The York Revolution signed veteran independent league outfielder Mike Coles on Saturday. An Indiana native, Coles was drafted out of high school in the 34th round by the Baltimore Orioles but instead opted to play college ball at Purdue.

He made his pro debut in 2006 and has spent his entire seven-year pro career playing indy ball in Northern League, Frontier League and American Association. He’ll make his debut in the Atlantic League with York.

Coles, 30, has batted above .300 in four of those seasons. A 6-foot, right-handed batter, Coles split last year between American Association clubs Gary Southshore and Winnipeg. He had a .211 average in 27 games with Winnipeg but hit .300 in 72 games at Gary Soutshore.

His only season with double-digit home runs came in 2008 when he clubbed 12 long-balls to go along with 75 RBIs and a .302 average in 89 games for Windy City.

Roster: With the addition of Coles, York’s active roster is now at 26 players, one below the league-maximum of 27 players, which teams can carry through the end of this month, at which point rosters have to be paired down to 25 players. The Revs now have five outfielders under contract as well.

 

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The York Revolution signed lefty reliever Edward Paredes on Friday. The Dominican Republic native comes to the Atlantic League for the first time in his six-year pro career after pitching for the Cleveland Indians’ Class AA Akron affiliate this season.

A prospect of the Seattle Mariners his first five years as a pro, the 26-year-old Paredes sat out all of last season before playing winter ball in the Dominican for Estrellas, where he went 3-0 with a 1.93 ERA.

The left-hander started off hot for Akron, holding opponents scoreless in his first three appearances on three hits and eight strikeouts. He also tosses a fastball that tops out in the low 90s, according to Beacon Journal article. He certainly appeared on his way back to the Class AAA level, where he had made 31 combined career appearances in 2010 and 2011 with the Mariners’ Tacoma club.

But then Paredes got shelled for six combined runs over his last three appearances (1.2 innings), on six hits and three walks with two strikeouts, ballooning his ERA to 8.10. He has been looking for work since being released by the Indians on April 18.

Paredes’s best season came in 2010 at Class AA West Tennessee (Mariners), where he posted a 3.63 ERA in 26 relief appearances. He has a career 7.34 ERA at the Class AAA level. He has a career record of 28-30 with seven saves.

The signing of Paredes brings York’s active roster to 25 players, including 14 pitchers. The Revs now also have four left-handed relievers in Paredes, Yunior Novoa, Joe Torres and Rommie Lewis.

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My apologies on getting around to this a couple days later than normal. These past few days have been absolutely nuts with Revolution news and high school sporting events, especially since we’re in playoff season for high school.

Since this is coming out a few days late, I’ll preface this by saying the roster numbers may have changed since May 12. Since I’m short on time this week, I’m just going to skip over any news-related items and get right to the transactions. A total of five teams and 16 players were involved in transaction from May 6 to May 12, including three former big leaguers.

BRIDGEPORT BLUEFISH: Signed RHP Winston Abreu and INF Iggy Suarez, released RHP Edward Rodriguez and RHP Josh Schmidt

Last season, Suarez spent time with the Sugar Land Skeeters, appearing in 107 games and batted .212 with 20 doubles and six home runs, while scoring 39 runs. The 31-year-old began his career with the Boston Red Sox organization after being selected in the 24^th round of the 2003 MLB Amateur June Draft. He spent seven years with the Red Sox affiliates, and reached as high as Triple-A in 2009. The infielder recorded his best professional season in 2007 between Single-A Lancaster and Double-A Portland, where he batted .273 with 25 doubles three triples and four home runs while scoring 68 runs in 123 games. The infielder has had stops in Somerset, Southern Maryland, Lancaster and Sugar Land in his previous three years in the Atlantic League.

Abreu, 36, is a former big leaguer who comes to the Atlantic League for the first time in his 17th pro season. A Dominican Republic native, Abreu has 38 games of big league experience with four different clubs from 2006 to 2009, compiling a 7.36 ERA. He had an 8-5 record and 3.66 ERA in 53 relief appearances at Class AAA Las Vegas (Blue Jays) in 2011. Last year, the righthander was a member of Mexico City of the Mexican League. In 45 appearances, Abreu posted a 3.83 ERA and a 4-1 record in 44.2 IP. He also saved 15 games and struck out 38 batters. Abreu also pitched in the Mexican League earlier this season with Ciudad del Carmen and Veracruz, posting a combined 1.80 ERA in 11 games.

Rodriguez had a 12.15 ERA in five relief appearances for the ‘Fish. Schmidt had a 14.40 ERA in four games with Bridgeport.

The ‘Fish now have 28 players under contract (reliever Jeff Fulchino, starter Wardell Starling, outfielder Brian Anderson and infielder Brandon Chaves are inactive), including 12 former big leaguers.

