The Atlanta Braves Made Some Interesting Choices for the Arizona Fall League
The Braves don't send many position players out to the desert, so it's always notable to see who they're sending.
Sometimes, a prospect is close to being ready for The Show. And for that, there’s finishing school.
Major League Baseball announced the rosters for the Arizona Fall League on Wednesday afternoon, a six-week league that uses various spring training complexes across Arizona to house teams comprised of prospects from five different MLB teams.
Braves prospects are part of the Glendale Desert Dogs, along with players from the organizations of the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, and the Toronto Blue Jays.
While not every organization uses the AFL as the final stop for their prospects prior to their debut, many do and it’s not uncommon to see these same players in MLB games the following year.
The Braves seem to have different priorities than “finishing school” with their picks, though. Here’s the full list of Atlanta’s contingent, as well as some thoughts on what stood out to me with the selections.
Pitchers heading to the desert
Atlanta’s arms heading out West consist of a few rated prospects and some likely relievers, most of whom are there for a clear reason.
Righties Drue Hackenberg and Luke Sinnard are both Top 30 prospects heading to Arizona to make up for lost time this season. Hackenberg, who struggled to repeat his solid 2024 thanks to missing nearly a month and a half with an undisclosed injury, will try to get his walk rate back under control and miss more barrels - his homer rate went from 0.1 HR/9 last season to 1.0 in 2025. Sinnard missed just under two months and really struggled in High-A Rome upon returning. His performance wasn’t terrible after returning, with an ERA of 3.90 post-injury, but he needs innings. After pitching 86.1 innings his final year at Indiana, he’s thrown just 72.1 this season after missing so much time mid-season.
Lefty Jacob Kroeger’s heading to Arizona to see if he can miss more bats. The 10th round pick in 2024 struck out 11.3 batters per nine innings during his college career at Division II Maryville, but that dropped to 6.7 K/9 for High-A Rome in the back half of the schedule. It’s a low-velocity fastball that is really just there to set up a slider and changeup, so Atlanta needs to find out how his stuff can hold up against better-caliber hitters than you’ll typically find in the South Atlantic League.
Cory Wall dominated High-A Rome as a 25-year-old this year but really took it on the chin in Double-A Columbus, with his ERA rising from 2.75 to 5.23. He’ll need to rein in his control out in Arizona. L.J. McDonough was an undrafted free agent in 2023 out of Florida Gulf Coast who has struggled to miss bats during his time in pro ball (career 4.31 ERA).
Some surprising bats in the group
Atlanta always sends more pitchers than hitters to Arizona, owing to the talent distribution in the system, but the bats heading to the desert are all notable.
Nacho Alvarez Jr. headlines the list. Notably having graduated from prospect status this season, Alvarez still has less than one full season of plate appearances in the upper minors with 570 combined between AA (202) and AAA (368). Hitting just .219 at the major league level as an injury replacement for Ozzie Albies last year and Austin Riley this year, Atlanta’s likely looking to see if he can both rediscover the power stroke he flashed in Gwinnett (11 homers, .440 slug) and get back to his high on-base ways (.399 OBP in Gwinnett). I’m also hoping he gets as much time at second base as he does third, simply because Atlanta needs to see if he can hold down a bench/utility job this season.
Joining Alvarez as one of five infielders on the Desert Dogs roster is Jim Jarvis. The former Detroit Tigers 11th-rounder, who was acquired for Rafael Montero earlier this year, is another future candidate to be a utility infielder in Atlanta. Unlike Alvarez, he’s played more than 40 games at every non-first infield position and projects to be at least average defensively wherever he is deployed, although his lack of power (8 career minor league homers in 246 games) might prevent him from being an everyday player.
The third, and most unlucky, Braves position player is outfielder Patrick Clohisy. An 11th-round pick last year out of St. Louis University, he’s spent time in both High-A and Double-A this season, hitting a collective .250.
He’s also unlucky because in this same position group are some of baseball’s most notable outfield prospects, including MLB’s 12th-overall prospect in Josue De Paula of the Los Angeles Dodgers, 32nd-overall prospect Braden Montgomery of the Chicago White Sox, and former 2023 Dodgers 1st-round pick Kendall George, who some consider the fastest baseball player on the planet.
How to watch Atlanta’s prospects
The fun news is that the Arizona Fall League is the most accessible of all of MLB’s partner leagues. Every game is streamed on the team’s respective MLB.com page, while some of the notable events are carried on MLB Network as well.
Here are the significant dates for this season:
Opening Day: Monday, October 6th
Tripleheader Days: Saturday, October 11th; Saturday, October 18th
AFL Home Run Derby: Saturday, November 8th
”Fall-Stars” Game: Sunday, November 9th (LIVE on MLB Network)
Postseason Quarterfinals: Thursday, November 13th
AFL Championship Game: Saturday, November 15th (LIVE on MLB Network)