Night in Missoula serves as reminder of Pioneer League potential, purpose

MISSOULA, Mont. — In a way, Roberto Pena of the Missoula PaddleHeads sums up everything that the Pioneer League represents.

The 25-year-old first baseman has had his chance to impress Major League Baseball scouts, spending the 2023 season in the MLB Draft League with the Frederick Keys, slashing .254/.391/.467 with six home runs and 25 RBI. However, the undrafted Pena didn’t catch the eye of MLB scouts and had to decide what would be the next step for his baseball journey.

That journey led Pena to the Missoula PaddleHeads of the Pioneer League.

Since arriving in Montana, the native of Caracas, Venezuela, has been able to showcase his skills, posting gaudy numbers in 2024 (.326/.410/.586 with 24 home runs and 101 RBI) while getting off to a hot start again in 2025.

On this warm May night in western Montana, Pena is ready to once again take the field as his PaddleHeads prepare to take off their interstate rivals from Kalispell, the Glacier Range Riders. Two hours before the game begins, Pena looks around at the green hills surrounding his home park, Allegiance Field at Ogren Park, not far from downtown Missoula.

“This relaxes me,” Pena said, looking over the scene around him before the gates open to the public. “(Manager Michael) Schlact calls me kind of a hippie, because I like to ground myself and go in the river before games. I love nature, and I think the best energy comes out of nature. I don’t really drink energy drinks or caffeine or any of that stuff. I get all my energy from natural resources.

“Look around. We got mountains, trees, water. Yeah, it ain’t bad at all.”

Life in Missoula ain’t bad, and neither are the opportunities that are presented to the PaddleHeads and other Pioneer League teams throughout their 96-game schedule.

According to MiLB.com, “The Pioneer Baseball League is intended to serve as a developmental league, with no player on the Active List having more than three years of prior professional baseball service. Each team is limited to a roster of 25 active players.”

It’s a chance for players like Pena to showcase their skills as well as an opportunity for Schlact, a third-round draft pick of the Texas Rangers in 2004, to mold together a team in an effort that he described as a “real life version of fantasy baseball.”

“It’s all winter long. It’s like a full-time job trying to figure out what the pieces are,” Schlact said of roster construction.

“It’s a lot like chess trying to forecast who’s going to go where, where they’re going to play, what happens if they get signed, and the whole deal. Then, when they get into town, you get to see what you think you saw on paper. Sometimes you miss it, and sometimes you’re right on. It’s like a fun, real life version of fantasy baseball.”

Schlact has been playing this version of fantasy baseball since he arrived in Missoula in 2021. That compilation of talent worked well as the franchise won the Pioneer League title that season. However, the wins are nice, but Schlact, who had his pitching career cut short by shoulder issues, is looking past the records at how he can help his players achieve their dreams.

“I think the biggest thing is, first off, you have to enjoy it. I think that’s the first thing that gets lost in this when it starts to become a job,” Schlact said.

“Obviously you have to take it serious, but sometimes I think when we put this uniform on, we start getting judged on what we do on the field. It’s easy to lose the fun of the game. Development is part of it, but part of it is just remembering that it is a game.

“My career was plagued by injury, but you have to realize that, as long as you have a uniform on, you have a shot. That’s what we’ve seen with a lot of these guys, people that they never thought that they could realize a dream like getting to the big leagues.”

Pena, meanwhile, hasn’t lost track of the game being fun, describing what he brings to the field as “energy” in every game. That energy (and his bat skills) were evident in the second inning against Glacier as he lifted a 2-1 pitch over the right-field wall for a two-run shot, his league-leading seventh of the campaign and his first homer in Missoula on the season.

While Pena is putting up the statistics to hopefully catch the eye of an MLB scout (including a 2-for-5 night on May 30), he’s also making sure he’s showing up off the diamond as well, serving as one of team’s leaders in the clubhouse.

“I don’t even worry about my game or my play,” Pena said. “I worry more about what happens in the locker room and getting the guys ready and comfortable and establishing a good environment so we can win a ball game.”

Schlact believes Pena has the skills to get picked up by an MLB team.

“The last thing for him is the consistency,” Schlact said. “Off the field is equally as impressive as on it, but I think him just continuing at it and not getting discouraged is important. He had a great year last year. He’s having a great start to this year. I think the hardest thing for indie ball players is, how long do I keep doing this? How much do I have to do?

“I think it’s not so much what you have to do as much as it is, is it the right time? How long can he keep at it to where they finally give him that opportunity? The tools are there. He is one of the most electric players I’ve seen in my career.”

Will it pay off with a chance at an MLB career? Pena is hopeful.

“There’s nowhere else I would rather be than right here in Montana,” Pena smiled. “I want to make it to the big leagues, but if there’s any place to play independent ball, it’s right here.”