2014 Douglas Diablos Season Recap - A Team Loaded With Talent That Couldn't Stay Together
Looking back more than a decade later, the most remarkable thing about the 2014 Douglas Diablos isn't their record.
It isn't where they finished in the standings.
It isn't even that 2014 became the only season the Douglas Diablos ever played in the Pecos League.
It is the talent that passed through Copper King Stadium during that one summer.
On the same roster at the beginning of the season were Yermín Mercedes and Edilson Alvarez.
Mercedes would eventually reach Major League Baseball and become one of the most recognizable former Pecos League players when he burst onto the scene with the Chicago White Sox.
Alvarez had already established himself as one of the best pitchers in the Pecos League and would move on to higher-level independent baseball.
Douglas had other talented Latin players and an intriguing collection of players capable of making the expansion Diablos competitive immediately.
But the roster never stayed together long enough to see what it could become.
Under manager Mike Greene, communication problems, cultural differences and a deteriorating clubhouse environment became part of the story of the season.
Players moved on.
The roster changed.
The early promise disappeared.
Douglas eventually finished 28-36 and missed the playoffs.
After one season, the Douglas Diablos were gone from the Pecos League.
In retrospect, 2014 remains one of the great "what if" seasons in league history.
What if Douglas had been able to keep that original roster together?
What if Mercedes had spent the summer hitting in the middle of the Diablos lineup?
What if Alvarez had remained at the front of the Douglas rotation?
The answers will never be known.
But the talent was unquestionably there.
The Pecos League Enters Arizona
The 2014 season represented an important expansion of the Pecos League.
For the first time, the league entered Arizona and the Pacific Time Zone.
Two new teams were established only about 24 miles apart.
The Bisbee Blue would play at historic Warren Ballpark.
The Douglas Diablos would play at Copper King Stadium.
It created an instant southeastern Arizona rivalry and gave the Pecos League two neighboring markets that could dramatically reduce travel whenever the clubs played one another.
Mike Greene was selected as the first manager in Douglas.
Sean Repay managed Bisbee.
The league's opening-week announcement described both clubs as expansion teams and identified Greene as the new manager of the Diablos.
Douglas would open on the road against Bisbee before returning to Copper King Stadium for its first home game. ([Pecos League][2])
There was reason for optimism.
Douglas wasn't starting with an empty cupboard.
The Diablos had legitimate professional talent.
Edilson Alvarez Gives Douglas an Ace
One of the biggest pieces on the original roster was Edilson Alvarez.
Alvarez had been one of the Pecos League's elite pitchers in 2013 with the Las Vegas Train Robbers.
He went 8-1 that season while working 79 innings and striking out 66 hitters.
For 2014, Alvarez joined the expansion Diablos.
The Pecos League considered him important enough to announce him as Douglas' scheduled starter for the franchise's first home game.
He justified that confidence.
Alvarez made four starts for Douglas and threw 30 innings.
He allowed only five earned runs.
His earned run average was 1.50.
He struck out 28 while walking only seven.
Those numbers were exceptional in any league and particularly impressive in the high-scoring environment of the Pecos League. ([Baseball Reference][1])
But Alvarez's stay in Douglas was brief.
After only a handful of appearances, he moved on from the Diablos and eventually pitched for Trois-Rivières in the Can-Am League.
Douglas had lost the pitcher who could have anchored its rotation for the entire summer.
Yermín Mercedes Arrives in Douglas Looking for One More Chance
The other player who makes the 2014 Douglas roster historically remarkable was a 21-year-old Dominican hitter named Yermín Mercedes.
At that moment, Mercedes was nowhere close to being a Major League Baseball success story.
He had signed with the Washington Nationals organization and spent three seasons in the Dominican Summer League.
Then Washington released him.
His affiliated baseball career appeared to be over before it had really begun.
Mercedes needed somewhere to play.
The Pecos League gave him that opportunity.
Mercedes and several other Dominican players signed with the Douglas Diablos. MLB would later specifically identify Douglas as the place where Mercedes resumed his professional career after being released by Washington. ([MLB.com][3])
There was nothing glamorous about it.
The Pecos League represented baseball at its most basic level.
Players were earning very little money.
Housing could be difficult.
Bus travel was demanding.
There was no guarantee that playing well would lead anywhere.
For Mercedes, however, it represented something more important.
It was another chance.
Mercedes Shows Immediately That He Can Hit
Mercedes didn't spend long in a Douglas uniform, but he demonstrated the offensive ability that would eventually carry him all the way to the Major Leagues.
He played 18 games for the Diablos.
Mercedes went 20-for-60.
He hit .333.
He had seven doubles.
He hit two home runs.
He drove in 14 runs.
His on-base percentage was .385.
His slugging percentage was .550.
His OPS was .935. ([Baseball Reference][4])
Those weren't the statistics of a player simply hanging onto a professional baseball career.
