Arizona Fall League Recap: 10/28/2026

Salt River Rafters (Chris)

Demetrio Crisantes, 2B, Arizona Diamondbacks (2/4 2 2B)

Crisantes was the only hitter who got anything going for a Salt River team that did not score a run and collected just five hits. The team had only two extra-base hits, and both belonged to Crisantes, who hit two hard-hit doubles. Crisantes smoked a fourth-inning double at 102.5 mph and then followed it up in the sixth with a 100 mph double that traveled 391 feet. The ball nearly left the yard.

Getting a late start to the regular season, Crisantes wound up spending most of the season in Triple-A, and between all levels he slashed .292/.377/.477 with ten home runs and 25 doubles.

Crisantes has shown impressive contact skills and a good feel to hit. He did not hit the ball overly hard this year, but did create ideal launch angles. Seeing a strong performance here could be finishing school and lead to an early 2027 debut for Crisantes.

Jarlin Susana, RHP, Washington Nationals (5 IP/1 H/1 ER/2 BB/5 K)

Off the top of my head with no research, Susana’s five innings were the most, or at least tied for the most, we have seen from an arm so far in Arizona. It was a gem of a start: Susana needed just 63 pitches, struck out five, and allowed just one hit.

Susana pumps the fastball north of 100 mph with strong traits. It is some of the most effortless velocity you’ll see. He averaged 101.3 mph last night and generated four whiffs between the four-seam and sinker.

Susana also throws a strong sweeper with good depth. It sits in the 86-88 mph range. There is also a changeup that works 92-94 mph in the profile. Susana looks likely to be in the Nationals rotation at some point in 2027.

Peoria Javelinas (Chris)

Justin DeCriscio, MI, San Diego Padres (3/4 2B, 2 HR)

DeCriscio was selected in the 10th round of the 2025 MLB Draft out of NC State. He worked his way up to Double-A in 2026 and wound up putting up respectable numbers, slashing .270/.358/.425. DeCriscio blasted 13 home runs with 29 doubles and even stole 22 bases. He completely flew under the radar.

Tuesday was arguably the biggest of DeCriscio’s career as he blasted two home runs and a double. The home runs left the bat with exit velocities of 104.2 mph and 98.1 mph. The double wound up being a bloop into center, which DeCriscio showed plenty of hustle to turn into a double.

So far in the AFL, DeCriscio is hitting .268 with a .925 OPS. He has made the most of his opportunities.

Frank Elissalt, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals (3 IP/2 H/0 ER/1 BB/4 K)

Elissalt was part of the Mets organization, selected in the 19th round of the 2024 Draft out of Nova Southeastern University. He has defied all odds and put together some impressive results, leading to his inclusion in the Ryan Helsley trade that sent him to St. Louis.

The results did tick back with his new org this year in 2025, and then a hip injury caused him to miss all of the 2026 season. He returned to the mound in Arizona and continues to improve, and Tuesday was a perfect example of that.

Elissalt led with his slider, sitting in the mid-80s with good depth and shape. The fastball sat 93 mph with 15 inches of IVB and 10 inches of arm-side run. Elissalt rounded out his arsenal with a strong, two-plane curveball that sat around 82 mph. The pick averaged negative five inches of IVB and 12 inches of sweep.

Elissalt is a fun arm to keep an eye on heading into 2027.

Mesa Solar Sox (Beck)

Miguel Useche, C/1B, Chicago Cubs (2-4, HR, 2B, BB, 4 RBI)

Useche, an undrafted free agent and native Venezuelan who attended high school in Florida, finished his second professional season in Double-A with an .861 OPS over 47 games. He spent the majority of the 2025 season with the Tri-City ValleyCats of the independent Frontier League before catching on with the Cubs. At nearly 26 years old, he’s on the older side for the circuit, and given his lack of pedigree, he has no choice but to perform well or otherwise continue to be thought of as organizational depth. He has a .226/.342/.419 line through 10 games between Mesa and Scottsdale thus far.

He got ahold of a 91 mph fastball in the fifth inning and sent it 405 feet for his first fall league home run on Tuesday. There isn’t much here for fantasy, especially given he’s a catcher in an organization full of them, but his story and continued success while traversing an uneven path are worth following.

Aaron Parker, C, Toronto Blue Jays (2-3, 2 BB)

Parker was a 2024 sixth-rounder out of UCSB, where he compiled a .351/.437/.592 slash and 22 home runs in 109 games and cultivated a reputation as a slugging backstop with a big arm. His big leg kick caught up to him in 2026 as he carried a below-average contact rate that led to a 32.3% strikeout rate, and despite tallying 19 home runs in 87 games, it’s a hole he’s going to have to fix to be a viable big leaguer. He’s adept at pulling the ball but it also leaves him vulnerable as he has to fire early to maintain that spray profile.

He’s played well in the AFL thus far. He has a .423/.559/.538 slash with more walks than strikeouts through seven games. He reached base four times on Tuesday night via two singles and two walks.

Surprise Saguaros (Rhys)

Angeibel Gomez, OF, Kansas City Royals (2/5 2B, SB)

The fact that Angeibel Gomez is holding his own in the AFL is impressive, but he is currently dominating the fall league, hitting .333/.421/.485 with 4 stolen bases and 3 doubles.

