Mark Manfredi is not a name most baseball fans knew heading into September. That may be changing.
The Dayton alum has quietly put together one of the more intriguing late-season stretches in Colorado's bullpen, and a marquee moment against the sport's biggest star is accelerating the buzz around him. During the Rockies' three-game series in the Bronx on September 8, Manfredi — a left-hander — struck out Aaron Judge looking in the sixth inning, completing a sharp 1.0-inning outing in which he allowed no runs and punched out two batters. His ERA at that point sat at a tidy 1.59.
It's the kind of at-bat that travels. Judge had just returned to the Yankees' lineup after a lengthy absence, and being frozen by a soft-tossing lefty from a rebuilding Rockies squad made for exactly the sort of highlight that starts a conversation. Pedro Martinez, for one, weighed in publicly on Judge's day — though the bigger underlying story was the pitcher who generated it.
Manfredi followed that outing with a clean 1.0-inning appearance against the Cardinals on September 6, maintaining an ERA of 1.74 through the early part of the week. A rougher Friday against Detroit — 0.2 innings, two earned runs — nudged his ERA to 3.00, but the body of work over the stretch remains encouraging for a pitcher carving out a role on a roster with plenty of open questions heading into the offseason.
Sports Illustrated has already flagged Manfredi as a potential 2027 bullpen piece for Colorado, citing his swing-and-miss arsenal as the kind of weapon the Rockies could build around during their ongoing rebuild. For a franchise that has struggled to develop consistent relief depth, a late-season discovery with strikeout upside is worth watching closely.
Manfredi's path through Dayton was never a straight line to the majors, which makes his current moment all the more compelling for Flyers fans tracking alumni at the professional level. He's not on a guaranteed roster yet, but he's doing exactly what a fringe arm needs to do in September — making himself impossible to ignore.
Riley Tirotta, Dayton's other active MLB alumnus, appeared on the Blue Jays' roster during the period but did not register notable statistical activity to report from the September 6–12 stretch.
The headline act is Manfredi. Whether the Rockies ultimately hand him a spot on their 2027 roster or not, he's given Colorado — and Dayton — something to think about.
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