Mercedes could hit.
The challenge was finding the right environment in which to continue doing it.
Douglas ultimately wasn't that environment.
The Clubhouse Begins to Break Apart
This is where the story of the 2014 Diablos becomes more complicated than the statistics.
Douglas had assembled a roster containing a significant group of Latin players along with players from throughout the United States and elsewhere.
Managing that kind of independent baseball roster requires more than filling out a lineup card.
Language differences matter.
Cultural differences matter.
Communication matters.
Most importantly, trust between the manager and players matters.
During the Douglas season, that relationship did not develop strongly enough to keep the original roster together.
There were disagreements and communication problems within the club, and the Diablos began losing some of the very players who had made the opening roster so intriguing.
The precise details of every clubhouse disagreement aren't preserved in the public statistical record.
What the transaction history makes clear is what happened afterward.
The roster fragmented.
Alvarez left after four starts.
Mercedes left after 18 games.
And Douglas continued the season without two of the most talented players who had begun the year wearing Diablos uniforms.
Mercedes Gets Another Opportunity in White Sands
Mercedes' departure from Douglas might easily have been the end of his Pecos League story.
Instead, it became the turning point.
Mercedes needed another team willing to take him.
White Sands Pupfish manager Darrell Carrillo provided the opportunity.
Mercedes later recalled essentially asking Carrillo for help because he was a young player pursuing his dream and had nowhere else to play.
Carrillo kept him.
It became one of the most consequential player moves in Pecos League history. ([MLB.com][3])
Mercedes exploded offensively with White Sands.
In 36 games with the Pupfish, he hit .411.
He hit 15 home runs.
He drove in 55 runs.
His slugging percentage was .801.
His OPS was 1.254. ([The Baseball Cube][5])
The player Douglas had at the beginning of the season became one of the most dangerous hitters in the entire league after leaving.
By the end of 2014, Mercedes had also spent time with the San Angelo Colts.
Then came the opportunity that changed everything.
The Baltimore Orioles signed him to a minor-league contract.
His affiliated career was alive again.
The Long Road From Douglas to the Major Leagues
Mercedes' baseball journey would remain long and difficult.
He spent years climbing through the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox systems.
He played hundreds of minor-league games.
He remained far from the major-league spotlight for years after leaving Douglas.
Eventually, he made it.
Mercedes reached the Major Leagues with the Chicago White Sox.
In April 2021, he became a national baseball story when he went 5-for-5 in his first Major League start.
Suddenly, baseball fans across the country were learning about the unusual road Mercedes had traveled to reach the Major Leagues.
Part of that road went directly through Douglas, Arizona.
Major League Baseball's own account of his journey specifically remembered the Douglas Diablos and the Pecos League as part of the opportunity that kept Mercedes' career alive. ([MLB.com][6])
For the Pecos League, it became one of the clearest examples of what independent baseball could accomplish.
A player released from affiliated baseball needed somewhere to play.
Douglas gave him that place.
White Sands gave him another.
Eventually, the Orioles gave him another affiliated contract.
Years later, he was in the Major Leagues.
Alvarez Also Moves Up
Mercedes wasn't the only Douglas player whose departure illustrated the talent contained on the original roster.
Edilson Alvarez also moved to a higher independent level.
After dominating during his brief time with Douglas, Alvarez joined Trois-Rivières in the Can-Am League.
He remained there in subsequent seasons and continued pitching professionally.
In 2015, Alvarez went 6-2 with a 3.58 ERA.
In 2016, he went 6-5 with a 2.67 ERA over 114.2 innings. ([Baseball Reference][7])
That makes the beginning of Douglas' season even more striking in retrospect.
The Diablos had a future Major League hitter and a pitcher capable of succeeding at a significantly higher independent level on the same roster.
They just couldn't keep them together.
Douglas Continues Without Its Original Stars
Once Mercedes and Alvarez were gone, the Diablos still had to play the remainder of the Pecos League schedule.
There were good players left on the roster.
Matt Alton hit .338 with a .468 on-base percentage.
Corben Green became one of the club's strongest offensive players.
Logan Lotti, Jean Batista, Malquiel Brito, Larry Rodriguez and others contributed during the season.
But the original construction of the team was gone.
The Diablos increasingly looked less like the club that had opened the season and more like a typical independent team trying to survive a difficult summer.
Douglas could be competitive on individual nights.
On June 7, the Diablos went into Joe Bauman Park and defeated the Roswell Invaders 5-3.
On June 16, Douglas produced one of its most impressive road victories, beating Roswell 12-1.
But sustained success never developed.
A Difficult South Division
Douglas also entered the Pecos League during a season when the South Division was exceptionally strong at the top.
The Alpine Cowboys finished 48-20.
The Roswell Invaders finished 38-27.
The Bisbee Blue, Douglas' neighboring expansion rival, finished 33-30.
White Sands finished 28-33.