CAMDEN RIVERSHARKS: Philadelphia Phillies signed 3B Tommy Mendonca; Camden signed RHP Jeff Farnsworth, released RHP Eric Gonzalez

Mendonca is a 25-year-old third baseman who came to the Atlantic League for the first time this season after spending the first four years of his pro career in the Texas Rangers’ organization. He has a career .278 batting average at Class AA, but batted .208 in 63 games at Class AAA Round Rock last season. The Fresno (Cal.) State product hit .292 with two RBIs, four walks, five strikeouts and no extra-base hits in eight games (24 plate appearances) for Camden. He has been assigned to the Phils’ Class AA Reading Fightin’ Phils affiliate. He is the sixth Atlantic League player to be signed by a major league organization this season.

Farnsworth, 37, comes back to Camden for the second straight season and the Atlantic League for the sixth time in the last nine years. He owns a career 11-18 record and 5.75 ERA in 116 Atlantic League games (26 starts). His only season in the majors came in 2002, when he posted a 5.79 ERA in 44 relief appearances for the Detroit Tigers. He had a 5.81 ERA in 40 combined games last season with the Sugar Land Skeeters and Riversharks.

Harris, 28, has spent nearly his entire pro career in the Atlantic League, returning to the league for the seventh straight year and to Camden for the fourth straight season. He has a career .155 batting average in 200 games which includes 21 games in the American Association 2007. Last season, the Texas native had a .159 batting average in 26 games with Camden.

Gonzalez had a 9.72 ERA in five relief appearances for Camden.

The ‘Sharks have 28 players under contract, including first baseman/catcher Raul Padron, who played Saturday but is currently no on Camden’s roster for some reason (I’m assuming he’s inactive since the team nor the league has released any info on his status). With Farnsworth on board, the ‘Sharks now have five former big leaguers.

LANCASTER BARNSTORMERS: Signed RHP Jason Richardson and C Gustavo Molina

Molina, 31, is a former major leaguer who makes his Atlantic League debut with the Barnstormers in his 14th pro season. He is less than two years removed catching in the big leagues with the New York Yankees. He has briefly seen time in the majors over four different seasons since 2007, compiling 26 games of major league experience with five big league ball clubs. Last season, he played in 35 total games split time between the Yankees’ Class AA Trenton and Class AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre affiliates. He has a career .214 batting average at the Class AAA level.

Richardson, 32, was putting up arguably his numbers of his career in 2011, going 4-0 with a 3.33 ERA in 19 relief appearances with the York Revolution, before the season was cut short due to injury problems, which later led to Tommy John surgery. The right-hander spent nearly all of last season in York rehabbing from surgery, with a locker next to pitcher Chris Waters – the two were high school teammates and later teammates again in the Atlanta Braves’ organization. Richardson has been looking for work since pitching earlier this year for the Long Island Sound, a team comprised of current and former Atlantic League players that scrimmages teams down in Florida during Major League Baseball’s spring training. Now in his sixth season in the Atlantic League, Richardson has also previously pitched for the Somerset Patriots and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.

The Barnstormers have 28 players under contract (catcher Francisco Hernandez is inactive), including nine with major league experience.

SOUTHERN MARYLAND BLUE CRABS: Signed RHP Beau Vaughan and RHP Joe Gannon, released RHP Peter Sikaras

Vaughan, 31, returns for his second season in the Atlantic League and first in Southern Maryland after compiling a 5-0 record and 3.37 ERA in 50 relief appearances for Lancaster last season. A third-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2003, Vaughan has 41 games of experience at the Class AAA level, where he has a 4.66 ERA, last pitching there in 2010.

Gannon, 38, returns for his fifth straight season in Southern Maryland and eighth overall in the Atlantic League.  The New York native pitched in just six games last year split between Lancaster and Southern Maryalnd. His best season in the Atlantic League came in 2008, when he had a 12-6 record and 3.17 ERA in 23 games (22 starts) for the Crabs.

Sikaras had a 7.26 ERA in nine relief appearances.

YORK REVOLUTION: 1B/OF Johan Limonta signed by San Diego Padres; York signed UTL Ruddy Yan and OF James Shanks; LHP Dustin Pease retired

Limonta batted .295 with two homers, four doubles, 12 RBIs and eight runs scored in 16 games. He reported to Class AA San Diego.

Yan and Shanks were brought on to provide some depth to York’s outfield. Yan, 31, has been playing independent ball since 2008. His only other season in the Atlantic League came in 2011 with the Camden Riversharks, when he batted .281 with 26 steals in 99 games.

The Revs had released Shanks mid-way through last season after he batted just .249 in 77 games. It was a drop-off from the .325 average he carried in 2010 and .314 average he had in 2011.

