MLB’s top prospects will be featured in the Arizona Fall League as rosters were announced Tuesday.
Every fall, MLB teams send a handful of prospects to the Arizona Fall League, a league where teams often send their top prospects to get exposure to other elite talents, send players who were injured in the previous season to get innings or at bats that they didn’t get in the previous regular season, and where they send players who they’d like to have a chance to learn a new position or a new pitch or a new role in an environment where there’s less competitiveness.
The rosters were released on Tuesday, and we’ll take a look at each roster, starting with the Glendale Desert Dogs team:
Glendale Desert Dogs
MLB affiliate teams: White Sox, Indians, Dodgers, Phillies, Pirates
Pitching – The top pitcher by a large margin is Pirates prospect Mitch Keller, one of the top 30-50 prospects in all of the game. Other guys to watch include Phillies relief prospects Trevor Bettencourt and J.D. Hammer, Pirates lefty starting prospects Taylor Hearn and Brandon Waddell, and Indians relief prospect Leandro Linares.
Hitters – One of the biggest pieces of intrigue that came out of the announcement of the Glendale roster was the placement of Indians prospect Francisco Mejia. While I’d heard some rumors about the Indians looking at Mejia at other positions than behind the plate, listing him as an infielder in the Arizona Fall League is incredibly intriguing and is an absolute must-watch of the prospects on this team.
Of course, behind the plate, the Desert Dogs will have one of my favorite catchers from the 2016 draft in Will Smith of the Dodgers. The strength of the team will be in the infield with Cleveland masher Bobby Bradley, Mejia, and Pirates infielders Kevin Kramer and Cole Tucker being the highlights. In the outfield, Dodgers enormous (6’6″, 230-pound) outfielder DJ Peters will be coming off of his Cal League MVP season to the Glendal outfield, where he’ll be joined by fellow Dodger prospect Yusniel Diaz and former top draft pick Cornelius Randolph of the Phillies.
Next, we’ll look at Peoria…