Arizona Fall League Recap: 10/18/2026

Salt River Rafters (Beck)

Jack O’Dowd, 1B, Colorado Rockies (2-4, 2B)

O’Dowd has been everywhere over the last six years. He spent time at Vanderbilt and Texas in college, participated in the MLB Draft League, played with Billings in the independent Pioneer League, and made three pitstops in the Rockies system before shipping out to Phoenix this fall. His calling card is his raw power — his hit 23 home runs in 107 games this year — and it has continued to show up in the AFL. He notched his third extra-base hit in six games with a 105.2 MPH double in the third inning of Saturday’s game.

O’Dowd’s penultimate pitstop of this calendar year was Hartford (Double-A), a place notorious for stymying promising offensive seasons. He struggled to make contact (63.5% overall) and struck out in 29.0% of his plate appearances over 51 games. Without much to offer beyond his bat, he’ll need to close some gaps in his swing to carry any possibility of a late-career breakout.

Core Jackson, SS, New York Yankees (1-3, HR, BB, 2 R, 2 RBI)

The controversial fifth-rounder from the 2025 draft has had a generally challenging time in Arizona thus far. He’s scraped his way to a .641 OPS and struck out in one-third of his plate appearances through seven games. Saturday presented the first spark of his campaign: a 105.4 MPH, 421 foot missile for a two-run homer.

Jackson has been largely fine as a professional, posting wRC+ values of 76 in a 25-game stint in High-A post draft, 120 in 78 games returning to High-A to open the year, and 100 in 23 games at Double-A to close the year. Generally speaking, when you generate headlines for selecting a player with his sordid past you’d like their performance to justify the negative coverage. That has not yet happened.

Peoria Javelinas (Beck)

Kannon Kemp, RHP, San Diego Padres (4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 5 K)

In a thinly veiled instance of nominative determinism, Kannon Kemp shoved last night. He allowed just two baserunners, both of them by way of the free pass, and struck out five batsmen over four scoreless innings. He allowed very little contact and even less hard-hit contact; The Scottsdale Scorpions had a max exit velocity of 92.9 MPH off of him. He was fastball-heavy with premium velocity: his four-seam sat 97.2 MPH and his sinker averaged 96.6 MPH, while his slider was just under 90.0 MPH and garnered a 47% CSW. It was dominance from start to finish, judging by the box score.

He was less suffocating over his 33.0 innings with Fort Wayne (High-A). The 2023 eighth rounder finished with a 5.73 ERA and 19.3% strikeout rate in nine appearances, though there’s some evidence he got unlucky. His 17.9% HR/FB rate was well above league average (derogatory) and runners on base scored more often than is typically expected. Despite his ability to sling upper-90’s heat, he generally struggles to garner swing-and-miss. Still, two fastballs, a breaking ball, and an off-speed pitch are a nice foundation to build on. He’s not interesting for dynasty just yet, but he could be with a jump in stuff.

The Javelinas lost a 2-1 game, falling to 5-7. Matthew Ellis provided the lone run with a 104.9 MPH solo shot in the second inning.

Mesa Solar Sox (Rhys)

Jake Cook, OF, Toronto Blue Jays (2/4)

Jake Cook had not one, but two singles. One of the big things going for him is his speed because he doesn’t always spray batted balls at optimal angles.

For instance, in this outing, his two hits came in with a negative launch angle. Luckily, he is fast, not Chandler Simpson fast, as no one is, but he is at least a 70-grade runner out of the box. There is some juice here, but during the regular season he posted a groundball rate just north of 40%, so that does negate some of the power. The other thing going against him is some contact issues, as he posted a 77% zone contact rate this past season.

Cook is probably more of a real-life prospect because he is a wizard defensively. But if he can carve out a role, then maybe his speed makes him fantasy viable. He will just need to make more contact to be a speed-first (and maybe only) OF3 type in fantasy.

Surprise Saguaros (Chris)

Zion Rose, OF, Kansas City Royals (2/2 2 BB)

Rose’s first week in the fall league was a little slow, but this week the tune has changed a bit. He smacked two doubles and walked twice on Saturday with batted balls of 86 and 89 mph. Suddenly, his OPS is up over 1.000 two weeks in. Considering the long season, Rose looks the part for sure.

At Louisville this year, Rose ran an 88 percent zone contact rate with an overall mark at 83 percent. He chased at just a 20 percent clip. Rose ran a 105 mph 90th percentile exit velocity and topped out at 111 mph. He will need to pull more balls in the air, but there is solid power in the profile.

