Minor league baseball, first and foremost, is about developing talent. The fans want wins. The teams want players to develop and continue to climb higher in the organization, and that will always take precedence over winning.

MLB teams hire player development specialists, look for just the right managers and coaches and spend a lot of time and money on player development. For some players though, the best lessons come from other players. Guys who have been there and done that before and have stories to tell – some of them full of bad news – of what they have been through in baseball.

Pitcher Kirby Snead is a precautionary tale for younger players. He tells players and others about pitching at Yankees Stadium in May of 2024 only to be signing with the independent Staten Island FerryHawks in May of 2025. That’s quite a fall, but it happens.

This past May, Snead signed with the Phillies and was assigned to Lehigh Valley. Perhaps a bit shellshocked, he was concerned about losing that job after a bad outing against Rochester where he gave up three earned runs in two innings, literally bracing himself to get called into manager Tank Adamson’s office for “the talk.” He never got that call to the office, but he also hasn’t gotten the call back to the majors. Through it all though, he has pitched well for Lehigh Valley and helped to get young players to understand that stuff happens, and it can happen quickly.

“You have to have a pretty short memory in baseball, particularly as a relief pitcher,” Adamson told the media recently. “It’s not always going to go perfectly to plan. Kirby is just really consistent with the way he prepares every day. He’s willing to take the ball all the time.”

Snead is similar to players like Andy Tracy, Miguel Cairo, and Andrew Bailey, who have put on the IronPigs uniform over the years in that they are open to talking to and helping young players. After all, not every player is going to be a major league all-star. There are far more guys like Snead who find themselves a month away from turning 32 and have pitched in the majors for three different teams, but have a career 5.09 record and collect very little interest at this point in their career.

Snead warns players against doing something he admits he did; taking it for granted. Suddenly, after that 2024 season with Seattle, his phone didn’t ring with offers.

“It kind of wakes you up a bit; in a good way,” said Snead. “In the moment, you have this terrible feeling not having anyone offer you a job. But, at the end of the day, it really helped me enjoy these opportunities. You never take anything for granted, and just enjoy the moment.”

BAD TIMES IN SCRANTON ... Lehigh Valley won just two of its seven games against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders last week. It won the opening game, which was the conclusion of a game that had been suspended at Coca-Cola Park a couple of weeks before, and then it won Saturday when it scored three runs in the top of the ninth for a come from behind win. That means that the odds of a playoff spot are somewhere under the odds of winning Powerball. In practical terms, the ‘Pigs would need to win all 12 remaining games, and have more than half of the teams in the league go into historic collapses. The IronPigs are 29-33 in the second half, and 64-73 overall.

OUT IN RIGHT FIELD ... Look for some type of renovation or addition to be done in the right field area of Coca-Cola Park during the offseason. The IronPigs have done upgrades to the ballpark almost every offseason, and have plans for something new for the 2027 season, their 20th anniversary season. Personally, I’m hoping for a Wall of Fame type addition. By the way, there will be minor league baseball in 2027 even though the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement ends on Dec. 1, 2026, and a player lockout is looming. One difference is that players on team’s 40-man rosters would not play because they are considered to be under the MLB Agreement. That would mean players like Otto Kemp, Felix Reyes, and Gabriel Rincones Jr. would be sidelined. Those who want to worry about minor league baseball may want to put that off until 2028 when the MiLB CBA ends on Dec. 1 of that year.

THE PENULTIMATE SERIES ... The Worcester Red Sox come to Coca-Cola Park this week for the penultimate series of the 2026 season. Next week, Lehigh Valley is off to Syracuse to take on the Mets. The Pigs can play spoilers since both the Woo-Sox and the S-Mets have legitimate shots of catching Scranton and Rochester, the two teams at the top of the second half standings in the International League. The second-half league champion plays in a best-of-three league championship series in Memphis following the regular season.

ELSEWHERE ... Reading is home this week for its final series of the season. Its magic number to clinch a playoff spot is four. It would have one home game in a best-of-three division series and a shot at playing for an Eastern League championship. Clearwater qualified for the postseason and will open a best-of-three series against the Tampa Tarpons (New York Yankees) this week looking to get a spot in the Florida State League championship.