Here in Arizona we have now played two weeks in the Fall League, with some changes to the schedule (a few days of cancellation and a doubleheader makeup effort Tuesday) caused by the impact of tropical moisture occurs along the Pacific coast of Mexico. While roughly 60% of the slate remains, there are already some individual players who have moved the scouting needle, either for me or for the many people who brave Bell Road here and walk-sensitive pitching to increase their club’s understanding of these boys. I have some updates to the Fall Competition 2025 tab on the board and below you’ll find a map key so you can quickly parse the basics of those updates, as well as some scouting notes on the players whose rank or projection has changed.
Trend Column Chart Key
You will see the ‘Trend’ column on The Board. There are various (usually self-explanatory) symbols to give you an idea of what a player looked like. The Up arrow indicates that someone played well enough or looked different enough that I was able to increase their FV rating from previous reporting. It’s possible that the upward trend will continue throughout the fall, with the player’s rank rising once more during the offseason work on the organizational roster. In cases where the player is struggling enough to have earned a ‘Down’ arrow, I have not determined his FV grade at this time as historically there have been many great players who have struggled in the AFL due to fatigue, indifference or some other reason independent of their talent.
The target “🎯” denotes players I haven’t seen yet, or players who could be Up Arrow guys if they back up a good early look with more of the same. At some point (about a week from now), the games I decide to attend on any given day will be entirely determined by who is still on my target list. The “New” tag indicates players who have not been on the board before, and the “🩹” marker on the patch indicates players I have not seen, or players who are not playing due to injury.
New faces
Esmerlyn ValdezOR, Pittsburgh Pirates
Owen AyersC, Chicago Cubs
Hudson LeachRHP, Houston Astros
Valdez had a fantastic 40-man platform year (.286/.376/.520 with 26 home runs) in a 2025 season split between High- and Double-A. He’s gone nuclear here in the Fall League, hitting his eighth home run in his ninth game yesterday. The big part of Valdez’s 2025 was the dip in his strikeout rate. He went from playing 30% of the time in 2024 to just 24% of the time this year. The improvement coincided with a mechanical change (his hands were more vertical than they were in 2024), so there’s at least some visual evidence that Valdez has actually changed, though he’s still swinging under a lot of fastballs. There’s more in his updated report on The Board, but in short, it’s a lot like it Randal Grichuk (pull-heavy righty corner outfield cog) and should contribute to Pittsburgh’s outfield mix in late 2026.
Pirates prospect Esmerlyn Valdez hit 26 home runs in 123 games this season.
And he brought power to the AFL?
Watch his home run from his fall league debut ?? pic.twitter.com/mLEXmtokqG
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) October 8, 2025
Ayers has an incredible arm, he has the lightning-quick exchange of an undefeated sharpshooter from the late 1800s, and has routinely shot under 1.9 for me this fall on throws that fall straight to the bag. The other aspects of his offensive defense aren’t great, but Ayers is a recent small-school draftee ($50,000 from Marshall in 2024) and deserves time to develop there. Can he hit? He emerged as a top-tier hitter at Low-A in 2025 (Ayers is 24) and looked good against mostly poor pitching in Arizona, with roughly average raw power but vulnerability to increased velocity. He’s certainly on the radar now, but his role and projection are still pretty vague and dependent on his improvement as a receiver.
Hudson Leach is a potential power reliever who has the best pure breaking ball I’ve seen so far this fall. Check out his new report on The Board for more information.
In the Mix as Major League starters
Luke SinnardRHP, Atlanta Braves
Spencer MilesRHP, San Francisco Giants
Anderson BritoRHP, Houston Astros
One of the interesting thoughts while scouting the entire Fall League is, “Which of these guys could be Major League starters?” There are several years where there are several good guys, and some with just one or two. This year’s contingent had several candidates from the jump (such as Luis De Leon, Jake Bennett, José CornielAnd Hagen Smithall of which I think you can make a coherent argument that belongs on this season’s Top 100 list) and there are a handful more to come, including the names above.
The 6-foot-2 Sinnard didn’t start playing baseball until his senior year of high school. He began his college career at Western Kentucky, then had a second break at Indiana when he set the school’s single-season strikeout record with 114 in 86 1/3 innings. He blew out in his regional start in late 2023, had Tommy John and was back to throw some scouted pre-draft bullpens in 2024, including at the Combine. Sinnard looked good enough in those circumstances for the Braves to use a third rounder on him, after which he saw his first professional action in 2025, working an efficient 72-inning split between Low- and High-A. He missed about six weeks in June and July recovering from an elbow stress reaction, which is why he is in the Fall League picking up innings. He’s added a splitter that wasn’t there in college, he can mix breaking ball shapes from cutters to curveballs, and he drives a 90-90 mph fastball with unusual precision for someone his size.
Miles and Brito are more at risk of relief. Miles is built like a starter at 6-foot-4 and has a starting mix of four pitches, but he has barely pitched since turning pro in 2022 due to multiple injuries and is basically on a zero-inning base. He will be Rule 5 eligible this offseason and there is a good chance he ends up in a bullpen if he is selected this season. If the Giants don’t select him and no one drafts him in December, his chances of starting improve (thanks to another year of pure development focus in 2026).
Little Astros righty Anderson Brito (who I’ve seen once bad and once very good) is only 6-foot-4, 160 pounds or so. There are far more relievers who are physically and mechanically similar to him than starters. But Brito has a great curveball, throws very hard for a 6-foot-4 guy, and still has several years to develop as a starter since he won’t be Rule 5 eligible until 2027. If you want an active precedent for a guy who has had so little success as a starter, Son Gray provides some of it, but he may be the only one in the last decade to have a lengthy career as a starter at 6-foot-1. For every Sonny Grey, there are many more David Robertsons (if Brito became a career-long setup man like Robertson, that would be a great result) and Deivi GarciaS. I think it’s worth developing Brito as a starter just to see what happens, but he’s the one of this group I’m least convinced will continue in that role.
Recovery after uneven seasons
Seaver KingSS, Washington Nationals
Jared ThomasVAN, Colorado Rockies
King, the 10th pick in the 2024 draft, posted a .244/.294/.337 line combined at High- and Double-A in 2025, good for just an 87 wRC+. Scouts believe his swing needs some polishing to truly take full advantage of his athleticism, but King has looked great on both sides of the ball and has made it easier to dismiss his 2025 mediocrity as anomalous. Jared Thomas’ strikeout rate increased to over 30% after he was promoted to Double-A Hartford in the second half of 2025. His hands are so powerful for a fairly thin, projectable, left-handed hitter that, at least in my personal appearances, I have more excitement than concern about the makeup of his offensive skill set. Both boys are sensational athletes who are still only 22 years old, in stages of both physical and technical development that invite projection rather than fear.
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