Rose is a premium athlete, which led him to move off the catcher position and play in the outfield where he clocks plus run times. The hit tool carries the profile, but Rose is capable of being a 20 home run hitter who steals plenty of bags.

Welbyn Francisca, SS, Cleveland Guardians (3/4 2 RBI)

Francisca is running away with the MVP Award for the AFL, and it would be unanimous if we voted today. Another day with three hits for him pushed his batting average up to .615 with a 1.618 OPS. He has three more hits than the next closest competitor, Teo Banks, while also having eight fewer at-bats.

The underlying power metrics have taken a notable leap forward this year as his 90th percentile exit velocity increased close to 104 mph, and the contact rates are respectable. While the contact has trended in the wrong direction compared to previous seasons, the power trade-off has been worth it.

Francisca has done a good job of pulling the ball in the air and has shown good aggression on pitches in the zone and over the heart of the plate. The chase rate is a bit high at 30 percent, but it works with the profile overall.

Irving Cota, RHP, NYM (3 IP/0 H/0 BB/0 ER/5 K)

Cota was signed by the Mets back in 2023 out of Mexico and has pitched quite well, but it has been a slow development process. This year he made just seven starts and pitched 31 innings, posting a 2.30 ERA. Cota struck out just 16.5 percent of batters and walked 4.7 percent.

In yesterday’s outing, Cota was perfect, tossing three innings with five strikeouts and six whiffs. Cota works his fastball around 93 mph with heavy arm-side run. The slider works in the 83-85 mph range, but his changeup and curveball were his best bat-missing options on Saturday, sitting 84-86 and 78-80 mph respectively.

Glendale Desert Dogs (Chris)

Caleb Bonemer, OF, Chicago White Sox (1/3 2B)

I am not sure what they have put in the bats in Glendale, but with the amount of talent they have, it is has been insane to watch them struggle how they have. The team collected just two hits yesterday and had three hard-hit balls as they dropped another game and are not 2-10 on the year. The roster just has way more talent than that.

It is getting a bit old writing about Bonemer everyday, but he is legitimately the only one who is contributing in this lineup. He had one of two hits yesterday and one of three hard-hit balls.

During the regular season, Bonemer blasted 37 home runs between High-A and Double-A and honestly got better when he was promoted. He even stole 17 bases and is a player who has shown improved run times. In Double-A, the zone contact rate jumped back up near the 85 percent mark we saw in 2025, which was encouraging because in the early part of the season we saw the contact regress.

Scottsdale Scorpions (Rhys)

Nathan Flewelling, DH, Tampa Bay Rays (1/3, 2B)

Nathan Flewelling has been having a nice little fall league; he isn’t posting eye-popping exit velocities by any means, but he just hits. Traditional behind-the-baseball-card stats would say this isn’t part of his game, as he hit .243, but there is some hope that the hit tool takes a jump.

Flewelling had a 101 mph EV on his double off a 96 mph heater, and during his time in Arizona, he’s been stinging the ball all around. The big thing with Flewelling is the hit tool projection. These guys coming from Canada, and especially from Red Deer, Alberta, are behind their US counterparts. We have seen the power jump; I think the next thing will be the contact jump, because while he is in an acceptable range for striking out, it would be nice to see him keep the damage and strikeout less than 25%.

It’s nice to see him hitting the ball well in Arizona because this is an advanced level for someone who spent all season at High-A. If I were entering a rebuild this offseason, I would be looking to scoop him up in a trade, because he has a top-5 to top-10 catcher in fantasy written all over him.

Miguel Mendez, RHP, San Francisco Giants (3 IP/3 H/1 ER/0 BB/5 K)

I’ve seen Miguel Mendez a few times and it’s always been a relief-type look for me. Getting some data on the fastball also makes him look a bit like a reliever, but when you have 98 in your back pocket and have touched 100 mph, it's hard to ignore.

Miguel Mendez’s calling card is the velocity he has from the right side, where he features a 13 inches of IVB fastball with 14 inches of horizontal break from a sub 6'0” release height. He is able to create a -4.9 vertical attack angle on it. He also has a good slider that gets about 4 inches of glove-side horizontal movement. The changeup lags behind the other two offerings because of its general firmness.

The thing that will accelerate Miguel Mendez is his lack of option years. As he is on the 40-man roster for the Giants, the team is going to need to evaluate him at the major league level at some point. The bullpen is where underwhelming fastball shapes tend to go, but if Mendez shows off another pitch or two, he might have a higher chance of remaining a starter. It will be interesting to see what he comes into camp with next season. I’m not sure I would be buying a potential Giants reliever prospect, but Mendez might be worth a shout in your deeper leagues.