Detroit Tigers’ Kevin McGonigle celebrates his walk off single against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the ninth inning of a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Detroit. McGonigle led off last year’s Fall Stars Game.·Source: WBN
The Arizona Fall League holds its Home Run Derby on Saturday and the 20th annual Fall Stars Game on Sunday, both at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.
Home Run Derby — Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET (6:30 p.m. local). Eight hitters, single-elimination bracket, seeded by home runs hit in the Fall League through Friday. A 90-second preliminary round carries over into the first round; after that, each hitter gets nine outs per match. Ties are settled by one-swing swing-offs.
Fall Stars Game — Sunday, 8:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. local), live on MLB Network and streamed at MLB.com. Paul Severino, Dan O’Dowd and Jim Callis on the call. Daniel Robertson manages the American League, Rafael Neda the National League.
Final 2 Vote closes Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Brooks Bryan, Jake Munroe and Kyle West are up for the last AL spot; Charles Davalan, Justin DeCriscio and Eduardo Quintero for the NL. Quintero is MLB Pipeline’s No. 15 prospect, Davalan No. 79.
Full American and National League rosters are here.
Five Hits, With His Newborn Watching
Welbyn Francisca leads the Arizona Fall League in batting average at .409 and ranks second in slugging at .667 and OPS at 1.134. He won Hitter of the Week in the season’s opening week. The Guardians middle infielder signed in 2023 and last played at Double-A Akron.
Last week he collected five hits with his newborn in the stands for the first time.
Tai Peete is in Saturday’s Derby, which leadoff hitters almost never are. The Cardinals outfielder ranks second in the AFL in runs with 20, fourth in hits with 22, is tied for second in triples and stolen bases, and is hitting .328 with a 1.022 OPS over 16 games. He bats first for a Peoria club with the league’s best record at 14-9.
He also does magic. Peete picked it up in Low-A, and his favorite magician is David Blaine.
Seattle drafted him 30th overall in 2023. St. Louis acquired him in a three-team trade with the Mariners and Rays in February. He hit for the cycle twice at High-A this year and homered 13 times across two levels, despite a midseason illness that hospitalized him for weeks and cost him 25 pounds.
Traded for a Cy Young Winner
Draft prospect Zyhir Hope participates in the MLB baseball draft combine, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in Phoenix. — (AP Photo/Matt York)
Zyhir Hope went to Detroit from the Dodgers on Aug. 2 as part of the three-prospect package that brought Tarik Skubal to Los Angeles. He finished the year with 29 home runs, 26 steals and 111 RBIs across two levels and won Texas League postseason honors.
He was named an AL Fall Star but won’t play, having exited Fall League action early.
Jack O’Dowd, C/INF, Salt River (Rockies). The best story in the bracket. He was in independent ball with Billings in the MLB Partner League before Colorado signed him to a minor league deal last winter, then hit 23 homers with a .946 OPS across three levels in 2026. Five homers and a 1.031 OPS in 16 Fall League games.
Alex McCoy, 1B/OF, Peoria (Padres). The Hofstra product has five homers and a 1.024 OPS in 14 games, and owns the AFL’s hardest-hit ball this fall at 118.2 mph.
Brooks Bryan, C/OF, Surprise (Royals). Four homers in 10 games after playing just 33 games of affiliated ball since being drafted in the eighth round in 2025. He’s also on the Final 2 Vote ballot.
Chase Harlan, 1B/3B, Glendale (Dodgers No. 9). Twenty years old, four homers in 15 games, including a walk-off on Oct. 31.
Antonio Anderson, INF, Mesa (Red Sox). Boston’s 2023 third-round pick, three homers in 15 games.
Yerlin Confidan, OF, Peoria (Reds). Two homers and a 1.053 OPS through 13 games, after a career-best 15 between High-A Dayton and Double-A Chattanooga.
Eric Bitonti, 1B/3B, Brewers. Sixty home runs over three pro seasons, a career-high 25 this year.
Tai Peete, SS/OF, Peoria (Cardinals No. 17). See above.
Peoria Leads the Way
The Javelinas have 12 Fall Stars, six per roster — more than any other club — plus three of the eight Derby participants in Peete, McCoy and Confidan.
AL: outfielders Jake Cook, Vance Honeycutt and Ike Irish; pitchers Braxton Bragg, Patrick Reilly and Adam Smith. NL: infielder Carlos Sanchez, outfielders Yerlin Confidan and Tai Peete; pitchers Luke Holman, Kannon Kemp and Tekoah Roby.
Roby won’t pitch. The Cardinals right-hander is 15 months past Tommy John surgery and on a strict count — no runs allowed in three starts, six hits and 13 strikeouts against one walk in 9 2/3 innings.
Peoria draws from the Cardinals, Orioles, Reds, Padres and Mariners and has won eight of its last 10, with a plus-41 run differential.
What This Weekend Is Worth
Toronto Blue Jays’ Jake Bloss pitches to the New York Yankees during the first inning of a spring training baseball game Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Tampa, Fla — (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
In last year’s Fall Stars Game, Kevin McGonigle led off for the American League, Hagen Smith struck out two in a scoreless inning, and Sam Antonacci drove in the winner on a ninth-inning sacrifice fly in a 5-4 AL win.
All three were in the majors inside a year.
WBN’s Luis Sanchez has been covering the Arizona Fall League on the ground in Arizona. Follow him at @luissanchezmilb.
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