There’s no rest for the Western Canadian Baseball League’s wicked.
As soon as Simon Baker’s hard-hit liner was caught by Ian Montz to give the Regina Red Sox the 5-4 win over the Sylvan Lake Gulls to capture the league title in three games, so began the annual cycle of planning for next season.
The league finds itself in a good spot overall with most of the storylines from the past year being positive, aside from Mother Nature getting in the way of more ball games than schedule-makers and grounds crews would have preferred.
League president Kevin Kvame says there are a few internal issues that will need to be sewn up around things like social media policies and how discipline is announced.
The summer circuit will also have its first new host for the annual All-Star Game in four years as the Saskatoon Berries will do the honours in 2026, which will invariably lead to some “best practices” sharing with the Okotoks Dawgs.
Then there’s the usual coaching shuffle as teams figure out how to move forward. One big question mark remains as Jason Chatwood announced at the end of the season that he will be taking a step back in Sylvan Lake to focus on family. We also know that Ryan Reed is getting promoted to head coach in Medicine Hat. We’ll inevitably hear about other teams and their coaches in the coming weeks and months, as the recruitment season never sleeps.
From a fan perspective, though, we wanted to focus on a few storylines that have either captured attention in the last few months, or surely will in the weeks ahead, as the planning and preparation is underway for another summer of baseball in Alberta and Saskatchewan. So here are our five burning questions heading into the offseason.
1. What does new ownership do to change the Regina Red Sox?
Talk about getting a massive gift. Queen City Sports and Entertainment is set to take over ownership of the Regina Red Sox on Oct. 1 and they will be greeted at the doors to Currie Field by the Harry Hallis Memorial Trophy, after the team knocked off the Sylvan Lake Gulls in an exciting three-game championship series.
The much-talked about team acquisition has been framed as a necessity in light of what’s happening around the league. At the June news conference, team president Gary Brotzel said many of the teams that had moved away from the non-profit volunteer model were thriving.
“They’re mostly the Alberta teams and, lately, with the Saskatoon Berries coming on board, they’re just pushing the league to new levels,” he said. “It’s clear to me that it was time that we moved on to that model, as well.”
With the offseason upon us and the deal set to take effect, we’re going to start seeing some answers on what the structure of the organization will look like. From marketing and communications to merchandise and ticket sales, the Red Sox will now be able to use the same team behind the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats.
The biggest question mark of all will be: how does the ownership change move the needle on a new baseball stadium? Brotzel and the Red Sox have been working hard on the file for the last few years, but with some added voices around the table, could it speed up the process? We may soon find out.
2. How will teams like the Saskatoon Berries and Sylvan Lake Gulls react to the heartbreak?
When you break the WCBL record for most wins in a season, the expectation is that you should be on your way to playoff success as well.
However, the Saskatoon Berries got a taste of what the Sylvan Lake Gulls received last year, when they were dumped in the East Division final by the Red Sox. While it was an incredible feat to go 46-9 during the season, head coach Joe Carnahan and the Berries undoubtedly enter the offseason with bitterness in their mouths as they start recruiting for next summer.
The same can be said for the Sylvan Lake Gulls, who won 44 games to set the mark in 2024 only to be defeated by the Okotoks Dawgs in the playoffs. While they weren’t as successful during the season in 2025, they came through in the playoffs and were just one strike away from sweeping the Red Sox before a ninth-inning collapse in game two and ultimately falling in game three.
Even the Okotoks Dawgs are licking their wounds after finishing first in the West Division standings, only to be beaten by the Gulls in the second round. It ended their quest for a four-peat and, while they have plenty to be proud of from that run, the Dawgs will ultimately look to re-load for another championship run next summer.
Every team has its own reasons for feeling like they deserved a better fate in 2025, so it will be interesting to see how they enter the offseason and what they focus on from a recruitment perspective to field a better product in 2026.
3. Will the Rural Roots Classic become a staple of the WCBL schedule?
Yeah, the score was a bit wild in the first installment in Oyen, Alberta (19-11 Lethbridge Bulls win over the Sylvan Lake Gulls). And yeah, even Kvame says there were a few things heading into the event that were, shall we say, frenetic.
