In dramatic turnaround, the Isotopes nearly went from worst to first last year. Can they continue to win in 2024?

Pedro Lopez’s first few months as Albuquerque Isotopes manager, in 2023, couldn’t have gone much worse.

The Isotopes stumbled to a 27-48 first-half record, dead last in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.

Fast forward to the last weekend of the regular season and Lopez had his team battling for a playoff spot — thanks in large part to a rule the self-described “old-school” manager didn’t want to see implemented. But more on that later.

Back to the the last Sunday in June as the dreadful first half of the season came to a close with the Isotopes having lost 21 of 26 games, including six straight on the road to the Reno Aces

Lopez called a meeting after a June 25 loss in Nevada.

“We were done with excuses,” Lopez recalled about the conversation he had with the team. The manager said he didn’t want to hear complaints about the smaller strike zone implemented in minor league baseball to start the year nor did he want the Isotopes fixated on the goings-on with the Colorado Rockies, the team’s major-league affiliate.

Then, Lopez said, he asked the team to raise their hands if they were “lawyers, doctors, architects, engineers.”

Two players did raise their hand — infielder Alan Trejo, who has a degree in aeronautical engineering from San Diego State University and pitcher Ty Blach, who has a finance degree, with honors, from Creighton University.

“The rest of the guys were ballplayers. … ‘Just go out there and play baseball and have fun,’” Lopez said he told the team. “That’s what we did in the second half.”

Clean slate

Because of a tweak to the Triple-A rule book in 2023, the Isotopes had a 0-0 record when second-half play started June 27. That’s because the winners of each half of the season would now secure a playoff spot and that would mean the Isotopes — a team that gave up 80 more runs than it scored in the first half of the season — had the same shot at a championship as the rest of the PCL. Throw that first-half record out the window.

“I’m not a fan, but I am a fan,” Lopez said of the split season.

He said he’s skeptical because in the major leagues, the team’s record for the whole season counts toward a playoff berth and he believes that Triple-A players should operate under similar rules as the league they all dream of playing in someday.

But, Lopez admits, the team’s culture took a turn for the better with the clean slate.

“That format of having two halves … allowed the guys to go out there and compete for something. That was pretty special,” he said.

Running up the score

What specifically changed? Notably, players starting responding to a game plan the manager had tried to implement at the start of the season.

“We’re going to run, we’re going to run,” Lopez explained about the team’s philosophy in 2023. “It took us 70-some games for us to actually start running.” By “running,” Lopez means stealing bases.

The Isotopes stole 41 bases in the first 75 games of the season and 132 in the second 75 games.

Stealing bases at a little more than three times the rate they did in the first half of the season gave the Isotopes a spark. The team’s 41-34 second-half record was tied for third best in the PCL. They had a shot at the postseason, but fell just short.

“We just ran out of games,” Lopez said.

Still, in 2023, the Isotopes set a franchise record with 959 runs scored and their 173 stolen bases were second most in club history.

Man with a plan

Albuquerque opens its 21st season at Isotopes Park when it plays El Paso on Friday, March 29. Lopez turns 55 on Opening Day. He’s in his fourth year overall with the team, after having previously served as both a hitting coach and bench coach. Last season, he reached 1,000 career victories as a manager. He also played parts of 13 seasons in the minors with the Padres, Brewers and Astros.

Lopez said the challenge in his second season as manager will be to get the team to carry the momentum from the second half of last year into Day One.

In addition to Lopez, the team is bringing back hitting coach Jordan Pacheco and pitching coach Chris Michalak. The newcomer to the coaching staff is bench coach Michael Ryan. The Isotopes roster won’t be known until mid March.

The ’Topes, who haven’t had a winning season in nearly a decade, have a simple goal in 2024: Make the playoffs. And a simple way to accomplish that goal, as Lopez explained: “Home runs and stolen bases.”

Speed is going to be a factor.

“If we can put some pressure on the defense when we get a base hit, we try to stretch a single into a double. I think that’s going to make teams make more errors. I think that’s where the big innings are going to come,” Lopez said. “We’re going to scare pitchers out of the strike zone.”

And if that strategy goes awry, no worries. Around late June, Lopez’s squad can regroup, refocus and revive its postseason plans.