Live From The Arizona Fall League: 11/7/2026

Salt River Rafters (Chris)

Kyle DeBarge, 3B, Minnesota Twins (2/3 3B HR)

DeBarge, a 2024 first-round pick, has had an up-and-down career to this point. The talent is there, but outside of stolen bases, DeBarge has not provided a ton. He moved to Double-A in 2026, and across 533 plate appearances, DeBarge blasted 12 home runs and stole 41 bases. The slash of .221/.325/.352 was a bit of a disappointment, though.

While DeBarge does not hit the ball hard, he does have a knack for pulling the ball in the air, and the lower chase rate lends to higher walk rates and OBP.

DeBarge led the way for Salt River yesterday, blasting a 103.4 mph home run and adding a 356-foot triple that nearly left the yard to right-center. It is interesting that so far in the AFL, DeBarge had topped out at a modest 103.6 mph max exit velocity. His hard-hit rate at 52 percent shows he consistently hits the ball in the mid-90s, but is not often scorching balls.

The zone contact is low at 76 percent, but he has chased just 21 percent of pitches out of the zone. But as he showed in the regular season, DeBarge is elite at pulling balls in the air.

Demetrio Crisantes, 2B, Arizona Diamondbacks (2/3 2B)

Crisantes collected two hits yesterday, including a 97.7 mph double. He struck another ball 95 mph to the opposite field, but wound up flying out at 353 feet. In the AFL, Crisantes has shown elite contact skills, running an 82 percent overall contact rate with an 89 percent in-zone mark.

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.

Mesa Solar Sox (Beck)

Juan Cabada, 2B, Chicago Cubs (2-4, 2 K)

Truth be told, Mesa got shellacked worse than the 13-4 final score would indicate. Cabada was the player in the lineup with more than one hit and nobody mustered an extra-base hit.

At present he’s a stout, square-ish player with a solid enough hit tool and limited power that can handle second base duties passably. His barrel control and ability to limit strikeouts were his calling card as he drew legitimate intrigue in the DSL, but he’s backed up enough to reasonably infer his bat-to-ball won’t be enough to carry the profile. Other skills, either as a defender or as a more reliable power threat, will have to develop.

Surprise Saguaros (Chris)

Welbyn Francisca, SS, Cleveland Guardians (2/5 3B)

Francisca may win up being the AFL MVP as he continues to dominate in all aspects of the game. He collected a single and a double yesterday, bringing his batting average DOWN to .419, and his OPS sits at 1.198. He had two hard-hit balls and while he has not hit the ball overly hard in Arizona, Francisca has one of the highest sweet spot and air-pull rates in the league.

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. Something to watch will be the approach, as his chase rate is 34 percent in the AFL.

Julian Brock, C, Texas Rangers (2/3 2B BB)

Brock is an interesting prospect who was selected in the eighth round of the 2023 MLB Draft. He worked his way to Triple-A this year during the regular season, but the numbers were bad. Brock slashed .197/.312/.332 in 279 plate appearances with seven home runs and nine doubles.

He has an interesting combo of skills because Brock does hit the ball hard, but the launch angles are inconsistent. The contact skills and approach were also highly inconsistent during the regular season.

After having two hits and a walk on Friday, Brock is hitting .250 with a .793 OPS in the AFL. He has hit the ball hard, having a 106.5 mph 90th percentile and a 110 mph max, but his contact rates are below average. He has chased at a 20 percent clip, but has a putrid 49 percent zone-swing rate.

Scottsdale Scorpions (Rhys)

Nehomar Ochoa Jr., OF, Houston Astros (0/3 106 MPH EV)

Ochoa Jr. has an interesting story, almost losing an eye because of a hook from a truck derailing his 2025 season. There are clear and obvious tools here, but there have been some developmental setbacks that have hampered him and his exciting tools from making any sort of impact.

He is built like a linebacker and has tremendous raw power. In this one, he posted a 106 mph groundout, and that was the big headliner of his day. He is a bit aggressive in the box, and that does worry me a bit. But I am liking the way the Astros' front office is heading, hiring two former Driveline guys to lead their minor league development and instituting some people to try and refresh a hitting development that got a bit stale there. Ochoa Jr. has the raw tools to be someone worth keeping on the back end of your rosters in deeper leagues.

Miqueas Mercedes, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers (2.2 IP/1 H/0 ER/1 BB/5 K)

Knowing the way the Brewers develop arms, Miqueas Mercedes could be pitching out of the bullpen for the Brewers in a few years or so. In this outing he collected 10 swings and misses in his 2.2 innings of work, and collected all 5 of his outs by way of the punchout. 

Miqueas Mercedes comes at you from a low three-quarters slot, and a sub 6’0” release height. The shapes of his pitches are good. In this one his fastball was 14 inches of IVB and 11 inches of horizontal break and got half of his ten whiffs. His slider got 3 whiffs and it was particularly good getting 8 inches of horizontal break and -1 inches of induced vertical break. I would love to see him throw his changeup more. He kills loft on it, getting about 1 inch of IVb and around 16 inches of horizontal break on it. Selling it well with his fastball.

There are enough raw ingredients to remain a starter here, it’s a fastball that hovers around 93-95, he’s got the changeup he can mix into lefties and a good slider. The fastball shape is just fine, but luckily he mixes in a sinker that is looking promising, with 8 inches of IVB and 16 inches of horizontal break. The Brewers have a loaded system, so Mercedes does fall by the wayside a little bit.

Peoria Javelinas (Beck)

Tai Peete, OF, St. Louis Cardinals (1-4, HR, BB, 5 RBI, 3 SB)

Peete is one of the better players out here. It’s evident in the stats and in his stature. He’s coming off an under-discussed 2026 campaign in which he slashed .296/.359/.549 with 13 home runs and 16 stolen bases over 66 games, and he played fantastically over a 20-game sample in Double-A.

He’s long-limbed, fast, and has grown into considerable damage on contact potential. There’s a lot to like here, especially given his newfound ability to change the game on one swing as he did with his three-run homer in the fifth inning of Friday’s game in Peoria (it left the bat at 107.3 MPH). I would consider him a top 200 prospect at minimum.

Vance Honeycutt, OF, Baltimore Orioles (0-3, 3 BB, R, 3 SB)

Vance did me a solid by posting the perfect line to illustrate the fact that stolen bases don’t matter at all in the Arizona Fall League. They’re practically free; many stolen base attempts go unchallenged, and those that do are rarely competitive. It’s been more common to see a caught stealing arise from a pickoff at first base than it has been to see a would-be base stealer cut down at second or third.

This isn’t a blurb about Honeycutt. His three walks and .500 OBP on the day are obviously factors that improved Peoria’s likelihood to win the game. The stolen bases, however, were as meaningless as they are for evaluating any player in the circuit.

Glendale Desert Dogs (Rhys)

Chase Harlan, 3B, Los Angeles Dodgers (2/4)

Chase Harlan is someone I saw a few times this year. It’s a good frame, and I have some questions about if he is going to be able to stick at third base, but he hits the ball hard enough to profile at first base.

In this game, he posted a 101 mph EV on one of his two singles, and overall he has posted a 90th-percentile EV of 106 mph in his time in the Fall League with a max around 112. He has posted an impressive barrel rate. And this is Harlan’s game: it’s squaring up batted balls at optimal angles. There are some contact concerns here, and I think there are going to be plenty of swings and misses in his game.

I would be looking to scoop up Harlan in leagues where I can. I think there is potentially 30-homer upside, which is what you need to think he has in him, especially if he is just a 1B at the end of the day, especially a dreaded right/right first baseman.