Arizona Fall League Recap: 10/26/25

Mesa Solar Sox

Owen Ayers, C, Chicago Cubs (4-4, 2B, RHI, BB, SB)

Not much has changed for Ayers over the last week when he was among the Arizona Fall League offensive leaders across several categories. He’s still playing extremely well and is one of a few late-round prospects turning heads and garnering real intrigue through the first half of the circuit. He’s running a preposterous .405/.560/.676 line over 11 games with a pair of home runs and nearly twice as many walks as strikeouts after logging a clean 4-for-4 night with a walk on Sunday. He’s positioned himself as a speculative add with upside for 2026 and comes at basically zero opportunity cost beyond the roster spot he’d occupy, which is an attractive proposition in deeper formats, especially considering his athleticism. He moves well enough to play a little outfield if necessary and tallied seven stolen bases over 65 games in Myrtle Beach without ever being caught.

Ryan Lasko, OF, Athletics (2-4, 2B, R, RBI, CS)

Lasko comes with a bit more pedigree than Ayers, having gone 41st overall and signing for $1.7M in 2023, but he’s off to a touch slower start. He finished Sunday’s contest 2-for-4 with a double, a run scored, and an RBI, raising his OPS to .897 over 12 AFL games (48 PA). He hasn’t hit much with wood bats to this point — it was an issue that plagued him dating back to summer leagues in college — but the friendly confines of the Phoenix metro are treating him kindly. He carries some intrigue as a solid athlete at six feet tall and 190 lbs, but most of his athleticism translates more cleanly to defense where he’s a tenacious corner outfield defender with a chance to stick in center.

Surprise Saguaros

Joe Lampe, OF, Cleveland Guardians (2-4, HR, 3B, 2 RBI, 2 R)

Lampe has done nothing but produce in Arizona, and he had a huge game on Sunday in which he had a triple and a home run and accounted for all of Surprise’s runs. All four of Lampe’s batted balls were hit north of 103.5 mph, and he topped out at 107.3 mph.

The home run was smoked a 103.5 mph and traveled 406 feet. Lampe’s triple traveled 354 feet to right field and nearly left the yard. It has been just eight games since Lampe joined the Surprise team, but he has a 1.244 OPS and has eight walks to just three strikeouts. This followed a tough 2025 season in which Lampe slashed just .231/.317/.390 with ten home runs.

Daniel Vazquez, 3B, Kansas City Royals (2-4, RBI, SB)

Vazquez is a player I have seen often, spending time in Colombia for parts of three seasons. He grew and added good weight and put together a strong 2025 season, which was arguably his best yet. Across 463 plate appearances, he slashed .260/.333/.351 with 32 extra base hits and 27 stolen bases.

Playing third base for the first time in his career in Arizona, Vazquez has looked the part and has shown good athleticism. On Sunday, Vazquez had two singles, but it was the hard-hit balls that stood out once again.

Having three batted balls, all hard hits, Vazquez topped out at 104.4 mph, and his softest hit ball was at 98.2 mph. He is still a prospect to just watch list, but has some interesting traits.

Eiberson Castellano, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies (4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K)

Castellano led the way on the mound for the Saguaros, tossing four innings of one-run ball. He punched out six batters and walked just one while allowing two hits. The 12 whiffs were impressive, as eight of them came on his changeup, which Castellano led with.

Injuries limited Castellano to just 36 innings during the 2025 season, in which the Twins selected him in the Rule 5 draft and later returned. The innings he did pitch this year were not great compared to what we saw in 2024 when Castellano vaulted up my rankings.

The fastball velocity was back up to 94 mph yesterday, but the ability to sequence was tremendous in his start. Castellano landed 62 percent of his pitches for strikes in the strong outing.

