West Islip's Nick Tropeano feels healthy as he prepares for another season with Ducks

A new year brings a renewed arm for righthander Nick Tropeano and the Ducks.

The West Islip native and Stony Brook alumnus was working his way back from elbow surgery entering last spring. He was limited to 15 games in 2024, starting six and finishing with a 4-2 record.

“I was rehabbing a bit. I felt good last year, but I feel good again this year,” Tropeano said Saturday at the team’s annual Media Day. “We got a good group of guys coming in — a lot of hungry guys looking to win — and we’re going to have fun.”

Tropeano’s return is a welcome one for the Ducks, who will open their 25th anniversary season on Friday at home against the Lancaster Stormers. Tropeano said he wants to get back to MLB-affiliated ball and has a mantra to help him battle through the lows that come with injuries throughout his career.

It’s a philosophy that’s helped him through 14 years of professional baseball, seven of those coming in the majors.

“One thing I like to live by: ‘You got a jersey on your back, you have an opportunity,’ ” Tropeano said. “So I got a jersey on my back right now and I’m going to take full advantage of it.”

New arrival John Gant is expected to make the start on Opening Day, bringing 173 games of MLB experience with Atlanta, St. Louis, and Minnesota to his first season with the Ducks.

“It’s special to me to play on this 25th anniversary team,” Gant said. “You see just how steeped in Ducks culture this organization is. Just to be a part of that is a special privilege and a blessing.”

No torpedo bats yet

Manager Lew Ford didn’t commit to the Ducks using torpedo bats, noting that the team discussed it and offered the option to its players after the Yankees’ hitting extravaganza to open the MLB season.

But Ford did make clear one aspect of baseball in which he wants the Ducks to thrive.

“I think the game is moving a lot toward speed,” Ford said. “Our team stole 190 bases last year, and we’re looking to build off that this year and really focus on it.”

JC Encarnacion (39 steals in 78 games) and Kole Kaler (14 steals in 54 games) likely will play a big role in realizing that goal. But someone will have to drive them in, and new arrival Seth Beer, who spent 2024 in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization, is confident he can do just that.

“My job is to drive those guys in,” Beer said, “and every time I come up in a situation to swing the bat and do some damage, that’s something I take a lot of pride in.”

LI’s Werner living the dream

Mount Sinai’s TJ Werner had a birthday party at a Ducks game when he was younger. Now he’s “so surprised” that he’s swinging away at the same pitches he used to watch from the stands.

Werner, a 2024 Fairleigh Dickinson graduate who hit .238 and had a .968 fielding percentage across his 172 collegiate games, was invited to spring training after attending the Ducks’ open player tryout on April 12.

“I originally wasn’t going to go, but a friend of mine, [pitcher] Bobby Vath, who made the team last year in a tryout, said, ‘You have to go, you’re like 20 minutes away,’ ” Werner said.

Ford shared how valuable open tryouts can be for the Ducks and players like Werner.

“We did have a lot of transactions and turnover last year during the season and sometimes we need to get a player here quickly,” Ford said. “There were also players who made the team last year and maybe there will be this year — in fact, I think there might be.”

Werner, who also serves as an assistant coach for the Mount Sinai High School varsity baseball team, picked up his first hit as a Duck on Saturday in an exhibition game against California Dogecoin.

“Work as hard as you can and believe in yourself, and you can do anything,” Werner said. “It’s something my dad always told me, and it’s something I stick by.”

Tremendous turf

A six-game homestand to open the season means an early chance  to show off the Ducks' new turf field — the highlight of numerous renovations the team completed this offseason — and Tropeano  soon will get the chance to pitch from the new mound.

“It’s a little different of an adjustment, getting used to the turf and whatnot,” Tropeano said. “It looks good and it feels good.”

Ducks owner and founder Frank Boulton said the team donated its old tarpaulin — used to cover the previous grass field — to his alma mater, Bay Shore High School.

“I’m a dirt-and-grass guy. It took a little bit to go to an artificial playing surface,” Boulton said. “But the utility of what we have out there now and listening to the guys about how the field is going to play, that’s a big difference.”