McKenna caps season with Desert Dogs

The baseball offseason has finally arrived for Ryan McKenna.

And it should be a good one.

The 21-year-old former St. Thomas Aquinas standout capped a breakout 2018 by getting All-Arizona Fall League recognition from mlb.com on Monday after batting .344 in the six-team league for top young prospects, largely from Double-A and Triple-A, that concluded earlier this month.

Playing for the Glendale Desert Dogs, McKenna batted .344, the sixth-best average in the league, and ranked second in on-base percentage (.390). He was also named to the All-Star team in late October.

“I’ve just been applying a lot of the stuff I worked on in the season,” he said. “Trying to get good pitches when you can, get in hitters’ counts, and try to get a good rhythm going.”

McKenna, a fourth-round draft pick in 2015, is ranked by mlb.com as the No. 12 prospect in the Orioles’ system. A center fielder, he spent the second half of the summer playing at Double-A Bowie and is expected to be assigned there in the spring.

Starting the season at advanced-A Frederick, he batted .377 with eight home runs and 37 RBIs before being promoted to Bowie, where he hit .239 with three homers and 16 RBIs in 60 games.

“Those guys are definitely a little bit more seasoned,” said the Dover resident, “Their stuff is a little bit more electric. … They’re not afraid to throw anything, You’ve just got to be ready and have a game plan going forward.”

In Glendale, he played center field for 17 games, hitting one home run, six doubles and three triples, and making just one error.

Also making the All-Arizona League team were the Blue Jays’ Vlad Guerrero Jr., who spent most of the summer bashing for the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, and Red Sox farmhand Darwinzon Hernandez, who was lights-out in relief.