Salt River Rafters

Charlie Condon, 1B, Colorado Rockies (3-4, R, RBI, BB)

Condon had a huge week while I was in town. He regularly featured atop the exit velocity leaderboard and slugged better than he has at any point in his pro career, which was moderately encouraging given his sustained struggles in the regular season. To his credit, he fared reasonably well making the jump from Spokane to Hartford albeit with some hit tool degradation. I’ve had some suspicion he was more hurt than the team let on, and if he parlays his AFL performance into a strong first few months of 2026, I could be further convinced that’s a big part of his underwhelming pro tenure. At this point, Condon has been relegated to a first base-only role, which puts a lot of pressure on him to hit. He barely managed to scrape over the 70% overall contact shelf in 2025, which raises real concerns about his ability to get around on quality stuff in the upper minors. He wasn’t slugging in Spokane but upped his fly ball and pull rates to 40.4% and 50.4%, respectively, in Hartford and saw a meaningful jump in over-the-fence output, which will be key for him regardless of defensive positioning.

Jared Thomas, OF, Colorado Rockies (1-5, 2B, 3 K, SB)

Thomas has had an encouraging AFL thus far, and he did a little bit of everything on Sunday (both superlative and derogatory). He finished with just one hit and struck out three times, but his knock was one of two extra-base hits for Salt River and he tallied one of four total stolen bases.

After seeing him a handful of times in person over the last two weeks, I’m not sure he’ll make enough contact to be an impact bat. He struck out in 34.6% of his plate appearance in Hartford and swung through a good number of hittable pitches while I was in the park. Lefties give him fits, even the mediocre variety scattered throughout the fall circuit, and he’ll need to close a few holes to be productive against quality pitching. Should he manage to do so, there’s enough power and speed for him to be a reasonably productive fantasy asset in a corner outfield spot.

Luis Perales, RHP, Boston Red Sox (2.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, BB, 2 K)

Perales wasn’t particularly sharp on Sunday. He touched 100 on the radar gun twice (seven times if you round up some 99s), but his scatter plot shows inconsistency with all of his offerings and nothing to suggest real command of any of them. He walked just one batter but gave up a lot of hard contact; all but one of the nine batted balls in play off of him were over 80 mph including six over 95 mph. He has all the arm talent in the world and some rust is expected, but for a guy with as much ferocity in his arsenal as he has, he’s been hittable in the AFL. I expect him to be significantly better come the regular season, where the next hurdle will be building his inning count. It’s possible — probable, even — he debuts as a reliever and works toward longer outings later.

Glendale Desert Dogs

Braden Montgomery, OF, Chicago White Sox (1-3, 2 BB, K, 2 SB)

Truth be told, Montgomery didn’t do anything particularly outstanding at the plate on Sunday. He tallied one hit on a clumsy 60.6 mph batted ball and grounded out on a 96.4 mph BBE while working a pair of walks. His two stolen bases landed him here, reminding folks that he’s moving just fine following two injuries to his lower leg and foot. He’s a top-50 prospect with a few flaws (namely bat-to-ball) and a huge ceiling.

Miguel Ugueto, OF, St. Luis Cardinals (3-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, SB)

I spent a lot of time in AFL ballparks wondering why Miguel Ugueto isn’t a better ballplayer. He certainly looks like a good one manning center field and motoring along the basepaths, but he hasn’t found much success at the plate over his minor league career. He’s faring better in the desert — his .801 OPS over 11 games is the best mark he’s posted since 2021 — but I don’t know that I’m taking much from it. He’s on the older end of the player population at 23 years old and is surely benefiting from some sloppy defense and friendly ballparks. He moves well enough to make things happen when the ball is in play, especially when there’s as much room for shenanigans as there is in Phoenix, but he doesn’t hit the ball hard enough to put real pressure on the defense most of the time. Sunday was a good example of what happens when he hit’s it flush, however, as he finished with three hits in four at-bats (all singles) and posted a max exit of 105.4 mph.

Pat Clohisy, OF, Atlanta Braves (1-3, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 SB)

Not much has gone right for Pat Clohisy in the Arizona Fall League despite him being a fun little ballplayer. When he’s on base he’s an agent of chaos, thus far going a perfect 11-for-11 on stolen base attempts, which tracks entirely with his 79 stolen bases over 131 games in the regular season. He could challenge for the AFL record if he reaches a little more often over the second half of the circuit. He stole three bags on Sunday in a 1-for-3 night that featured two walks.

