Pittsfield Suns players Rachiele, King, Lussier all named Futures League All-Stars

For the second consecutive season, the Pittsfield Suns placed three players on the postseason All-Futures League first team.

Infielder Jimmy King and outfielder Austin Rachiele earned the honors, along with infielder Matt Lussier, who was listed as a designated hitter/utility player.

The Suns had the second-most players named to the All-Futures League first team. Only the Vermont Lake Monsters and New Britain Bees had more, with four players each.

It coincidentally equals the number of Suns players named to the 2022 first team, and all three were named to their same positions.

Last year, infielder Drew Metzdorf and outfielder Caleb Shpur were first-team picks, along with first baseman Marco Ali, who was named as one of the DH/Utility first-team picks.

Regular-season and playoff champion Norwich managed only one first-team selection. But third baseman Dean Ferrera was not only a first-team pick, but he led the league with a .422 average, was sixth with 30 runs batted in and won the league's Most Valuable Player award.

King was one of four Holy Cross Crusaders to play in the Futures League last summer. For the Suns, King played in 30 games and hit a solid .302. He was third on the team in hitting for players who participated in a minimum of 25 games. King hit two home runs, had 19 runs batted in, and was 19 for 21 on stolen bases. King had a .422 slugging percentage and a .376 on-base percentage, giving him an OPS of .798.

Rachiele, the Taconic High School and MCLA graduate, hit .283 for the Suns with a home run and 27 RBI. Of the players who were on the Suns roster at the end of the regular season, Rachiele was the RBI leader. He had a pair of six-game hitting streaks, and missed out on a season-ending seven game streak by going hitless in his last game. Rachiele stole 17 of 21 bases, had an on-base percentage of .386 and a slugging percentage of .450, for an OPS of .837.

The third All-Star will be heading into his freshman season at Division I Fairfield. Lussier was second on the team with a .330 batting average, and made constant contact, striking out only 13 times in 106 at-bats. He scored 23 runs and drove in 16. Lussier wrapped up 2023 with a four-game hitting streak. Lussier had hit streaks of five and six games during the season. He had a .430 on-base percentage and a .411 slugging percentage, giving him an .841 OPS. He also stole 12 of 13 bases.

All three Suns who made the postseason All-Futures League team also played in the late-season Futures League All-Star Game in Burlington, Vt.

The other news out of the Futures League is that Brockton Rox owner Brian Kahn will be adding a second Brockton team to his holdings. Brockton will be joining the Frontier League, an MLB Partner League that also holds Rick Murphy's Tri-City ValleyCats as a member. Kahn now owns two teams in the Frontier League, as he also operates the Windy City ThunderBolts.

“I am proud to sponsor another summer season of Brockton Rox baseball at Campanelli Stadium in 2024," Kahn said in a release from the Futures League. "Adding a professional baseball team that will also call Campanelli Stadium home, ensures that our community will have access to high-quality baseball, in varying forms every day of summer in 2024”

This announcement extends the long-standing partnership between the Futures League and Brockton.  The Rox joined the league during the second year of its existence in 2012. That was the year the Suns, North Shore, Old Orchard Beach and Wachusett joined the league. Only Pittsfield and Brockton remain of those five franchises.