Shake-up in the stable: Billings Mustangs prep for 2023 with plenty of new personnel - 406 Sports
Leaving an opportunity to be an assistant coach with the Boston Red Sox organization on the table in the offseason, Billy Horton, a coaching veteran at various levels with several major-league teams, pondered with his family on what would be next in his well-traveled career.
Leaving an opportunity to be an assistant coach with the Boston Red Sox organization on the table in the offseason, Billy Horton, a coaching veteran at various levels with several major-league teams, pondered with his family on what would be next in his well-traveled career.
The 49-year-old from Arizona found his answer in Montana, and as he preps for his first season in charge of the Billings Mustangs baseball team — and first time in the state at all — he gets to go back to his pro-ball roots.
Hired in January to succeed former coach Jim Riggleman in leading the Ponies for their upcoming 75th anniversary season, Horton, who briefly played independent baseball from 1997-2000 before embarking on a coaching career, returns to the scene this time as a string-puller and one of the main molders of what will be a fresh-faced Mustangs team in 2023 — both on and off of the field.
And after months of phoning players and references in trying to assemble all the right pieces, Horton and Billings (which begins Pioneer League play at 6:35 p.m. next Tuesday against the Missoula PaddleHeads at Dehler Park) are eagerly awaiting to see how everything fits.
"The more my wife and I prayed about it, the more we felt like Billings was the best opportunity," Horton said. "Being able to help be in charge of the roster and bring in my own guys and find players out there ... it was very attractive. Just more and more, it felt like this was the right place to go to have that kind of responsibility. I think it was the right thing for me."
Horton is one part of a sizable shift in much of the Mustangs' personnel, which began this past December when Gary Roller, a Billings native and the club's general manager for 18 years, announced his retirement
Colorado native Matt Allen, a former college baseball player with front-office experience in the Pioneer League, then arrived a month later as the new GM following a seven-year stint with the Grand Junction Rockies (now Jackalopes). Horton's hire was announced by the team shortly after Allen's.
The Mustangs' new-look dugout staff was then rounded out with pitching coach and former big-league arm Dennis Rasmussen — who began his coaching career in 1996 with the former Butte Copper Kings — and hitting coach Craig Maddox, an indy ball playing veteran who spent three years coaching in the San Francisco Giants' organization before moving to Billings.
Together, the trio has grinded away on finding the fits it wants in Billings for 2023, though there are still some kinks that need to be worked out as the staff's prior live-ball experience with most of the roster is limited.
Horton, for instance, said that he had only personally worked at the pro level with one current Mustang (Venezuelan outfielder Mikey Edie) in the past when the two were together in the Giants' farm system, and only previously knew Arizonan utility man Connor Denning because he went to a baseball camp at 10 years old that Horton helped run.
Still, Horton said that there isn't a player on the team that he "just signed out of nowhere" and that he utilized his major-league connections to get good referrals for contributors that could make serious differences this summer.
"You do a lot of research because you don't want to just bring in anybody," Horton said. "They're going to represent Billings. ... So for me, I want to bring in the right guys. There's plenty of good players out there, but we need good men who are going to represent this city well. We don't want guys coming here to do anything but play baseball."
As of this writing Tuesday evening, the Mustangs' website lists a roster that's 32 players deep, though it will be trimmed to as low as 25 by Sunday in advance of the season opener, per a team spokesperson.
And unless something unexpected occurs, count on returner Gabe Wurtz being a major part of the Mustangs' plans.
The Alabama native and outfielder/first baseman is back for his second year in Billings after smashing a team-high 20 home runs with 81 RBIs a season ago. He was one of the key cogs behind the club's 53-41 overall record and qualification for the Pioneer League playoffs, where it lost to Missoula in the best-of-3 North Division series.
The choice to come back to Montana was an easy one for Wurtz, 26, who said that he had "a great time" bonding with the rest of the clubhouse last season and would be happy to help those new to Billings and/or a pro schedule adjust to their surroundings and thrive, especially with all of the moving parts across the club recently.
"Just talking with Billy, the new manager, and talking to Matt several times now since I've been here, I just really like all the front office," Wurtz said. "It was a really good group (last year), so I think that definitely influenced the decision. It's going to be a lot different this year, having a lot of those guys not return, but I'm excited to see what we got."
Mustangs fans, meanwhile, are able to get a first look at the team this weekend when the club hosts a pair of intrasquad scrimmages prior to opening day at 6:35 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Dehler Park. Admission will be free both nights while the team store will be open and limited concessions will be available.
It'll be their first chances to see Horton's style of baseball and running a club, too, and if it's anything like his blueprint he spoke on with The Billings Gazette and 406mtsports.com Tuesday, it's going to be a no-nonsense environment geared with the intention of getting the best out of players and hopefully getting the attention of MLB organizations.
The "nostalgia of baseball" is something that Horton appreciates, he said, and in a landmark season for one of the Pioneer League's oldest teams, he intends to uphold that prestige and reputation during his time in Billings — however long he decides to stick around Big Sky Country.
"We're going to treat this like a major-league organization, like one of the affiliates," Horton said. "Indy ball, sometimes people say certain things about it, and I had my own experiences. These guys are going to get the same experience that they would've got if they were playing right now for the Reds or the Royals or the Tigers or any of those teams.
"We're going to run things very professionally. These guys are going to be hungry — at least they better be."