Gomez being the youngest player in the AFL and doing what he is doing is impressive, and I, for one, hope you bought some Angeibel Gomez stock this season because the hype train is flying down the track. In this game, he had four batted-ball events, two of which were outs, but all four of them were hard-hit batted balls, including a 100 mph batted ball that was ultimately a groundout, but it came off a 95 mph pitch. We even got a chance to see the speed here, as Gomez stole a base.

This was an aggressive assignment and, well, it is looking like the Royals made the smart call. He is handling himself well in Arizona, and frankly, this showing could really accelerate the timeline for Gomez. I will be interested to follow the hype and see where other people wanna rank him. I think he might be trending towards being a top 30 prospect in the sport.

Luke Hill, 2B, Cleveland Guardians (2/5 HR)

The King of The Hill, and not the remake, with a 105 mph EV on his homer yesterday. Luke Hill is making up for lost time because he did suffer a hamstring injury in June, and after that it really slowed down his season. 

Luke Hill is gonna be so annoying to pitch to in the future, because he has the level of plate skills the Guardians covet and there is also some power here. There are good swing decisions here, and it’s a fairly optimized approach. There is a solid approach here as before the injury he had walked 40 times and struck out 49 times. But in the Fall League we are seeing him get on base and hit for power, while putting the ball in the air a good bit as well. I would be looking to scoop up some Luke Hill shares this offseason in leagues where 300+ prospects are rostered.

Ryan Lambert, RHP, New York Mets (IP/0 H/0 ER/1 BB/2 K)

I liked Ryan Lambert a lot in the beginning of the season, and when he was dicing people up in Spring Training I was thinking there was a chance he could pitch leverage innings for the Mets. And well much like everything that happened this year for the Mets things didn’t go as planned for Ryan Lambert, a lot of that due to an inability to throw strikes. 

Lambert has nasty stuff; that has never been the question. We can question some things like should someone really be eating 30 raw eggs, but I digress. But in Triple-A this season, Lambert struggled throwing strikes, and that makes his stuff wildly played down. It played like 30 command which was a shame because I would have loved to see him with the big league squad. It’s an upper 90’s fastball that is a high-vert and steep offering with 18 inches of IVB and generating a -5 degree VAA. But when you are zoning your pitches less than 55% of the time it doesn’t matter how nasty your stuff is. 

It’s good to see the stuff is still nasty in the Fall League after a long season, and maybe he can get a half-grade jump in command and control, and I can say never wrong, just early. The stuff here plays.

Glendale Desert Dogs (Rhys)

Bryan Mena, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates (2.2 IP/3 H/0 ER/1 BB/5 K)

Not bad for a minor league Rule 5 selection, the Pirates took Bryan Mena in the minor league Rule 5 draft this past season and got Mena away from the Rockies. All things being equal, he was fine. I saw him a few times and thought there was something, but that something was like a low-leverage reliever for a second-division team.

Mena in this one came out swinging; he collected 12 whiffs, five of them coming off his fantastic curveball that gets about -9 inches of IVB and 10 inches of horizontal break, all from a 6’3” release height. The curveball is a real weapon for him as it’s an upper-70s pitch that he can spot for a whiff to both sides of the plate. Then he plays around with a slider that gets about 7 inches of IVB and 15 inches of horizontal break, creating a -6 degree vertical approach angle, and then he also has a four-seamer with a touch more vert. Both of these fastballs hover around 92 mph on average.

The AFL is a great place for pitchers like this to place themselves in the shop window. And Mena is hoping to do that and maybe put himself in a spot where he can have a clearer path to a major league role. Right now the role is that of a low-leverage reliever who can go multiple innings because the stuff is solid but not great.

Scottsdale Scorpions (Beck)

Waner Luciano, 3B, Houston Astros (2-4, 2B, BB, 2 RBI, 2 R)

Luciano finally broke out in his third stint with Fayetteville, putting together a .261/.384/.445 slash with 10 home runs and 23 steals over 76 games. He was a five-figure signing in 2022, garnering a bonus of just $45,000, but has since been one of the stronger under-the-hood performers in Houston’s system. He stung the ball hard twice on Tuesday, ripping a 106.1 MPH double and a 109.6 MPH groundout in a two-hit performance. The double was just his second extra-base hit as a Scorpion.

He’s fallen a bit out of favor after repeating Single-A twice, but there are some intriguing tools all around. He’s a strong runner with some evident pop and average bat-to-ball skills.

Dalton Wentz, 2B/3B, San Francisco Giants (1-4, HR, BB, 3 RBI, 2 R)

Wentz opted for the draft after two years at Wake Forest that saw him collect a .311/.404/.599 slash and 31 home runs over 117 games. It earned him a $585,000 signing bonus in the 16th round. Why the disconnect? He struck out a lot and is not a strong defender. Not for nothing, but his signing bonus was more in-line with slot values at the end of the fourth round. He’s an exciting but flawed player who was floated down the board in a shrewd bit of pool management by Giants’ brass.

He’s capable of homering from either side of the plate and might have a shot to play a reasonable third base with time and repetition. He’s crushing the AFL thus far — he has 10 RBIs in 11 games as a Scorpion — and continued strong performance may put him on the fantasy radar. He’s a player I’ll be watching intently when I head to the desert next week.