Some of baseball's best young players will be a short drive from Queen Creek this fall. The Arizona Fall League, now in its 34th season, opens Saturday, Oct. 3, with six teams playing at spring training ballparks across the Valley through the championship game Saturday, Nov. 14, at Peoria Sports Complex.
Major League teams send prospects there for a final round of polish or to make up for time lost to injury, and the league's alumni include hundreds of big league All-Stars. Each team is built from prospects of five major league organizations, and the assignments change every year.
The Diamondbacks' group
Eight Diamondbacks prospects are assigned to the Salt River Rafters, who share a roster with prospects from the Nationals, Rockies, Twins and Yankees, according to MLB.com's roster announcement.
The headliner is second baseman Demetrio Crisantes, ranked the organization's top prospect by MLB Pipeline. The 22-year-old has hit .311 over his minor league career but has had trouble staying on the field: a shoulder tear last year, then a hamstring injury that held him to 86 games this season. He reached Triple-A Reno in late July.
Right-hander Patrick Forbes, the 29th overall pick in last year's draft, pitched only 29 2/3 innings in his first full season because of elbow trouble but struck out 41. Left-hander Joe Ariola struck out 45.7% of the batters he faced across four levels this year, the highest rate among the 2,394 minor league pitchers who threw at least 30 innings, MLB Pipeline reported.
The rest of the Diamondbacks group is left-hander Luke Craig, right-handers Connor Foley and John West, outfielder Nathan Hall and third baseman Yassel Soler.
The Rafters play at Salt River Fields, about 24 miles from Queen Creek. They also bring two top 100 prospects from other clubs: Nationals right-hander Jarlin Susana, who throws a triple-digit fastball, and Yankees shortstop Dax Kilby.
The closest ballpark
Sloan Park in Mesa, about 17 miles away, is the league's nearest stop for Queen Creek fans. It is home to the Mesa Solar Sox, whose prospects come from five clubs: the Cubs, Red Sox, Angels, Athletics and Blue Jays. The Solar Sox include Angels shortstop Arjun Nimmala, the No. 37 prospect in baseball, and a group of Cubs prospects led by first baseman Myles Bailey, a Florida State product the Cubs drafted in the second round this year, who did not play in the Cubs system this year after a leg injury ended his college season in April, according to Bleed Cubbie Blue.
