Image credit: IMAGE IMAGES via Reuters Connect
While most baseball is focused on the first round of the MLB playoffs, the world’s perspective is instead focused on the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, where the Arizona Fall League begins on Saturday, showcasing some of the game’s most interesting prospects. Here are the 10 players we’ll be watching in the desert this year;
Jake Bloss, RHP, Mesa (Toronto Blue Jays)
Very few legitimate players with significant expectations have been sent to the AFL, especially those with a major-league past like Bloss. If you’ve had a healthy regular season, your team generally doesn’t want to throw you in most games in October and November. So the pitching staff is often a mix of guys who missed most or all of the season, and fringe prospects (often relievers) who want teams to take one last look before deciding how to move forward. Blosius fits into the former category; He missed the first half of 2026 from 2025 to recover from UCL surgery and then was sidelined again in August with a shoulder injury, only pitching 39 total innings. A mix of fun stuff in two solid mid-90s fastballs, a lot of unusually shaped breaking balls, and ripping, Bloss rarely fixed his Trackman recitals in practice and didn’t put up a ton in class when he came in 2024 in the Yusei Kikuchi trade, so he’ll look to hit quality bats.