- Slug: Sports–Arizona Fall League Preview, 1050 words.
- 4 photos available.
By Grace Del Pizzo
Cronkite News
SCOTTSDALE – Baseball in Arizona is truly a year-long love affair. It begins in February, when 15 big league teams make their spring home in the Cactus League.
It continues with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ season from March through at least September. And every October, the top prospects in baseball descend upon the Valley to make their mark in the Arizona Fall League, which began play Monday.
The Fall League gives baseball lovers a chance to watch the top prospects from every minor league level in action in a laid-back atmosphere that is reminiscent of spring training in Arizona years ago.
Each of the league’s six teams is made up of top prospects from five major league organizations.
For the prospects, it’s a chance to impress and eventually join the more than 3,000 Arizona Fall League alumni who have gone on to play in the majors. And a number of 2025 major league hopefuls aim to do just that this year.
The 2024 Fall League rosters boast 15 of MLB’s Top 100 prospects, including Jac Caglianone of the Kansas City Royals, one of baseball’s top infield prospects and the No. 17 overall prospect. Caglianone, the sixth overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, will play for the Surprise Saguaros.
The University of Florida product, who finished the 2024 season on the Kansas City Royals High-A Quad Cities River Bandits roster, said the opportunity to share a Fall League field with high-level competition is “everything.”
“For me, the biggest thing is to take advantage of the resources that we’re given,” Caglianone said Friday. “Throughout the Fall League, you’re around a lot of very talented guys. You’re picking their minds and seeing what’s worked for them. And (you) figure out things that work for you and apply that to your everyday routine. But for me, it’s more so taking it all in and being where my feet are.”
White Sox shortstop prospect Colson Montgomery, MLB’s No. 37 prospect, played in the Arizona Fall League in 2023. He was the top-ranked prospect in the Fall League that year, and he lived up to that billing, blasting a 409-foot home run in the 2023 Fall Stars Game and earning the Fall Stars Game MVP award.
Montgomery spent the 2024 season on the White Sox’s Triple-A affiliate, the Charlotte Knights. White Sox fans – and Montgomery himself – expected him to get the call-up to the major league club at some point in 2024, but offensive shortcomings in Triple-A (namely a .214 batting average) prevented that from happening.
Now he’s returning to the Glendale Desert Dogs for a second stint, hoping to improve at the plate and earn a spot on the White Sox roster.
“I mean, it was a heck of a time last year,” Montgomery said. “You get to meet so many guys, play against so many cool players and things like that. But I would say the biggest thing that brought me back here is to keep facing high-level pitching.
“I really believe it’s trying to get me ready for next year and playing 162 games.”
Montgomery’s advice to the younger players in the Fall League is simple but impactful.
“Try to get your name out there as much as you can, use this as an opportunity to really showcase what you got,” he said. “And showcase your personality. Because a lot of it is personality, and a lot of people like a person with a good personality.
“I think it’s really cool, the outlet that you can get with this. And also meeting new guys and having new connections. I would say that’s the biggest thing. Talk to everybody.”
One of those younger players who could follow Montgomery’s game plan is Padres catching prospect Ethan Salas, MLB’s No. 2 catching prospect and No. 19 overall prospect. In January 2023, the Padres signed the then-16-year-old Salas as an international free agent out of Venezuela. Still just 18 years old, Salas is the third-youngest prospect in MLB’s Top 100. He will face top-level competition over the next month with the Peoria Javelinas, and his goal is to learn from those around him.
“(It’s a) good experience to learn from a lot of guys that are a lot older than me, (who have) played more baseball than me,” Salas said. “Just go out here and dominate, really. Have fun.”
Expectations differ for each prospect.
And due to the Fall League’s nature, every player comes to Arizona with their own goals, whether it is to gain experience against higher-level players or, in Montgomery’s case, to prove that he can crack the White Sox’s 2025 Opening Day roster. Montgomery will take the lessons he learned in the Fall League in 2023 and apply them to his 2024 experience.
“Just going to play every day like I think it’s my last game,” Montgomery said. “Last year I kind of went in here just thinking, ‘It’s the Fall League,’ and things like that, but this year I’m going to be a lot more focused and determined and wanting to play good, pretty much. You want to play good all the time. But I would say coming here the second time, you really learned a lot from last year.
“I would say, just to keep proving that I can be that guy for us is my main goal, pretty much.”
Salas’ older brother, Jose Salas, played for the Mesa Solar Sox in 2022. He was the lone Miami Marlins prospect selected to the 2022 Fall Stars Game.
“He told me it was really fun,” Salas said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people who played here. They say it’s a really good experience, a really fun time, one of the best experiences they had in baseball, really, they’ve told me. I’m really excited, really pumped to start playing.”
The beauty of the Arizona Fall League is that the experience can be as rewarding, professionally and personally, as a player makes it. It’s a fresh opportunity, a chance to outperform expectations and jumpstart a career. With the right attitude, a prospect can take a month-long stint in Arizona and parlay it into professional success for years to come.
“I’m going into it optimistic,” Caglianone said.
“I’m hoping for nothing but success and, you know, meeting a bunch of new guys and making new friends. Just kind of enjoying it, taking it day by day.”
For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.
