how about four Fort Wayne TinCaps! Joey Cantillo, Erik Sabrowski, Austin Hedges, Gabriel Arias.

San Diego Padres (12) at Chicago Cubs (19)
Two more teams (Fort Wayne | South Bend) with Midwest League affiliates, and a good Hoosier State rivalry in the MWL that was broken up by South Bend getting sent to the West Division in 2021.
- San Diego pulled off the biggest trade at the deadline, acquiring Mason Miller with JP Sears from the A's in a four-player package led by phenom Leo De Vries. The Pads also feature six TinCaps (Adrián Morejón, David Morgan, Bradgley Rodríguez, Luis Campusano, Jackson Merrill, Fernando Tatis), one Bowling Green Hot Rod (Jake Cronenworth), one Cedar Rapids Kernel (Luis Arraez), one Dayton Dragon (Wandy Peralta), and two South Bend Cubs (Dylan Cease and Jeremiah Estrada).
- Chicago has seven South Bend Cubs (Daniel Palencia, Nico Hoerner, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Moises Ballesteros, Ian Happ, Kevin Alcántara, Matt Shaw) and remarkable diversity otherwise. How about one Lugnut (Matthew Boyd); one Chief (Carson Kelly); one River Bandit (Kyle Tucker); two Captains (Aaron Civale and Willi Castro); one Loon (Michael Busch); one TinCap (Colin Rea); one Timber Rattler (Caleb Thielbar); one Dragon (Justin Turner); one Snapper (Taylor Rogers); one Clinton LumberKing (Andrew Kittredge) and one Kane County Cougar (Brad Keller)! That's covering the bases.

Boston Red Sox (7) at New York Yankees (7)
The two teams not represented in the Midwest League, so you'd figured these would be short lists.
- From the Red Sox, there's Nathaniel Lowe (Bowling Green), Connor Wong (Great Lakes), Zack Kelly (Burlington), Alex Bregman and Wilyer Abreu and Nate Eaton (Quad Cities) and David Hamilton (Wisconsin).
- From the Yankees, there's David Bednar and Max Fried (Fort Wayne); Trent Grisham and Devin Williams (Wisconsin); and Jazz Chisholm, Jose Caballero and Paul Blackburn (Kane County).

Cincinnati Reds (20) at Los Angeles Dodgers (15)
And back into the MWL with Dayton (Cincy) and Great Lakes (L.A.) meeting up in a battle of two East Division foes / historic National League franchises.
- The Reds are stacked with Dayton Dragons - 13 of them (Andrew Abbott, Graham Ashcraft, Chase Burns, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Connor Phillips, Tony Santillan, Elly De La Cruz, TJ Friedl, Noelvi Marté, Matt McLain, Tyler Stephenson, Sal Stewart) plus two Great Lakes Loons (Scott Barlow and Gavin Lux), one Cedar Rapids Kernel (Spencer Steer), two Clinton LumberKings (Zack Littell and Emilio Pagan), one Lake County Captain (Will Benson) and one Wisconsin Timber Rattler (Brent Suter).
- Lastly, the Dodgers, who have former Lugnut rehabber Mark Prior as their pitching coach, feature seven Great Lakes Loons (Jack Dreyer, Edgardo Henriquez, Emmett Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski, Andy Pages, Dalton Rushing, Will Smith) alongside two Bees (Max Muncy 1.0 and Blake Treinen), one Chief (Tommy Edman), one Dragon (Miguel Rojas), one Hot Rod (Blake Snell), one Kernel (Ben Rortvedt), one LumberKing (Alex Vesia) and one River Bandit (Teoscar Hernández).

Waiting in the next round: Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.'s Blue Jays and Danny Jansen's Milwaukee Brewers... but we'll get to Toronto, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Seattle next.