Winkler was a 10th-round draftee by the Athletics in 2021. The University of San Francisco product played four seasons in the A's system, peaking in Double-A. Miami grabbed him in the Triple-A phase of last offseason's Rule 5 draft. Winkler got a few looks as the final player on Clayton McCullough's bench over the course of the season. He appeared in 14 games, starting four of them in the middle infield.
I wouldn't say definitely, Mendoza said on Thursday prior to his squad's series finale against the San Diego Padres. I think we'll have that conversation, and we'll take the best 13 guys that we feel are going to give us the best chance to win baseball games in October. But in the meantime, we got 10 more [games], and we will continue to treat it that way.
He went five innings, improving his ERA to 13 (lol) and striking out seven while allowing two runs to cross the plate. The problem, though, is that Worcester did not have two runs cross the plate all night. Their only extra-base hit was courtesy of Max Ferguson, and the WooSox also only drew one walk on the night. Their win expectancy was kept minimal for the vast majority of the night despite the thin lead Syracuse held.
