One month from yesterday, the first pitch of the 2026 American Association season will be thrown (weather permitting), with Fargo-Moorhead opening at Cleburne. However, today marks the one month mark before the rest of the league opens on the 15th.

At this juncture, most team rosters are pretty close to complete, with a few teams over-signed at this point, meaning multiple players will have to come off the roster before they are pruned down to 25 players on Opening Day.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t work to do, though, as we’ll take a look at each team’s top item on the to-do list. This doesn’t mean there isn’t more to do, but this should be their first priority to address.

Chicago Dogs: Sign Ethan Wilder

The Dogs acquired Wilder in a trade with the Washington Wild Things on April 2, but (as far as we know) he has yet to sign with the Dogs. Wilder doesn’t have sexy numbers, but he hit .279 with a .372 on-base percentage in the Frontier League over the last two seasons. Plus, he’s still just 23 years old and plays shortstop. Does that mean he’s a budding star? Not necessarily, but his ceiling could be a perfectly serviceable All-Star similar to Sam Dexter and Josh Bissonette. Those two have clear limitations, but they’re strong infield piece for quality teams. Chicago would do well to lock in a similar asset.

Cleburne Railroaders: Figure out their five starters

On Monday morning, I would’ve said “sign another infielder,” but the Railroaders made a big splash in re-signing Carter Aldrete. The 28-year-old put up a huge 2024 in Cleburne, slashing .341/.412/.557 with 24 homers and 20 steals, earning Postseason All-Star honors and a deal with the Sacramento Athletics. He was released midway through 2025, but put up .956 OPS with 17 homers in just 47 games in the Atlantic League to finish last season. Yeah, that should work out just fine.

So, ‘figure out the rotation’ is the new top item. This is a persistent problem in Cleburne and as of now, the rotation looks like Derek Craft, John Baker…and then a bunch of question marks. Currently, 17 pitchers are signed, but most have professional pedigrees as relievers and five are playing their first professional season. Last year, the Railroaders scored the second-most runs in the AA and played in the significantly weaker division…but still missed the postseason because the pitching (and defense) was terrible. Finding five starters you can (somewhat) trust would go a long ways in preventing that from happening again.

Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks: Fill out the outfield

Dillon Thomas is a fantastic outfielder to have under contract…but it’s a little problematic when he’s your only outfielder signed. The RedHawks did trade for Jesus Lujano months ago, but he has not officially signed. Clearing up his status and bringing the dependable former Chicago and Cleburne centerfielder north would be a great start to answer this question. Perhaps Jake Hjelle will get a shot in left field (he’s listed as an infielder, but did play in the outfield some last season), though he had some growing pains in his first pro season last year, which resulted in him being sent to the Pioneer League midseason. It wouldn’t hurt Fargo-Moorhead if they find a more dependable option out there.

Gary SouthShore RailCats: Keep adding arms

Gary SouthShore sits at just ten pitchers, so simply filling out their whole staff needs to be the main priority. Ideally, I’d say 2-3 starting pitchers should be the goal, with the rotation looking very iffy past Peyton Long and Deyni Olivero. Manager Jeff Isom has been pretty deliberate in trying to figure out which inherited pieces of the RailCats to keep and which to part with, and the returning arms are all pretty solid. However, it’s looking like he may need to drill a fresh well to put together at least a middle-of-the-pack pitching staff, which is probably what it would take to bring the RailCats back into playoff contention.

Kane County Cougars: Sign a corner outfielder

The two-time defending champions still only have a league-low 20 players signed, so they need another body or two at just about every position group. However, most spots have solid bones, while the outfield has just two players signed up (Alex McGarry and Armond Upshaw). Much of the 2025 lineup returns, but All-Star outfielder Trendon Craig is not one of them, so comparing one-to-one, that is the caliber of player the Cougars may need to find in order to make this lineup click.

Kansas City Monarchs: Find a first base bopper

Manager Joe Calfapietra has gone through several excellent first baseman in Kansas City (Casey McGehee, Brian O’Grady, Matt Adams, and Frankie Tostado, among them). However, with most of the lineup settled, that is one spot on the diamond that doesn’t seem quite straightened out. The wild card is using of of KC’s six current outfielders to play first base, at least to start the year. Unless something changes between now and Opening Day, that might be the plan right now.

Lake Country DockHounds: Figure out the left side

Lake Country has put together one of the more complete rosters I’ve seen so far. I think this pitching staff is going to be really, really good and I don’t have a whole lot to critique on that side. The offense seems pretty well built out, though I’m not sure what the left side of the infield looks like. One of Jack Blomgren and Ripken Reyes will start at shortstop, though neither one of them is quite a professional shortstop. Third base is even more up in the air with no one on their infield having many reps at that spot. Maybe Ken Huckaby has one more splash up his sleeve.

Lincoln Saltdogs: Sign a bullpen

I won’t harp too long on this one because I’ve covered more in-depth already. Lincoln has a few decent rotation arms in Foster Pace, Nate Blain, and Greg Loukinen, plus an intriguing bullpen reclamation project in Jeferson Figueroa. But the question marks pop up really fast after that. If the Saltdogs were to have a lead in the seventh inning tomorrow, I don’t have a clue what the plan is for the final nine outs, especially if Figueroa can’t find his pre-2025 form. A few teams will need to shed some arms before Opening Day and Lincoln needs to be calling all of them.

Milwaukee Milkmen: Choose your bullpen with care

The last sentence I typed under Lincoln’s blurb? Yeah, Milwaukee would be a team to monitor closely because the Milkmen currently have 19 pitchers signed, meaning that at minimum, six of them will not be on the Opening Day roster. The rotation is probably mostly set, so at the end of the day, basically half of who’s left will be the ‘pen, and the other half are looking for a new job. Obviously, having lots of options in spring training isn’t a bad thing for Anthony Barone, but it does force some tough decisions to be made after very limited spring reps, which could really come back to bite you in the summer.

Sioux City Explorers: Find a few starting pitchers

One of the strengths of last year’s Explorers was an excellent big three at the top of the rotation, with Kyle Marman, Austin Drury, and Jared Wetherbee combining for a 3.40 ERA in 355.0 innings. Well, all three of them are gone, with fourth starter Peniel Otano being the only starter back…after being lit up to the tune of 6.72 ERA last year. After him, the pitching staff is very light on experience. Now, the X’s only have ten pitchers signed, so they’ll need more arms to begin with, but this rotation is looking very rough.

Sioux Falls Canaries: Keep up the momentum

This was always going to be a transitional offseason for the Canaries and it got off to a very slow start, but a steady trickle of key re-signings has shored up the roster considerably from where things were a month or two ago. The most recent major signing was Thomas Dorminy at the start of the month, which is a huge re-signing to head the rotation. Similar to Sioux City, the Birds are light on overall arms (only nine pitchers currently) and also have a lot of rotation pieces to replace, though having Dorminy in the fold (plus more bullpen experience) puts them a little ahead of the Explorers in that task. Mike Meyer is making progress, he just needs to keep finding good pieces late.

Winnipeg Goldeyes: Keep an eye out for bats

I have a feeling Winnipeg pretty much has their Opening Day roster set, especially after inking second catcher Raphael Pelletier last week. As of now, I think the Goldeyes have a top-four pitching staff in the league, but offense held them back last year and I’m not sure they did quite enough to properly address that side of the ball. I do think the lineup as currently constructed will be better than last year, but Logan Watkins would do well to keep tabs on any impact bats he can bring north of the border. There’s certainly room for improvement.

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