The participants in this year’s Arizona Fall League were announced this week. The Brewers, along with the Royals, Rangers, Yankees, and Cardinals will be sending their prospects to the Surprise Saguaros. The “season” will start on October 13th and run through the 21st of November, which is the championship game.
Teams will send prospects to the AFL for various reasons. Sometimes a player is being considered for the major-league team in the following season. Playing in the AFL allows the team an opportunity to evaluate that player in a higher level of competition. Sometimes a team will place a prospect in the AFL to allow more scouts to take notice of that player in hopes of working a trade at a later date. Sometimes a team simply wants to give a guy more playing time.
This year the Brewers are sending four pitchers and three position players. The pitchers are LHP Josh Hader, RHP Adrian Houser, RHP Jacob Barnes, and RHP Damien Magnifico. The position players are OF Brett Phillips, OF Michael Reed, and SS Yadiel Rivera.
I thought it would be interesting to look at recent Brewers-affiliated AFL teams to see if the team shows any tendencies when choosing which players go. If so, it could gives an idea of what to expect from this year’s crew.
2011 – Peoria Javelinas
2B Scooter Gennett, 3B Zelous Wheeler, OF Kentrail Davis, OF Logan Schafer, RHP Tyler Thornburg, RHP Brandon Kintzler, RHP Cody Scarpetta, RHP Casey Medlen, LHP Jed Bradley, LHP Dan Meadows, RHP Santo Manzanillo
2012 – Phoenix Desert Dogs
UTIL Josh Prince, OF Brock Kjeldgaard, 1B Hunter Morris, OF Khris Davis, RHP Johnny Hellweg, RHP Jimmy Nelson, RHP Santo Manzanillo, RHP Nick Bucci, RHP Kyle Heckathorn
2013 – Surprise Saguaros
1B Jason Rogers, OF Mitch Haniger, C Adam Weisenburger, RHP Tyler Cravy, RHP David Goforth, RHP Taylor Jungmann, RHP Kevin Shackelford
2014 – Phoenix Desert Dogs
C Shawn Zarraga, OF Tyrone Taylor, 2B Hector Gomez, 1B Nick Ramirez, OF Clint Coulter, LHP Mike Strong, LHP Wei-Chung Wang, RHP Brooks Hall, RHP Ty Wagner
The players in bold have spent some amount of time at the major-league level. As you can see, close to half the players the Brewers have sent to the AFL have played in the majors. Some of those that haven’t may yet in the future. So it seems highly probable that the Brewers feel each or most players they send to the AFL has a chance to contribute to a major-league team in some capacity.
Scooter Gennett, Khris Davis, Jimmy Nelson, and Taylor Jungmann have all won starting jobs with the Brewers. So there’s a good chance that this year’s crop also contains one or two future Brewers regulars. Center fielder Brett Phillips seems the most likely. But Michael Reed is interesting too. Neither Scooter Gennett nor Khris Davis were on a clear path to a starting role when the Brewers put them in the AFL. Each was able to outperform projections and a solid performance in the AFL was just one stop on that track.
The Brewers also seem to be somewhat active in trading away and trading for players that have appeared in the AFL. From the teams listed the Brewers have traded Shawn Zarraga, Mitch Haniger, and Kevin Shackelford. With the exception of Shackelford, each was traded either the offseason after their AFL appearance or during the following season.
It’s also interesting to note the Brewers traded for Zach Davies who was a participant on the 2014 Desert Dogs. During the 2014-2015 offseason the Brewers traded for Braves minor-league outfielder Kyle Wren. He played with the 2014 Peoria Javelinas. Another acquisition that offseason was Jarret Marin who played for the 2013 Desert Dogs.
It’s hard to say with what intention the Brewers are sending individual prospects. But on a macro level, we can see that the AFL has been an important place for prospects to play. There’s a very good chance that one or more of these players make it to the majors. There’s also the potential that one or more gets traded at some point, but that’s far less of a certainty. Regardless of what the future holds for these players, the AFL makes for a very interesting and unique opportunity for these players, which makes it all the more enjoyable to follow as a fan.