Bio
C Dwight Childs joins the Explorers for his seventh year of professional baseball. It’s his first year back in baseball since 2014 where he last played with the New Jersey Jackals of the Canadian-American Association. He played two years in MLB Partner Leagues, including with the St. Paul Saints in the American Association, after spending four seasons in the Cleveland Indians organization where he reached AAA.
His last time with a club was in 2015 when he was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates and assigned to AA Altoona, although he was released before the season began. Childs appeared in nine games with the Jackals, batting .261 with a .694 OPS. He reached base at a .433 clip although he didn’t collect any extra-base hits. In 2014, Childs went from St. Paul to New Jersey mid-series as the two teams played each other in mid-August. He went 2-4 with a walk and RBI against his former team in the series finale. Across the season with the Saints, the catcher hit .201 with a .243 OBP, picking up 14 RBIs and 16 runs in 58 games. Longtime Explorers fans might remember him hitting against Sioux City, picking up three of his season’s eight extra-base hits against the X’s.
2013 was Childs’ first year in the American Association as he joined the Saints, playing in 73 games with a .241 batting average and .671 OPS. He launched seven home runs and 26 extra-base hits, which Included a series against Wichita where he went 5-8 with two runs, five RBIs, a homer, and two doubles.
Childs spent his final year in the Cleveland system at High-A Carolina, playing in 44 games and picking up 18 hits with 16 RBIs. Late in the season, he went 3-4 with a run, four RBIs and a double. The season before, he split time with Single-A Lake County and AAA Columbus. He started the season with Lake County with a .270 batting average over 11 games with a .767 OPS, and was promoted to AAA in late June. With AAA Columbus, he only played one game, but stayed on the roster into September.
In 2010, Childs started out in extended spring training before being assigned to the AZL Indians in rookie ball. He only played in two games with the rookie club, going 1-3 with two walks before being promoted to Single-A Lake County. The righty bat played in 16 games with the Lake County Captains, finding five hits and five RBIs to pair with four runs.
Childs’ first year of pro ball came in 2009 after being drafted in the 18th round of the MLB Draft by the Indians out of the University of Arizona. He started the season with the Low-A Mahoning Valley Scrappers, playing 15 games and hitting a home run with five RBIs over his time there. In July, he was promoted all the way up to AAA Columbus where he played in one game, catching one inning behind the plate. In late July, he was sent back down to Low-A to continue development and finished the season there.