Pease, 27, decided to retire after posting a 7.50 ERA in six games for the Revs this season. According to Revs’ play-by-play man Darrell Henry, Pease wants to spend more of his time to a baseball academy Pease runs in Maryland. The Maryland native played college ball nearby at Mount Saint Mary College through 2007. Pease was in the San Diego Padres’ organization the last two years, compiling a combined 3.52 ERA in 55 games at Class High Lake Elsinore in 2011 and 52 games at Class AA San Antonio in 2012. (Former Revs’ reliever Josh Judy is currently playing at San Antonio).

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Matt Fox approached every start the same, no matter the chatter he heard about major league organizations being interested in his services.

The former big leaguer just wanted to go out to the mound for the York Revolution and prove he’s healthy.

“I think the main reason I was here (in York) is because (major league) teams were just a little bit hesitant (to sign me) since I missed (much of) last season,” Fox said. “They wanted to see that my stuff was where it should be and where it usually is and that I was able to bounce back (after each start). I’ve only had three or four starts but they were able to see what I had.”

The New York Mets liked Fox enough to sign the right-hander to a minor league contract on Tuesday. He’ll report to Class AAA Las Vegas.

Fox made four starts for York, posting a 1-0 record and 1.58 ERA in 17 total innings. The 6-foot, 3-inch right-hander struck out 18 batters and walked three.

Fox, 30, found out about the signing Tuesday morning from Revs’ manager Mark Mason shortly after the team left on a bus headed for Long Island.

“About a half-hour in, Mason wanted to see me at the front of the bus,” Fox said.

The bus pulled over in a Sheetz parking lot off Oregon Pike in Lancaster County, where baseball operations manager Andrew Ball came to pick up Fox.

A Florida native, Fox will now aim to become the fifth player to reach the majors after playing for York.

The University of Central Florida alum reached the majors in 2010 with both Boston and Minnesota, making one big league start for the Twins, the organization that drafted him in the first round of the 2004 draft out of UCF. After going to the Red Sox, he made three appearances out of their bullpen in 2010.

Fox said he has no hard feelings for the Twins, who put him on waivers following his major league debut.

“The season was pretty much over. The minor league season had three or four games left. I was gonna be a free agent anyways (at the end of the season),” Fox said. “They (the Twins) needed a spot starter. I didn’t really have any hard feelings for them. The season was just about to be over.”

Fox spent all of the 2011 season with Boston’s Class AAA Pawtucket affiliate, going 10-4 with a 3.96 ERA in 28 games (21 starts).

Injury: Fox missed much of last season battling inflammation in his throwing shoulder. He had eight combined starts for three different affiliates in the Seattle Mariners’ organization.

“Going to winter ball would’ve been better for me to do (to get interest from big league teams), but I did a pretty strict rehab program all off-season,” Fox said. “It worked out. When the season started I wasn’t really worried on teams who didn’t want me. I just focused on pitching well.”

Minors: Fox becomes the third York player to get picked up by a major league organization this season, which matches the total amount of Revs that were signed by big league teams last year. He joins nine other former Revs in affiliated ball. Pitchers Josh Judy (Angels), Mike DeMark (Oakland Athletics), Shawn Hill (Detroit Tigers), Ian Thomas (Atlanta Braves), Ryan Feierabend (Rangers), Omar Javier (San Francisco Giants), Justin Hampson (Toronto Blue Jays), outfielder Michael Hernandez (Tigers) and outfielder/first baseman Johan Limonta (San Diego Padres) are currently playing in the minors. York alum Scott Rice is still dominating in the majors as a relief pitcher for the Mets.

Roster: As a result of Fox’s departure, the Revs’ active roster is now down to 24 players. The starting rotation should be OK without Fox, though. The Revs still have five starters in Corey Thurman, Chris Cody, Brett Tomko, Nick Green and Kris Regas. Plus, reliever Pedro Liriano has the ability to spot-start, if needed.

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There’s not one exact moment Jason Repko can point to when he realized he was done with the game that has been such a big part of his life since the age of six. The 32-year-old outfielder said Monday night there were a mix of factors that went into his decision to retire.

“The number one thing is in my heart I felt like I was ready to turn the page in my life and turn to the next chapter and focus on my family and see what life has to bring,” Repko said. “And then having kids and wanting to spend more time with them. And the way my body feels and feeling content with what I’ve accomplished in my career.”

Repko informed York Revolution manager Mark Mason last Tuesday night, May 2, about his retirement following York’s 11-9 win over Somerset. He played his last game Sunday afternoon in Lancaster.

“I talked to Mason about five or six days ago and let him know how I felt. I told him I would give him the time he needed to find somebody to replace me. I stayed until Sunday,” he said.

