After failing to make the Canadian Baseball League finals for the first time since 2022, the Barrie Baycats have brought back a quarter of its roster.
The team made seven re-signings this week, all players that are returning from the 2026 roster.
On Tuesday, Barrie brought back two-way player Hayden Jaco on a four-year deal, as well as catcher Wandy Ciprian and right-handed pitcher Oscar Moreta on one-year deals with a one-year option.
Jaco, 30, spent the last four seasons with the Baycats, going 14-for-36 in 13 games at the plate with two home runs and nine RBI in 2026, while logging a 1-0 record, 2.23 ERA and eight strikeouts while pitching 10.2 innings across three appearances.
The 29-year-old's rookie season was spent with the 2021 London Majors when he earned the Rookie of the Year award, All-IBL honours, and helped the team to the IBL title.
Jaco has not played a full season — enough to qualify for a batting title — since the Baycats' 2024 championship season. Much of his time since then has been spent between playing in short spurts during the season and at home in British Columbia.
Ciprian was named as an All-CBL first-team selection on Wednesday after hitting .347 with a team-high nine home runs and 32 RBI across 43 games in his rookie year.
The 21-year-old Dominican spent most of the year as a catcher but was shuffled throughout the lineup and into a couple different positions in August. Baycats manager and general manager Josh Matlow said Ciprian will need to play more as a utility man in 2027 to keep his bat in the lineup more consistently than if he were to catch full time.
Moreta became a key multi-inning reliever for the club in his first year in the CBL. He pitched to a 4.02 ERA with 42 strikeouts across 22 outings (31.1 innings). Ten of his appearances were of two innings or more in length.
Shortstop Brandon Hernandez exercised a player option to return on Wednesday. Despite struggling with a wrist injury late in the season, he put up a .328 batting average, two home runs, and 11 RBI in 33 games.
On Friday, the Baycats re-signed catcher Tyler Plumpton, right-handed pitchers Brad Grieveson, who also acts as the team's pitching coach, and Braeden Pakkala.
Plumpton, who works as an investigator with the Barrie Police Service, appeared in just six games in his age-38 season in 2026, two of those as an emergency reliever.
Meanwhile, Pakkala logged a career high in appearances (22), innings pitched (34.2), wins (2), and strikeouts (42) in 2026, while Grieveson added another 14 innings and 14 strikeouts in nine games.
Also, the first trade of the Baycats' offseason was made official on Monday when the team brought in right-handed pitcher Nelson Mercado in a trade with the Guelph Royals for cash considerations.
Born in Columbia but raised in Brampton, Mercado spent parts of the last five seasons with the Royals. He pitched to a 4-7 record and 7.26 ERA with 92 strikeouts over 84.1 innings in 33 appearances (seven starts).
He also made five appearances with the Ottawa Titans of the Frontier League in 2026.
The 23-year-old is a Canadian citizen and will not count against the Baycats' import total.
CBL teams are limited to eight foreign-born, non-naturalized players on their roster, and a salary cap of $30,000 per month for 26 players.