Douglas finished at the bottom of the South standings at 28-36 according to the Pecos League's historical records. ([Baseball Reference][8])
The Diablos weren't a historically bad baseball team.
They were simply never able to turn their collection of talent into a stable winning club.
That distinction matters.
The story of Douglas wasn't that the organization couldn't find good players.
It found some extraordinary ones.
The problem was keeping the operation together long enough for that talent to matter in the standings.
The Mike Greene Experiment Ends After One Season
Mike Greene finished the season as manager of the Diablos.
The 2014 season remains his only year managing Douglas in the Pecos League.
Greene had an extensive coaching background before and after his time with the Diablos, including experience in college, high school and summer baseball.
But independent professional baseball presents a unique managerial challenge.
A Pecos League manager isn't simply a field strategist.
He is dealing with players from different countries, backgrounds and levels of experience.
He is managing housing problems, transportation issues, limited resources and players constantly looking for opportunities elsewhere.
The 2014 Douglas roster proved particularly difficult to hold together.
Whatever combination of personality differences, communication problems and cultural challenges contributed to the instability, the result is visible in the historical record.
Some of Douglas' most important players did not finish the season in Douglas.
And the team that looked so interesting in May was very different by the middle of the summer.
Douglas Lasts Only One Year
The difficulties weren't limited to the roster.
Douglas itself proved unable to establish a sustainable Pecos League operation.
The Diablos played only the 2014 season.
After finishing 28-36, the franchise did not return for 2015. ([Wikipedia][9])
That made the Diablos one of the shortest-lived teams in Pecos League history.
One season.
One manager.
One summer at Copper King Stadium.
No playoffs.
No championship.
Yet the team's place in league history became considerably more interesting with the passage of time.
Imagine Keeping Mercedes and Alvarez Together
This is the question that makes the 2014 Douglas season fascinating today.
What happens if the original roster stays together?
Edilson Alvarez gave Douglas 30 innings with a 1.50 ERA and 28 strikeouts.
Yermín Mercedes hit .333 with a .935 OPS before leaving Douglas.
After joining White Sands, Mercedes hit .411 with 15 home runs in only 36 games. ([Baseball Reference][1])
Put that production back into the middle of the Douglas lineup.
Put Alvarez back at the front of the rotation.
Suddenly a 28-36 expansion club looks very different.
Nobody can know whether the Diablos would have reached the playoffs.
Baseball doesn't work that simply.
But the raw talent was there.
The organization just couldn't keep all of it in Douglas.
One Roster, Two Remarkable Baseball Stories
The passage of time has transformed the way the 2014 roster should be viewed.
In May 2014, Mercedes was simply a 21-year-old Dominican player trying to restart his career after being released by Washington.
Alvarez was a successful Pecos League pitcher trying to move to a higher level.
Years later, their paths provide a remarkable snapshot of what independent baseball is supposed to accomplish.
Alvarez used his Pecos League success to reach the Can-Am League and establish himself at a higher independent level.
Mercedes went much farther.
He went from Douglas to White Sands.
From White Sands back into affiliated baseball.
Through the Orioles organization.
Through the White Sox organization.
And eventually to Major League Baseball.
The Pecos League's transaction history ultimately recorded Mercedes moving from White Sands to the Baltimore Orioles organization in August 2014.
It is difficult to imagine a better example of why leagues like the Pecos League exist.
The Legacy of the 2014 Douglas Diablos
The Douglas Diablos were not a championship team.
They weren't a playoff team.
They didn't even survive for a second season.
But they remain one of the more fascinating teams from the early history of the Pecos League.
Mike Greene managed the club through its only season.
Douglas finished 28-36.
The clubhouse and roster never developed the stability necessary to turn the team's talent into sustained success.
Most importantly, some of that talent left before anyone in Douglas could see what the complete roster might have accomplished.
Edilson Alvarez was there.
Yermín Mercedes was there.
For a brief period during the spring of 2014, one expansion Pecos League team in Douglas, Arizona had both of them.
Alvarez would advance to higher independent baseball.
Mercedes would eventually advance all the way to the Major Leagues.
The Diablos themselves went in the opposite direction.
The roster fragmented.
The season slipped away.
Douglas finished below .500.
And after the final game of 2014, the Diablos disappeared from the Pecos League.
That is what makes their single season so memorable.
The 2014 Douglas Diablos weren't remembered because of what they won.
They are remembered because of what they had.
For one brief moment, Copper King Stadium was home to a roster featuring one of the best pitchers in the Pecos League and a future Major League hitter desperately trying to keep his baseball career alive.
The talent was there.
The opportunity was there.
The team simply couldn't hold together long enough to find out how good it might have been.
2014 Douglas Diablos
Manager: Mike Greene
Home: Copper King Stadium - Douglas, Arizona
Record: 28-36
Notable Players: Yermin Mercedes and Edilson Alvarez