Repko admits thoughts of retirement first popped up over the off-season when the seven-year big league veteran couldn’t find a contract with a major league organization.

“Obviously it went through my head. Not being able to hook on with any organization in the off-season pointed to maybe I’ll be done,” he said. “And then this opportunity (with York) popped up and I wanted to see if my heart was still there.”

Repko retires with 360 games of big league experience. A first-round draft pick out of high school by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1999, Repko played in the majors for the Dodgers, Minnesota Twins and Rex Sox. For his career, he has a .224 average, 16 homers and 67 RBIs in the majors.

Repko started out this season batting just .159 in his first 10 games with York before going 19-for-63 (.302) at the plate in his last 12 games to bump his average up to .253. A better batting average wouldn’t have changed his mind on retirement, though.

“I didn’t put much weight into how I was performing,” he said. “It was more how I felt about the game. It was more looking towards the future. I love winning baseball games. That was important to me. The personal statistics of how you start a season never really effected me. Some seasons I started terrible some, seasons I started great.”

Repko capped off his baseball career Sunday by getting a season-high four hits, including a triple and two runs, in York’s 10-2 over the Barnstormers.

“More than anything I wanted to win (Sunday). I wanted to have a fun day, see the guys smiling and jumping,” Repko said. “On top of it you get the four hits and the last at-bat getting a base hit.”

Looking back on his 14-year pro career, Repko said his top baseball memory is when he made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005.

Repko said he and his family, which includes his wife of six years and their 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, will spend time visiting various places before returning to their home in Washington state. They spent Monday visiting Hershey with the Tomko family, which includes York’s starting pitcher Brett Tomko and his wife and their twin 3-year-old boys. Repko and Tomko, teammates with the Dodgers in 2006, came to York as a package deal.

“I’m not worried on what’s gonna come next,” Repko said. “We’ll sort it out here once the summer gets going.”

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Somehow, Mark Mason isn’t at all flustered with the current setup of his roster. Not even with Monday’s news of outfielder Jason Repko retiring and short stop Andy Gonzalez leaving the team for personal reasons.

The moves leaves Mason, the York Revolution manager, with 25 players on the active roster, with just 11 of those being position players.

“I would anticipate nothing for right now at least until we get home (Friday),” Mason said of possible roster moves. “We’re going to Long Island with what we’ve got.”

Mason is comfortable with his current roster. Utility man Eric Patterson, who returned to action over the weekend after nursing a right quad injury, will assume everyday responsibilities at short stop, Mason said. And Tyler Graham, who has been out for a week with a groin injury, will start in center field for the Revs’ in the series opener at Long Island on Tuesday night. James Shanks, who York signed last Friday, will take Repko’s place in left field. Wilston Batista will be at the designated hitter spot and outfielder Ruddy Yan and catcher Patrick Arlis will be the team’s only position players on the bench.

“It’s weird how things work out,” Mason said. “It’s just the way minor league baseball works out. There’s always somebody coming and somebody going and then things fall into your lap. A guy becomes available and then a guy gets signed. You’re thinking about how am I gonna get playing time for somebody and then the next day somebody retires.”

Mason said the Revs are always open to adding talent to the roster.

“There’s a lot of guys that are out there but they’re not ready to sign with independent teams yet,” Mason said. “We’ve talked with some guys. My guess is gonna be end of month, beginning of June, maybe within the next two weeks (we’ll sign a player). Guys who are just getting released now, they’re waiting for deals elsewhere before playing for an independent team.”

Repko retires after 14 years in pro baseball, including seven seasons in the majors. He was batting .253 with one homer, 11 RBIs, 18 runs scored and five stolen bases in 24 games for the Revs. In the final game of his career on Sunday afternoon in Lancaster, Repko went 4-for-5 with a triple, stolen base and two runs scored.

“He (Repko) told me he wanted to move on into another chapter in his life with his family,” Mason said. “He just didn’t get excited about it. He appreciated being here in York. As far as a baseball player goes, he thought it was time to change gears and move on.”

York placed Gonzalez on the suspended list while he returns to his native Puerto Rico to deal with “personal issues,” Mason said.

“Andy called me (Sunday) night and said he had some personal stuff going on and he had to go home,” Mason said. “There was no timeline set last night (as to when he’ll return to York).”

Gonzalez, a former big leaguer, held a .273 batting average with no homers, seven RBIs and eight runs scored in 21 games for York.

Lewis return?: Revs’ relief pitcher Rommie Lewis, a former major leaguer, is expected to return to action this week. He hasn’t played since May 2, dealing with what he described last week as an “impingement” in his left throwing shoulder. Lewis has held opponents scoreless in all three of his relief appearances thus far.

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