PORTLAND – Even as one of the smaller players on last year’s roster, Iggy Suarez didn’t have much room to stretch out in the Portland Sea Dogs old clubhouse, which was located in a back corner of the Portland Expo.

At Wednesday’s Media Day, Suarez and his teammates found plenty of room to kick back and relax in the team’s brand new $1.7 million clubhouse, which is located beneath the U.S. Cellular Pavilion in right field.

The spacious digs, and the lack of snow on the Hadlock Field diamond, were a welcome sight to the players when they began arriving in Portland on Monday.

“I’m pretty impressed with this. There’s a little bit more room now,” the 5-foot-11 infielder said while sitting in front of his new locker. “Being around something new is always nice.”

That doesn’t necessarily include new faces, which there aren’t a lot of on this year’s roster. Second-year manager Arnie Beyeler’s 24-man roster opens the season tonight in New Britain with 17 players who were part of the third-straight Sea Dogs squad to reach the Eastern League playoffs last year.

“Sometimes, the underrated factor within a minor league, or major league, clubhouse is the camaraderie that takes place,” said pitcher Justin Masterson, who is scheduled to start today’s opener. “We’ve got a bunch of guys here who get along well, and that’s so much better if you have even just a few who are clashing.”

“We have a common goal, and we all know what Arnie is expecting of us,” said catcher John Otness.

Otness will split time behind the plate with Mark Wagner, one of six players promoted to Portland after playing for Single-A Lancaster last year. They will be working with a starting rotation that is stacked with four of the top 22 prospects in the Red Sox organization, as ranked by Baseball America, including Masterson (No. 4), Michael Bowden (No. 7), Kris Johnson (No. 13) and Dustin Richardson (No. 22).

One of them just may be the next Clay Buchholz, who wore a Sea Dogs uniform just a few weeks before tossing a no-hitter in his first start with the Red Sox last year.

“It’s going to be exciting, because we have a lot of guys on this staff that you’ll see pitching in the big leagues someday,” Otness said. “We got lucky with Buchholz last year. We got to see him for three-fourths of the season almost. This is a learning experience for everybody. It’s fun and exciting to see these guys at this stage of their careers, because they’re blossoming.”

Beyeler was quick to point out that those promising young arms are still in the growing stage, and while they appear to be the strength of the team, they don’t necessarily guarantee wins.

“We look good on paper from that standpoint. But we expected that last year, too, and we didn’t pitch as well as we thought we would last year,” he said. “Hopefully, the guys will come out and take care of their business. We’re excited about what we’ve got.”

Portland’s offense similarly underperformed late last season and hit just .218 in its first-round playoff loss to Trenton. Wagner, who hit .318 with 14 home runs and 82 RBIs last year, outfielder Zach Daeges (.330, 21-113 at Lancaster) and shortstop Ryan Khoury (.330, 11-69) could provide a boost, although the three Lancaster call-ups will find the ocean breezes at Hadlock a little less friendly than the thin air they hit in last year.

Beyeler is also hoping the nine infielders and outfielders who received at least a glimpse of Double-A pitching last year, including Suarez, Bubba Bell, Jeff Corsalletti, Jeff Natale and Andrew Pinckney, can boost their production.

“It’s an experienced group that kind of know what they’ve got to do. They’re a little more seasoned,” Beyeler said. “Hopefully, they realize the adjustments they have to make and go out and perform.”

“I think we can go a little further this year,” Suarez said. “We’ve got a team that’s pretty good, and something special may happen this year.”

The Sea Dogs open the season with a seven-game road trip with the New Britain Rock Cats and Connecticut Defenders before their home opener, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Frdiay, April 11, against New Britain.