When you first peruse the Lehigh Valley IronPigs roster and look up and down the “age” column, you notice a wide variety. The youngest clocks in at 21 and the oldest comes in 31. Justin Crawford is the young man on the team and technically, the oldest is catcher Garrett Stubbs. He gets that distinction by being 6 1/2 months older than pitcher Koyo Aoyagi. In between are four 30-year-old players and one – Christian Arroyo – who turns 30 in late May. Then, you also have 22-year-old Erick Brito and Mick Abel (23), Gabriel Rincones, Jr (24) and a bunch of players between 25 and 29.

A couple of the “kids” like the mix in ages and look to take advantage of the situation. The presence of Stubbs will likely help a number of the young pitchers on the staff. Henry Michael Mercado turns 26 on April 15 and likes the added value that an experienced catcher can bring to his game. “They certainly make my job easier because it takes some of the stuff off my plate,” said Mercado. “I have a lot of trust in those guys and I think they’re great baseball players. A guy like Stubbs has been there and done that. Not only has he been in the big leagues but he’s been in the playoffs in big moments, and a guy like that makes it easier to pitch out there.”

The connection between a catcher and a pitcher is possibly the most important on the field. When they are in sync with each other the game really does start to look easy.

Rincones spent the early part of spring in big league camp and got to feel how having experienced players around can feel and what it can do for your confidence.

“It was crazy. Even just being in the same lineup as those guys (Harper, Castellanos, and others) was great,” said Rincones, who remembered one special moment from a game in Dunedin. “I got to start and I hit a home run in that game and having them praise me for a good swing and everything was surreal. I work every single day so that I can be around guys like that at some point and it’s great to have them around.”

When it comes to seeking out some of those veteran players, Rincones takes an approach of being seen and not heard. He’s not the type to ask veteran players for input or for tips, but he will certainly take anything that comes his way.

“I kind of like to keep to myself in the respect of not saying too much and keeping my eyes and ears open. For me, it’s not saying a lot, it’s listening,” noted Rincones. “There are a lot of years of experience in the big leagues in this clubhouse (at Lehigh Valley) and I think it’s my job to just listen more than it is to speak and I’m very content with doing that right now.”

Rincones was a third round pick in the 2022 Draft and is making his AAA debut with Lehigh Valley this season.

As for Mercado, he was with Lehigh Valley most of last season and had the opportunity to make his MLB debut with the Phillies. The right-hander opened with a shutout inning in relief against the Tigers and made his first major league start, allowing one earned run over five innings at historic Wrigley Field against the Cubs. From there, things took a tumble as hitters started to figure out a little bit about just who this Mercado guy was and what he threw. The Braves tagged him for five runs in 1 1/3 innings in his next start and 10 earned runs over his next 5 1/3 innings of work ended his stint as a Phillie.

Just two days before the season starts, Mercado is not sure exactly what his role with Lehigh Valley will be. It’s likely that he will work out of the bullpen but rejoining the rotation is certainly not out of the question. No matter where manager Anthony Contreras and the Phillies put him, Mercado is ready to go to work.

“I always tell everyone that I just stay ready no matter what; I’m always open to helping the club however they need me to,” said Mercado. “I just take everything one day at a time and stay flexible and that’s something that I pride myself on is being flexible and coachable. Whatever the role I have at the time is fine and then, you never know what happens from there.

“The veterans play a huge part here in Triple-A, especially when you have a lot of younger guys that have never been here before, you lean on those guys behind the scenes in the clubhouse to kind of help shape and teach the younger guys how to go about their business,” said Contreras. “I think it’s good to have a balance of young and old just to make things exciting.”