With the 2026 Midwest League season in the books – congrats to Quad Cities, by the way – let's remember our favorite moments and performances from the 30th year of Lugnuts baseball:
Best Swing: If you are ever asked, “Has anyone ever hit a home run to the Outfield Loft apartments?” tell them about May 12, when, in a tie game with two outs in the 8th, Rodney Green, Jr. launched a 490-foot rocket off a second floor balcony. The mind-blowing Balcony Blast carried the Nuts to a 7-4 win over Quad Cities.
Best Start to a Season: Davis Diaz batted a meager .218 in 60 games in 2025, but came flying out of the gates in 2026. Diaz was named the first Midwest League Player of the Week after dominating Fort Wayne, reaching base 16 times and scoring nine runs in five games while catching two runners attempting to steal and batting .611/.696/.833. It was part of a breakthrough campaign for Diaz, leading to an early call-up to Double-A Midland, an eventual promotion to Triple-A Las Vegas, and a spot on the A’s Top 30 Prospects list.
Best Finish to a Season: Entering August 6, Tucker Novotny had a 6.31 ERA / 1.72 WHIP, with 33 walks and 44 K in 41 1/3 innings. But that day till the end of the season, Novotny flipped the switch to domination. The Minnesota Golden Gopher posted a 1.87 ERA / 0.95 WHIP in his final 33 2/3 innings, striking out 40 while walking just nine. Which was his finest performance: His six shutout innings at West Michigan? His six innings of relief at Great Lakes, striking out nine Loons? Or his five masterful scoreless innings vs. Fort Wayne to end the year? In the process, Novotny earned a ticket to the prestigious Arizona Fall League.
Best Single-Game Hitting Performance: It was a surreal June 13, with the Lugnuts allowing a single-game record 30 hits and six home runs to Cedar Rapids en route to falling behind 23-4. But Jared Sprague-Lott led the comeback, knocking a two-run homer in the 4th inning and an RBI double in the 6th. That set up an amazing 8th inning in which Sprague-Lott sparked a nine-run rally with an RBI triple, the Lugnuts batted around, and Sprague-Lott singled to left-center, thereby becoming the ninth Lugnut to hit for the cycle. In the end, the Nuts lost 23-15 in a game that totaled 38 runs, 48 hits, 10 walks, 12 strikeouts and 409 pitches.
Best Single-Game Pitching Performance: Nathan Dettmer first debuted for the Lugnuts in 2025, then opened 2026 with Single-A Stockton, dominated, and returned to the Midwest League on May 10 at South Bend. How did Dettmer fare against the best team in the MWL on its home soil? He brought a no-hitter into the seventh inning, fanned seven, and led the Lugnuts to an overwhelming victory.
Best Streak: Outfielder Jake Reinisch was playing for independent Tri-City to open the season, his third straight year in independent baseball. But his contract was purchased by the A’s on June 23, he was assigned to the Lugnuts on July 1, and the Wake Forest product was a demon for Lansing immediately thereafter. Reinisch reached base in 44 straight games from July 5 - September 5, batting .320/.469/.533 – and he reached base a whopping 90 times during the stretch (48 hits, 40 walks, two HBPs). The streak ended, poetically, on the final day of the season.
Best Walk-Off: On May 30, the Whitecaps led 5-0 after two innings and 6-2 heading to the bottom of the eighth, but their lead was down to 6-5 after a Devin Taylor two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth off Jalen Evans.
Next up, Dylan Fien.
Best Last Pitch: A day after turning 21 years old, Steven Echavarria ratcheted his velocity up to 100 miles-per-hour to blow away Cleveland first-rounder Jace LaViolette.
It was Ech's ninth strikeout of the game, closing out six strong innings. It was also the final pitch he threw as a Lugnut, called up to Double-A immediately thereafter.