But overall, the league seemed very happy with how the event went on the whole. Doug Lehmann Field was packed with fans on a hot Sunday afternoon as they celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Oyen Pronghorns claiming the Saskatchewan Major Baseball League title, a first for an Alberta-based team.
I’ve opined about how it’s worth exploring making it a fixture on the schedule already. But in our year-end interview with Kvame, he said it’s something they have already started to explore. Sylvan Lake Gulls president and chief operating officer Aqil Samuel has been tasked with leading a committee that will look into possible options for the future.
So the wheels are in motion to make it a reality, although it’s going to depend a lot on whether certain identified communities (I’ll say it again: North Battleford makes a lot of sense) are actually on-board and able to throw some resources at it.
With the schedule likely to come out by the end of the year, don’t be surprised if you hear rumblings about this sooner rather than later.
4. What’s going on with the Energy City Cactus Rats and their new stadium?
Originally, it was going to be June 8. Then it was the end of June. Then it was mid-July. Then it was maybe for the final weekend of the season with no fans in the stands.
All the while, the Energy City Cactus Rats kept fans in Spruce Grove and teams around the WCBL waiting to hear about the latest on their new stadium, which didn’t reach operational status.
It’s a project that’s been hampered by many delays and numerous rumours over the last few years after the Edmonton Prospects’ lease came to an end at REMAX Field. It’s now been two years of being the “traveling home team” for the club, which has found temporary refuge in Sylvan Lake, Okotoks, Lethbridge, Brooks, Fort McMurray and a few other places, including closer to home in Sherwood Park during the 2024 season.
“I think, suffice it to say, we have a number of franchises in the league who would like to get some clear, straight answers from Pat (Cassidy) and the organization up there in Spruce Grove,” Kvame said during a year-end interview on The WCBL Report.
“It was stressful on all the teams in the league to deal with a traveling team that was hoping to open at home at some point and they kept the dream there all season long but it created a huge amount of problems on the back-end.”
With the schedule typically set to be released before the end of the calendar year, the Cactus Rats don’t have a lot of time to provide that clarity and, by the sounds of it, some assurances because, as Kvame noted, “We can’t go through that again.”
5. Should the playoff format be changed for good?
This probably isn’t on the radar of the league or its board of governors, but I like to stir the pot sometimes and this one would likely be a quick conversation at most.
This year’s playoff race featured something we haven’t seen a lot of during the postseason: the Regina Red Sox hosted the Sylvan Lake Gulls for game one before the series shifted to Alberta for games two and three. It deviated from the usual “1-1-1” playoff format we’ve seen since the inception of the best-of-three format in 2019, only because of the distance (over eight hours driving) between the two cities.
It had some fans wondering why the schedule change occurred, and pondering if it gave the Gulls an advantage (which it ultimately didn’t). However, it got me to voice my opinion on social media about it and I thought I’d add it in writing as well: I like the idea of making it a “1-2” format for all series with the lower-seed getting game one and the higher-seed getting the final two games.
Why? Because if you’re the higher-seed, especially in the final, don’t you want the opportunity to win the series on home turf? I know some would argue that you want to open the series with home-field advantage, which is fine. So maybe give the higher-seed the option heading into each series. Add a little drama to each of the series.
Moving it to a “1-2” format would also save money on travel in each series (no need for a third bus trip, you just need to spend an extra night in a hotel if a third game is required).
Again, it’s not something I expect to get a lot of oxygen during league meetings, but it might be something they decide worked really well and want to adopt for future years.
Final thoughts
The WCBL has been building on some major wins over the last few years, including massive crowds going through the turnstiles and audiences on social media.
They have also had some fantastic creative content with IKS Media in Saskatchewan producing daily and weekly video content as well as their new streaming partner with FloCollege. Kvame alluded to the desire to do some more integration of their marketing and sales side with their broadcasts, which will undoubtedly result in more money.
Looking back on the year that was, the league is likely viewing it as a success with some room to make it even better in 2026 and beyond.
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