While most people associate the month of October with the MLB postseason, here at Prospect Pipeline, we tend to associate it with the start of the Arizona Fall League.
The AFL is comprised of six different teams divided into an East and West division, and each team features prospects from five specific organizations. In total, the AFL allows a maximum of 180 players, six from each team.
As the regular season begins to wind down in August, a draft is held to finalize which prospects will participate in the AFL. Typically, a majority of the players selected are housed in either Double or Triple-A. However, each organization has the option to send one lower-level prospect—a player yet to reach Double-A for their respective organization—to the league.
The AFL is as a great way for a player to make up for lost time—usually stemming an injury—during the regular season. Therefore, a slew of prospects, both pitchers and hitters, participate in the AFL every year as a means of logging additional experience. For other prospects, the league offers an opportunity to refine one specific skill, tool or pitch, while others use it as an opportunity to demonstrate value at a new position.
So, today I thought that I’d look at five intriguing prospects whom I believed were AFL-bound, but were ultimately not included.