Fort McMurray Giants 2025 Preview

By IAN WILSON

You’ll have to excuse coaches, players, personnel and fans of the Fort McMurray Giants if they’re caught singing “Get Back” this summer.

Vocalist Paul McCartney urged the protagonists of The Beatles song to “get back to where you once belonged.”

For the Giants, where they once belonged is the Western Canadian Baseball League (WCBL) postseason.

After consecutive playoff appearances, Fort McMurray narrowly missed the big dance last summer.

The Giants were in a dogfight with the Brooks Bombers for the fourth and final playoff berth in the West Division in 2024. Both clubs finished with identical 20-36 regular season records, but the Bombers advanced on a tiebreaker.

This year, Fort McMurray will look to get back and prove that their previous postseason pushes were no fluke.

The Giants will also seek their first playoff victory in franchise history after being swept by the Sylvan Lake Gulls in 2022 and the Okotoks Dawgs in 2023.

COACHING

The WCBL’s northernmost team has brought back head coach Ray Brown in the hopes he can repeat the achievement of competing in the postseason.

Brown’s overall record in his previous two season with the Giants was 55 wins and 57 losses. He guided the club to a .500 record in 2019 and followed that up with the team’s first playoff appearance in 2022.

During that 2022 season, the Giants had the third-best earned run average (3.99 ERA) in the league. The pitching staff’s 432 strikeouts set a franchise record.

“We are beyond excited to have coach Ray Brown come back to the Giants for a third summer,” said Andrew Bradbury, the coordinator of scouting and recruiting for the team.

“The Giants organization believes that the man that led us to our first playoff appearance in 2022 will lead us to another playoff run in 2025. We can’t wait to get this summer rolling.”

Added Bradbury: “Ray is a world-traveled coach who is very highly respected on multiple continents. He’s a former professional pitcher and associate scout. He’s made a major impact on the baseball landscape in Alberta. Ray continues to be dedicated to the game, and helping young ball players develop into the best players they can be.”

Prior to his time in Fort McMurray, Brown was the head coach of the Edmonton Prospects in the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL), the predecessor of the WCBL. Brown held that post from 2014 through 2018.

Joining Brown is pitching coach Nik Cardinal, who played four summers for the Giants between 2016 and 2019.

Cardinal logged 165 innings as a pitcher with the Giants and his 127 career strikeouts are tops in franchise history. He is in his third season as the pitching coach at Allan Hancock College.

Tanner Hess is returning to Legacy Dodge Field as an assistant coach after patrolling the infield for the Giants in 2019. Hess was a WCBL All-Star selection for Fort McMurray in 2019, when he set a single-season team record for hits, with 63. He also played every infield position for the Giants that year. Hess had a strong Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) playing career with Vancouver Island University (VIU), where he is now an assistant coach.

Rounding out the coaching staff for the Giants is Dylan Cooper, who worked the last two years in the Cape Cod League as the first base coach of the Brewster Whitecaps. Cooper is also an assistant coach/ recruiting coordinator at West Virginia Wesleyan College, a Division 2 program. He was named the Coach of the Year in the Metro Summer Collegiate League in 2022.

PITCHING

Local southpaw Riley Burns is back as a stabilizing force on Fort McMurray’s pitching staff. The University of Calgary pitcher appeared in 16 games with the Giants last summer and another 11 in 2023, amassing 81-plus innings over both years. Burns has worked as both a reliever and a starting pitcher and he has collected 49 strikeouts as a member of the Giants.

The return of Burns is important after lefty strikeout artist Matt Whitney signed on with the Saskatoon Berries this offseason. Whitney went 8-4 with a 3.36 earned run average (ERA) with 98 Ks in 91 innings as a starting pitcher for the Giants in 2023 and 2024.

Winston Roberts has been added to the roster as a lefthanded mound option out of Walla Walla Community College. With the Warriors, he’s made 36 appearances since 2022, including four starts. In 102.2 innings, Roberts has a 6-3 record, six saves and a 3.68 ERA.

Righty pitchers on the club include K.J. Jones, Liam Taft, and Cameron Moore.

Jones is a South Suburban College student from Scarborough, Ontario who has been used as a starting pitcher and a reliever. With the Bulldogs this year, he is 4-1 with a 4.10 ERA and 28 Ks in 37-plus innings.

Taft can throw as hard as 93 miles-per-hour and is coming off his sophomore campaign at Allan Hancock College. He’s logged over 50 innings in 25 games over two seasons, working largely out of the bullpen but also making the occasional start.

Moore is a University of British Columbia (UBC) student with a wide arsenal of pitches. He represented Great Britain at the U23 World Baseball Classic.

BATTING

Darcy Barry is back for a second summer in the infield at Legacy Dodge Field. The Australian played 34 games for the Giants in 2024 and scored 19 runs while producing 17 runs batted in (RBI). Of his 26 hits, four were homers and five were doubles. Barry, who plays strong defense at shortstop, also stole five bases.

Joining Barry in the infield is Grant Scholzen, a student at Salt Lake City Community College who plays both second base and third base. He played for the Alaska Goldpanners last summer.

Two-way player Matt Rhoades comes to Fort Mac out of Concordia University Nebraska. The 6-foot-3 first baseman and lefty pitcher, who hails from Monument, Colorado, was the 2024 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Freshman of the Year. That season he smacked 16 long balls and produced 57 RBI in 57 games while striking out 20 batters and registering a 2.45 ERA in 22 innings.

Soloman Harwood will be back behind the plate after playing 10 games with the Giants last year. The London, Ontario product batted .342 in his 38 WCBL at bats.

Brock Bunker will also be available as a catcher and utility player. The Lassen College student is comfortable working at shortstop, second base and in the outfield. In 40 games this season, Bunker is batting .322 with 22 RBI, 15 stolen bases and 36 runs.

Outfielder Connor Martin got into eight games with the Giants last year and batted .286 with four RBI and a homer in that time. The Abbotsford, B.C. native will be back patrolling the outfield again in 2025 after performing as a consistent hitter for the College of the Desert in California.

Another outfielder to keep an eye on is Texan Connor Raney, who attends Dakota State University. The speedster can play all three outfield positions and has a strong arm. Through 50 games this college season, Raney is batting .299 with 34 runs, 19 RBI and 13 steals.