Excitement heralds in new Trash Pandas season

MADISON – The 2026 baseball season is underway with the Rocket City Trash Pandas battling through its season- opening weekend and now set to return next week against in-state rival Birmingham. The team is making every series, every game and every inning will be filled with excitement and fun at Toyota Field.

“We have so many items here at Toyota Field with new daily gatherings for every game. We want fans to ask, what’s new, as each game will be a show within a show,” said Lindsey Knupp, Executive Vice President/ Assistant General Manager of the Trash Pandas.

The newest excitement for Trash Pandas’ fans is the newly introduced Trash Pandas Rewards, which allows fans to earn points by attending games and purchasing their favorite merchandise and food items and then redeeming those points for an array of great happenings at Toyota Field. Details are available on the team’s website.

The season’s weekly promotions include: Tuesdays- Tail Waggin’ Tuesday; Wednesdays- Wine Wednesday; Thursdays- Throwback Thursdays; Fridays & Saturdays- Fireworks; Sundays- Player Autographs & Kids Run The Bases. Besides the great baseball on the beautifully groomed playing field, the Trash Pandas take pride in hosting superb fan-friendly promotions and special events which leads to the corresponding numbers listed among the promotion highlights: 26- fireworks nights; 20- giveaways; 33theme nights; 11- special appearances; 6- specialty jersey auctions; 5- bobble heads.

One major change at Toyota Field is the current construction of the new visitor’s clubhouse in the left field section of the stadium. The renovation has been required by Major League Baseball. Completion of the new building is expected at the end of the month, but fans will already notice that this year the concourse at the stadium does not go all the way around 360-degrees. The new addition does away with the ability of circling the playing field from point-A to point-A.

As for the team, the season began with 15 pitchers, 3 catchers, 7 infielders and 4 outfielders with new manager Joe Kruzel leading the way. Several players on the roster are returnees and hope to play a big part in the team’s success and entertainment for fans.

“I’ve spent a lot of time here and I’ve loved all my time here. I’d be lying if I said I’d love to move on as well, but I mean, I love being here as this is a great spot surrounded by a lot of good things around here as this is a great, great place to be,” said David Calabrese, Trash Pandas’ catcher in his fourth season as a Trash Panda.

Also in his fourth season in a Rocket City uniform is fan favorite Tucker Flint, a 6-foot-2 slugging outfielder, who had two homeruns and reached base four times in the recent game against the Toyota Red Cruisers as part of the Global Baseball Series held at Toyota Field. He said of the 2026 Trash Pandas, “We have a lot of experience and as a group we have much more playing experience as we know each other and know what we do well. Plus, there’s a lot of good energy between us that will carry over to our play, and the transition to our new manager has been great.”

When asked what type of leadership he brings to the team as new manager, Kruzel said, “It’s a blend, it’s like a hybrid as its’ tough to force old-school on these kids who weren’t even born, so sometimes you have to blend it to where it’s their style. Just getting them the information, the knowledge and the experiences from the old-school, but blend it in to a way they can utilize to help them. I know certain things have to happen for certain guys and you have to find a way to implement those into a day-in, dayout schedule and workload. All of the preparation to get these kids ready and learn how to compete and being able to compete when things are not going well. I don’t think you can win a pennant in April, but can sure lose it, so starting fast is not that important, but the process of playing meaningful games going into the last two weeks of the first and second half of the season is.”

Home games in April include facing the Birmingham Barons the week of 1420 and Knoxville Smokies the week of 28-May 3.