The Hawaii Baseball Report made its 2023 debut Sunday, delayed a bit by our All-State baseball, softball and boys volleyball teams, which ran the three previous Sundays. The backlog of information was more than I had room for under the stats, so read on for the bonus content.

Let’s start in the big leagues.

One of the top story lines I mentioned in my preseason column was watching where Mid-Pacific graduate Isiah Kiner-Falefa would fit in after losing his job as the Yankees’ starting shortstop to super prospect Anthony Volpe.

After logging 20 or more games each at second base, third base, shortstop and catcher in his career, IKF helped his case by proving in spring training that he is capable of playing the outfield. Somewhere along the way, he convinced manager Aaron Boone that he can also pitch, apparently, as Kiner-Falefa has been called on for emergency mop-up duty on the mound three times this season, leaving first base — the easiest defensive position — as the only position he has not played.

The guess here is that all of this will help IKF’s value … when he signs with another team as a free agent this offseason, because the Yankees already owe DJ LeMahieu $15 million a season over the next three and IKF will likely command too high a salary for them to keep a second utility player. LeMahieu has also struggled this season, which means that, at his age (35 next month), it would be tough to trade him, which the Yankees might prefer.

Two other position players with Hawaii ties started the season in the majors. Both have struggled, but their teams have handled them differently.

Josh Rojas — who has shown positional versatility second only to IKF’s — was sent to Triple-A by the Diamondbacks last week after starting the season batting .235 with no homers and the worst strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career. Arizona was not expected to contend this season, much less lead the NL West more than two months in as they are doing. They have a lot of young talent, but are likely to need the Hawaii alumnus as the season wears on.

Meanwhile, former Kamehameha-Hawaii and UH standout Kolten Wong has struggled even more than Rojas has, batting .164 and hitting his first home run Thursday for the Mariners, who are hanging around .500 after entering the season with high expectations. Wong has stayed with the big club, though. Wong might get a longer leash because he has a longer track record of production and it’s harder to send down players with more service time.

There are a few pretty good candidates to become the next major leaguers with Hawaii ties, and one of them is Kolten Wong’s younger brother Kean.

Kean Wong started the season on the Mariners’ Triple-A squad in nearby Tacoma, hoping to get the call-up that would allow him to play with big bro for the first time as a pro and add to the 32 games of MLB experience he accumulated in 2019 and 2021 with the Rays and Angels.

As much as he’d surely love to take the field with Kolten, his recent trade to the White Sox might get him back to the big leagues faster. Chicago has been searching for an answer at second base all season, running eight players out there so far. The latest is former All-Star Tim Anderson, who normally starts at shortstop but is working through shoulder soreness. Once Anderson is ready to return to short — or if he has to go on the injured list — the White Sox could give the younger Wong a shot. Kean is hitting .304 with four homers and almost as many walks as strikeouts.

Among the other players at Class AAA, two in particular seem on the verge of making their big league debuts — a pair of pitchers in the Guardians system who started the year in AA.

The main obstacle Kailua graduate Joey Cantillo has faced as a pro has been staying healthy. So far, so good this year. Cantillo made his 13th start of the season Saturday, throwing 52⁄3 scoreless innings for the Columbus Clippers against the Indianapolis Indians. Cantillo got no run support and thus no decision, but he may have opened some eyes as he struck out eight while allowing three hits and three walks. Cleveland has already had to dip into the minors for rotation help and recently announced that Triston McKenzie is out for an extended period and may need surgery. Fellow starter Cal Quantrill appears to be near a return from injury, but rumors are rampant that Cleveland will deal ace Shane Bieber by the end of next month, which would increase Cantillo’s chances.

Former UH pitcher Cade Smith recently joined Cantillo in Columbus. Smith had a bumpy start with the Clippers, giving up four runs in two innings in a 13-8 loss to Louisville on June 8. But he has been solid since, surrendering two runs in 52⁄3 innings with 9 K’s.

Even if Cantillo and and Smith don’t make it up this season, 2024 arrivals seem likely for both.

Another of the story lines I said was worth keeping an eye on was how ‘Iolani graduate Shane Sasaki would follow up his breakout 2022 season. Unfortunately, Sasaki’s season — his first with the High-A Bowling Green Hot Rods — has been marred by a different kind of break.

On May 12, Sasaki was hit by a pitch from Hickory Crawdads hurler Leury Tejada, fracturing his left hand. He said via text this weekend that there is no timetable for his return, but hand injuries often keep hitters out 10-12 weeks, meaning he’s likely at least a month away.

Some of the most interesting stories this season are in the MLB partner independent leagues. These circuits have always been a challenge to track, but they are getting better about posting rosters and stats, and there are several Hawaii players.

One of those is Matt Wong, who just completed his eligibility at UH and signed a couple of weeks ago with the Grand Junction Jackalopes of the Pioneer League. The Saint Louis graduate went 4-for-5 on Saturday with a homer and scored three runs and drove in two in a 13-6 win over the Rocky Mountain Vibes to lift his batting average to .370. He’s back down to .323 after going 0-for-4 with a walk Sunday and at 24 years old is unlikely to be drafted, but if he makes enough noise he might get a chance to fill out some team’s rookie league roster, and then anything can happen.

Also in the independents are three players who transferred from UH to higher profile programs for the 2022 season as graduate students — Alex Baeza to his native Utah, Kole Kaler to Texas A&M and Adam Fogel to Kentucky for 2022. Fogel has yet to play for the Ottawa Titans in the Frontier League, but Kaler and Baeza are playing solid ball for the Boise Hawks, who also have King Kekaulike alum Ryley Widell.

Boise boasts of having six of its players sign with MLB organizations since 2021, but the news release doesn’t mention that most of those have since been released. One of those Widell, who’s back after a stint in the Rockies system.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the Hawaii players in the independent leagues, to me, is Campbell product Ian Kahaloa.

Kahaloa was one of the brightest pitching prospects to come out of Hawaii in a while when the Reds took him in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. But two years later he was suspended for testing positive for a “drug of abuse” and a Snapchat video seemed to show him using marijuana and cocaine. The Reds released him after he completed his suspension because they didn’t feel he’d made enough progress.

I’ve looked for him a few times since to see if he might get a second chance, so I was surprised to see he actually made it back in 2019 with the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League. Last season, he pitched for two Pioneer League teams — the Boise Hawks and the Grand Junction Rockies — and this year he has caught on with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League.

Kahaloa is only 25 and his numbers are solid. He’s 4-3 with a 3.50 ERA and a 55-to-16 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 54 innings. The question is the level of competition, but I’m intrigued and will be following him closely. If he’s conquered his demons and can realize his potential, that would be a great story.

One last note that doesn’t quite fit in with the Hawaii Baseball Report is on Quintin Torres-Costa, a dynamic pitcher for Waiakea and the University of Hawaii who retired last August after a season with the Atlantic League’s Gastonia Honey Hunters.

Well, Torres-Costa resurfaced over the winter, winning an Australian Baseball League title with the Adelaide Giants in what seems likely to be his baseball swan song.