Bio
OF Justin Connell joins the Explorers following the All-Star Break after spending the first part of the season with the Lake Country DockHounds. In the winter, Connell played for the Tigres de Cartagena in the Colombian Winter League and previously was a part of the Washington Nationals organization from 2017-2023. He reached as high as Double-A after being drafted in the 11th round of the 2017 MLB Draft out of American Heritage High School.
During his time with the DockHounds, Connell batted .287 while posting a .794 OPS over 47 games. His final game with Lake Country came July 13 against the Explorers where he went 3-4 with a run and an RBI. Five of his final nine games with the DockHounds were also multi-hit games. He’s proven to be a great base runner as well, stealing 16 bases across the season, including five in his last seven games.
In the offseason with the Tigres, the outfielder played in 17 games, batting .343 with an .808 OPS over 76 plate appearances. Before that, he played all of his games in 2023 with the Double-A Harrisburg Senators but was released in April after just nine games.
Connell worked up a lot more plate appearances in the 2022 season when he played 116 games in total, splitting time between the High-A Wilmington Blue Rocks and the Double-A Senators. He began the season in Double-A and played well over 96 games with the Senators, posting a .345 on-base percentage and a .396 OPS in 379 plate appearances. That stint included 11 homers and 30 extra-base hits. He started the season torching hot, posting a .925 OPS through April 28 while having a stretch where he hit home runs in six of 11 games. After hitting a cold stretch at the end of July, the Nationals decided to move Connell down to High-A, where he started returning to form by batting .254 with a .774 OPS in 20 games.
2021 was Connell’s first season in High-A, playing all 98 games of the season there and posting a .293 batting average to pair with a .754 OPS as a 22-year-old. During the season, the outfielder had a 12-game hit streak between June 13 and June 27, posting a .359 batting average with a .914 OPS during that time. He also ended the season in a big way, having another big hit streak, 11 games between Aug. 11 and Aug. 27. In one of the final games of the season on Sept. 14 against the Bowling Green Hot Rods, Connell had a multi-homer night, collecting four RBI in his 3-6 performance from the plate.
Prior to the COVID shutdown in 2020, Connell played the 2019 season for the Single-A Hagerstown Suns, playing in a career-high 120 games and batting .249 with a .658 OPS. Through the year, he had a few great batting nights, including a 4-6 night with three runs scored against the Delmarva Shorebirds on May 13, but he really picked it up late in the season, batting .282 with a .356 OBP over his final 21 games.
In 2018, Connell split time between the Low-A Auburn Doubledays and the GCL Nationals in rookie ball, playing 39 games in total between the two. He started the year in rookie ball, playing in 25 games beginning June 21, but earned his promotion to Low-A after posting a .319 average with a .740 OPS in his final 14 games with the team. It took him a few games to get accustomed to Low-A, but he ended the season with three strong games where he went 5-10 with a double and stolen base. In total, the right-handed batter saw 50 plate appearances in Low-A, posting a .263 average and .710 OPS.
Connell was drafted out of high school in the 2017 MLB Draft by the Nationals and started his career with a strong stint in rookie ball, playing in 30 games for the GCL Nationals in 2017. During the year, he had a stretch of three straight three-hit games where he went a combined 9-11 with six runs, four RBI, three walks and a double. Across the year, he posted a .323 batting average with a .772 OPS while getting on base at a .407 clip.
Connell also played for Team Spain throughout his career, including the Worlds Baseball Classic in 2022, and came from Plantation, Fla., where he pitched during his high school days.