With the minor league season wrapping up this week, fans can now turn their attention to the Arizona Fall League. The developmental league will start on October 7, and many of baseball’s top prospects will be making the trip. Here’s a look at the fourteen members of MLB.com’s top 100 prospects headed to Arizona this fall.
15: Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Kansas City Royals
An appearance in the Arizona Fall League will cap what has already been an incredible year for the two-way phenom. Caglianone began his 2024 campaign with the Florida Gators, breaking the program’s single-season record with 33 home runs and tying a national record with long balls in nine consecutive games. Caglianone posted a 4.76 ERA on the mound while striking out 83 batters in 73 2/3 innings. The 21-year-old was selected sixth overall by the Kansas City Royals and appeared in 29 games with the Quad City River Bandits. The overall numbers weren’t up to his usual standards, but he finished strong with a .274 batting average over his last 100 plate appearances. Besides seeing whether he can hit another 500-foot home run, the biggest storyline with Caglianone will be whether he takes the hill for the first time in his professional career. The left-hander was listed as both a first baseman and a pitcher in the Arizona Fall League roster announcement, so it appears to be a real possibility that we will see him on the mound.
17: Ethan Salas, C, San Diego Padres
The hype was off the charts for Salas this season after he reached Double-A San Antonio at the unfathomable age of 17 in 2023. Baseball America and MLB.com ranked Salas as the 8-best prospect in their preseason rankings. Still, it became clear that the teenager would go through an adjustment period in a league where he was four years younger than the average player. Salas batted just .206/.288/.311 with four home runs, a performance that caused him to drop nine spots in MLB.com’s updated August rankings. On the bright side, Salas stayed healthy for the entire season and showed real signs of improvement with a .252/.303/.421 over his last 28 games. The 18-year-old catcher has nothing but time and will look to continue the momentum in Arizona.
18: Xavier Issac, 1B, Tampa Bay Rays
Issac may not be as well-known as fellow Rays prospects Junior Caminero and Carson Williams, but he may be just the middle-of-the-order slugger they have been looking for. The 2022 first-round prospect cemented his status among the Minor League elite with a 12-game masterpiece in High-A at the end of 2023, in which he batted .408 with six home runs. Issac continued to mash in a return to High-A in 2024, posting a .916 OPS with 15 home runs in just 71 games. The performance earned him a promotion to Double-A, but he struggled to the tune of a .211 batting average and just three home runs in 31 games. The next step in Issac’s progression will be cutting down on his strikeouts. The first baseman went down on strikes in a whopping 40.1% of his Triple-A plate appearances.
25: Colson Montgomery, SS, Chicago White Sox
2024 proved to be a mixed bag for Montgomery, who entered the season as MLB.com’s ninth-ranked prospect. On the one hand, he stayed healthy enough to play 130 games after never playing in more than 96 in any of his first three minor league seasons, and he easily set a new career-high with 18 home runs. On the other hand, he batted just .214 and never received a major-league callup despite the White Sox’s historically bad season. Like many young players, Montgomery could stand to cut down on a 28.6% strikeout rate, and he needs to clean up some of the 19 errors he made at shortstop if he wants to dispel questions about a possible move to third. Nevertheless, Montgomery’s game has a lot to like, and he will look to prove that he deserves a spot on the 2025 White Sox with a strong performance in Arizona.
27: Colt Emerson, SS, Seattle Mariners
Unlike many other players on this list, Emerson won’t wow you with any of his tools. The 2023 first-round pick doesn’t have show-stopping speed or light-tower power, and his .263/.393/.376 batting line is not something you would expect from a top prospect. Emerson’s calling card, however, is a remarkably advanced approach for an 18-year-old. In 70 games between three levels, Emerson walked 50 times against just 58 strikeouts, an impressive total for any hitter but especially for someone who was over four years younger than the average High-A player. Emerson will likely need to increase his exit velocities if he wants to move up into the next tier of prospects, but his mature performance at both the plate and the field gives him a solid floor to work with.
34: Cole Young, SS/2B, Seattle Mariners
Emerson is not the only highly-regarded shortstop prospect the Mariners are sending to the Arizona Fall League. Drafted one year and one pick earlier, you’d be forgiven if you’d think Young was just a left-handed copy of Emerson. He also displays an advanced approach, slightly above-average power, and good instincts in the field and on the bases. Given Young’s one-year head start, the two prospects have never played together in the Mariners system, so Seattle fans can look forward to seeing their potential middle-infield of the future take the field this fall.
39: Chase DeLauter, OF, Cleveland Guardians
One common reason a player is sent to the Arizona Fall League is to make up for lost development time, which is undoubtedly the case for DeLauter. The 2022 first-round generated a lot of buzz with a standout spring training performance but would play in just 39 games due to three separate stints on the injured list. This has unfortunately become a pattern for the outfielder, as he played in just 96 games in his three years in the system. When he was on the field, Delauter established himself as one of the best hitters in the minors, walking nearly as much as he struck out and displaying plus raw power. Guardians fans can look forward to finally getting an extended look at their number-one prospect in Arizona this fall.