Peoria Javelinas

Braedon Karpathios, OF, San Diego Padres (2-4, K)

Karpathios is Rule 5 eligible this offseason, and the Padres want to see what they have in their home complex of Peoria. Sure, this outfield is pretty solid, so Karpathios may not play every day, but he is sure to make the most of his opportunities. Spending the majority of the year in High-A, Karpathios got promoted to Double-A to end the year. Between both stops, he slashed .249/.357/.413 with 15 home runs and nine stolen bases.

Collecting two of Peoria’s six hits, Karpathios also had three hard-hit balls. Two of them checked in over 105 at 105.4 and 106.3 mph. While the surface numbers have not been great so far in the AFL, Karpathios has shown some good things.

The biggest thing we need to see from Karpathios is more pulled balls in the air. The 48 percent ground ball rate is higher than we like to see, but he pulled just 37 percent of batted balls, which hurts his ability to get to power. The ball will fly in Arizona, so Karpathios just needs to get the ball in the air, and he could put up respectable numbers. Reminder, this is a player who has put up wRC+ of 127, 115, and 122 in the last three seasons.

Scottsdale Scorpions

Seaver King, SS, Washington Nationals (3-4, 4 RBI, BB, K)

King is having one of the best seasons of any hitter in the AFL to this point, showing the kind of talent we expected to see when the Nationals took him tenth overall in the 2024 draft. Reaching base four times, King had three singles and two walks with one of the singles being a scorched line drive at 107.2 mph.

Having a smooth .378/.472/.622 slash line across 45 at-bats, King has five doubles and two home runs to this point of the season. This is a huge improvement on the regular season number of .244/.294/.337 with just six home runs during the regular season.

I will say, King’s underlying data during the regular season was much better than the results. His 90th percentile exit velocity was around 105 mph and the contact skills were respectable, but the chase rate still needs to be cleaned up.

Parks Harber, 1B, San Francisco Giants (1-3, HR, R, 2 RBI, BB, 2 K)

If it were not for Esmerlyn Valdez’s insane start, Harber would be right in the mix for the home run led in the desert as he hit his third last night on a 107.6 mph shot. He presently has a 1.233 OPS and has respectable strikeout-to-walk numbers as well.

Hitting the cover off the ball during the regular season, Harber has run exit velocities in the plus-plus range with a 90th percentile exit velocity over 108 mph and a hard-hit rate north of 50 percent. Using the whole field well, Harber also gets the ball in the air often and has a highly impressive line drive rate.

The contact rates are around average, with a 73 percent overall mark and an in-zone mark of 82 percent. Showing strong swing rates on pitches in the zone, Harber also does not expand the zone often, with a chase rate in the low-20 percent range.

Jake Bennett, LHP, Washington Nationals (4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K)

After being selected in 2019 by the Nationals but ultimately signing to play at Oklahoma, Bennett improved his stock significantly, getting selected in the 2nd round of the 2022 draft. Despite only pitching 63 innings in 2023, Bennett enjoyed a successful season, posting a 3.14 ERA with 73 strikeouts and 16 walks. Unfortunately, his season ended early due to Tommy John surgery, and Bennett missed all of 2024.

Returning in 2025, Bennett tossed 75.1 innings, reaching Double-A. He posted a 2.27 ERA, but he struck out just 21.5 percent of batters. Bennett posted a strong 6.3 percent walk rate to counter it.

After sitting around 89 mph in 2023, Bennett has seen a huge tick up in velocity. He averaged north of 94 mph on Sunday across 65 pitches and had an impressive 20 whiffs. Eleven of his whiffs came on the sinker or four-seam fastball, another five on his changeup, which he used 18 percent of the time.

The changeup averaged 85 mph and has over 15 inches of fade on average. The cutter worked 86-87 mph with two inches of cut action. The slider has similar IVB, but five to eight inches of sweep while working in the low-80s. Bennett rounded out his arsenal with an upper-70s curveball with two-plane movement.

Considering Bennett is a lefty, gets seven feet of extension, throws from a low release height, and has seen a huge tick up in velocity, he looks like a viable starting pitching prospect.