Why Arizona Fall League is baseball's best kept secret

While much of the baseball world is focused on the postseason and World Series, there’s a small subset of those within baseball focused on a completely different season entirely: the Arizona Fall League 

If you ask around, people will say it’s a lot like Spring Training, just with a much smaller crowd, even with the relatively cheap cost of $13 a ticket and children getting in for free. But the diehards who do show up are catching early glimpses of who could be the next batch of young superstars long before they ever hit the major leagues.

Since the Arizona Fall League was founded in 1992, Hall of Fame faces like Derek Jeter, Roy Halladay and Mike Piazza have passed through, as well as future Cooperstown inductees like Mike Trout, Max Scherzer and Albert Pujols. Depending on how you feel about Nolan Arenado, Ronald Acuña Jr., Buster Posey or Chase Utley, you can add their names to the list too.

“It’s kind of fun to see, and when you go to a major league game, you get to say you saw them when they were in the minors,” fan Patrick Devine said.

There are six teams comprising the Fall League: the Salt River Rafters, Scottsdale Scorpions, Peoria Javelinas, Mesa Solar Sox, Surprise Saguaros and Glendale Desert Dogs. These squads are affiliated with five MLB teams each, who are allowed to send four pitchers and three batters apiece to compete in the Fall League.

These players tend to be atop the lists of each team’s best prospects, giving their Major League squads a chance to see what’s real and what is warped in the mirror maze of player progression.

“The clubs have the opportunity to send prospects that they feel are close to being Major League ready,” Chuck Fox said, director of the Arizona Fall League. “It gives them the opportunity for these best prospects to play alongside and against the best prospects in professional baseball. To play at a high level in professional spring training facilities, you know, an intense schedule, similar to what they’re going to face at the next level.”

One of the bright young stars taking the mound for the Salt River Rafters, the D-backs affiliate, is Taiwanese left-hander Yu-Min Lin who ranks as the seventh best player in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ farm system.

Through three starts, Lin has found the Fall League as an excellent opportunity to work on his craft, especially after missing a portion of the 2024 minor league season with facial fracture after taking a foul ball to the jaw and inconsistent play after his return.

“Now I’m here, I still play baseball,” Lin said. 

He’s spent a large portion of his time tinkering with his pitches, building up in bullpen sessions and generally working to become the best version of himself.

“I’m a starter, so I need to build up to at least 75 pitches, so I threw a lot of live BP and bullpen,” Lin said. “We have a pretty good pitching coach at the complex, so that was a big moment for me. Not big adjustments, but get my arm better.”

It also gives players the chance to work on skills they already have. In D-backs number-five ranked prospect Tommy Troy’s case, he’s flaunted his ability to work his way out of slumps.

Troy found himself mired in the middle of a 1-25 slump which included 11 strikeouts. Since then, he has raised his batting average to .269, and done so with an abundance of hard contact and extra base power, showcasing why he’s thought of so highly and worthy of a spot on a Fall League roster.

“It’s pretty cliché, but like they always say, just trust the process,” Troy said. “You have to buy into it. It’s a tough game, and there’s a lot of failure in it, but the more you’re able to accept it and just kind of stick with your plan, stick with your approach, make adjustments, not go crazy, it’ll figure itself out. You just gotta trust it.”

The Arizona Fall League doesn’t just serve as an environment for testing a player’s skills, but is an environment to test new rules as well. In years past, the league has tested out rules which have since come to the Majors like widening the baserunner’s lane, larger bases and the pitch clock, as well as alterations to it (such as the timer with runners on changing from 20 seconds to 18 seconds).

This year, the AFL continues to implement challenges to ball-strike calls, and for the first time ever, the ability to challenge checked swing calls.

“I think it’s pretty forgiving for the hitters,” Troy said. “I love how we’re trying it out in this setting, we can make adjustments from there. I like it.” 

“The Fall League is a testing ground for new technology, the testing of potential rule enhancements, rule changes that may be considered at the Major League Baseball level,” Fox said. “It’s definitely an opportunity amongst a very talented group of players and umpires and coaches to get some real time experience with some of the new technology, and again, a great laboratory or think tank for some rules that might be considered in the future.”

The Fall League also gives players an opportunity to interact with a variety of coaches and players they otherwise would have never known. For Lin, it’s been a worthwhile experience.

“I’ve met a lot of new teammates from different teams, it’s kind of a like a new experience for me,” Lin said. “You never know in the future, you might get traded or go to a different team, and that’s a time where you have to introduce yourself to new guys. I’ve met a lot of guys from different levels. I hang out mostly with the pitchers, but we’re talking about off days, what we do. Play some poker, play some golf, try to not always focus on baseball. It’s pretty good!”

While most of the baseball world will be focused on the World Series and the start of free agency, baseball on the spring training fields of Arizona will continue to march on.

“The Arizona Fall League is the best kept secret in baseball,” Fox said.

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