41: Moises Ballesteros, C/1B, Chicago Cubs
The 20-year-old Ballesteros has answered every challenge over his minor league career, continuing to put up great numbers at the plate even as the Cubs aggressively push him to levels where he is among the youngest players. Ballesteros followed up his 2023 Cubs Minor League Player of the Year award with another excellent campaign, earning a Triple-A promotion and a .826 OPS between the two levels. With plus power and a below-average strikeout rate, Ballesteros looks like a future middle-of-the-order hitter, but the question he will try to answer this fall is whether he can stick behind the plate.
44: Leodalies De Vries, SS, San Diego Padres
Just as they did with Salas, the Padres saw a potential star in De Vries and challenged him to full-season ball at 17 years old. The results were predictably rough over his first three months, as De Vries hit just .196 with one home run through the end of June, but his second-half performance would cement himself as one of the game’s fastest-rising prospects. De Vries hit ten home runs over his last 35 games, resulting in .284/.407/.589 slash line that helped him jump to 44th in MLB.com’s updated prospect rankings. Only a shoulder injury in mid-August could slow down De Vries, who still took home the honor of Baseball America’s Padres Minor League Player of the Year despite appearing in 73 games. He will look to pick up where he left off in the AFL.
50: Bryce Eldridge, 1B, San Francisco Giants
A two-way phenom in high school, the Giants’ 2023 first-round pick focused exclusively on hitting upon entering the system, and so far, it is the right move. Eldridge shot up four levels this season en route to earning Giants Minor League Player of the Year honors. The 19-year-old posted a .801 OPS at Single-A San Jose before absolutely mashing at High-A Eugene to the tune of a .335/.442/.619 line. That performance earned him brief stints at Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento, where he understandably slowed down but still flashed elite raw power. The six-foot-seven-inch first baseman could stand to improve his 132/59 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but it is clear Eldridge is well ahead of schedule.
53: Jett Williams, SS/OF, New York Mets
After a solid first full season in the minors in which Williams displayed surprising power, elite speed, and an exceptional eye, expectations were for the five-foot-seven-inch second baseman entering 2024. Before he could even really get going, however, Williams suffered a wrist injury in April that eventually required surgery and sidelined him until August. Williams clearly still felt the effects of the injury upon his return, as he managed just one extra-base hit over his first 51 plate appearances. Williams would finish his season on a high note, though, as he earned a late-season promotion to Triple-A and slashed .364/.533/.546 in six games. Though he likely would have been a late-season option for the Mets’ playoff push, Williams will instead go to Arizona to try and build his case for an MLB roster spot in 2025.
67: Edwin Arroyo, SS, Cincinnati Reds
A centerpiece of the Luis Castillo deal, Arroyo spent the 2024 season in High-A, struggling to stand out from the rest of the Reds’ talented collection of infielders. There were certainly flashes (13 home runs, 29 stolen bases), but a .252/.324/.433 line was underwhelming for the Reds’ highest-rated position player prospect. The MLB.com prospect rankings reflect this stagnation, as Arroyo remained at 67 following their August update. Arroyo’s best moment may have come during a late-season cup-of-coffee at Double-A Chattanooga, where he hit .353 over the last four games of the season. Still just 19, Arroyo will look to continue this momentum in the AFL.
76: Drew Gilbert, OF, New York Mets
Like Williams, Gilbert was another top Mets prospect who had his season derailed by injury. The 23-year-old, who excelled after coming over in the Justin Verlander trade in 2023, injured his hamstring in early April, knocking him out until mid-July. It looked like a lost season for Gilbert when he struggled mightily upon his return, but he would find his power stroke late in the season by homering nine times in his final 29 games. The overall batting line still wasn’t up to his usual standards, but Gilbert has much to feel good about as he heads to Arizona.
78: Termarr Johnson, SS/2B, Pittsburgh Pirates
The fourth overall pick of the 2022 MLB draft, Johnson has frequently displayed the tools that made him so highly regarded but has struggled to put it all together. The five-foot eight-inch second baseman still has an exceptional eye and baserunning instincts to go along with above-average power. Still, the Pirates were surely hoping for more than a .239 career batting average through three minor league seasons. As a result, Johnson has fallen in the prospects rankings, going from 26 before the 2023 season to 44 before the 2024 campaign to now 78 after the most recent August update. He will look to rebuild his stock in the AFL.
Photo Credit: Jac Caglianone, the Kansas City Royals’ first-round draft pick, shakes hands with general manager J.J. Picollo as he is introduced during a press conference prior to a game between the Arizona Diamondbacks Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on July 24, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
