Seals re-sign Baptiste and Rezanka and place franchise tag on Currier.
The San Diego Seals have re-signed faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste to a brand-new three-year contract, defenseman Payton Rezanka to a one-year deal, and they placed the franchise tag on recently acquired transition player Zach Currier.
“It’s great to get all three guys squared away,” said Seals General Manager and Head Coach Patrick Merrill. “Trevor and Zach especially are going to be a formidable duo for teams to have to contend with in the middle of the field and we’re excited to see them play together.”
Widely regarded as the top faceoff specialist in the world, Baptiste, 5-10, 225 pounds, joined the Seals via trade with the Philadelphia Wings prior to the 2023-24 National Lacrosse League season. Baptiste made an immediate impact with his new club, setting a new team single-season record and finishing the regular season ranked third in the League in faceoff wins (308). Baptiste’s 71% win percentage on faceoffs ranked third in the League (min. 250 faceoffs taken), while he also set a single-season team record for loose balls secured (177), a figure which ranked 3rd in the NLL.
A 28-year-old native of Newark, New Jersey, Baptiste will play his sixth NLL season in 2024-25. He’s recorded 1,529 faceoff wins during his career and owns an impressive 70.0% career faceoff win percentage (1,529 of 2,185).
Baptiste played collegiately at the University of Denver where he was a four-time All-America and All-Big East selection along with being a four-time Big East Midfielder of the Year and an NCAA Champion in 2015.
Currier joined the Seals in a July 13 trade with the Calgary Roughnecks. Considered by many lacrosse experts as the best two-way player in the world, Currier has played in 111 career games (playoffs included), scoring 50 career goals while registering 90 career assists (140 points). He’s also scooped up 1,277 loose balls during his career and in 2022, he set the NLL single-season mark with 62 caused turnovers.
The third overall pick in the 2017 NLL Draft, Currier won a championship with Calgary in 2019. He’s a two-time NLL Transition Player of the Year as well as a two-time All-NLL first-team and second-team selection.
Rezanka is a 5-11, 200-pound defenseman and San Diego native who appeared in four games for the Seals this past season.
These are the latest moves in a busy offseason for the Seals which also saw them re-sign forward and team captain Wes Berg to a new three year contract on July 18.