The Arizona Fall League will get started with their season in just over two weeks, with the first game of the regular season beginning on October 3rd. The season will run through the championship game on November 14th. Today we learned that the Cincinnati Reds would be sending eight prospects out to the greater Phoenix area to play for the Peoria Javelinas – a team that they will share with the St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, Baltimore Orioles, and San Diego Padres.
Among the eight prospects are two guys who are currently tanked in the Reds Top 25. Infielders Carlos Sanchez and Carter Graham will both be in Arizona representing Cincinnati in a couple of weeks. They will be joined by outfielder Jay Allen II, as well as pitchers Luke Holman, Cody Adcock, Victor Diaz, Trent Hodgdon, and Jose Montero.
Carter Graham, the #19 prospect in the organization, has had a big time breakout year. When the year began he was in Dayton for the third season in a row. He spent 34 games there in 2024 and then another 57 in 2025. In both of those seasons he struggled to hit and his OPS was .648 between those two campaigns. This season was a lot different as the 8th round selection in 2023 out of Stanford hit .322/.450/.614 with 17 home runs in 66 games in the first half with the Dragons. He then moved up to Double-A and barely skipped a beat. In 60 games with Chattanooga he went out and hit .277/.388/.514 with 12 more home runs to give him what is currently a farm system best 29 on the year.
Like Graham, Carlos Sanchez also began the season in Dayton. The #16 prospect in the organization is a bit younger than Graham and is just 21-years-old. His time with the Dragons was also in the first half of the year where he hit .313/.409/.504 in 69 games player. He also stole 18 bases while playing shortstop. He was moved to Double-A in the second half. The production at the plate tailed off with Chattanooga as he hit just .214/.335/.358 in 58 games with the Lookouts while stealing just five bases.
Jay Allen II started his season in Chattanooga. With the Lookouts he put together his best stop at any level since he played in 19 games with the ACL Reds back in 2021. The outfielder played 90 games with the Lookouts and hit .280/.374/.483 with a career best 15 home runs. He also stole 17 bases there before he was moved up to join Triple-A Louisville in the middle of August. The Bats season still has a week remaining, but through 23 games since being promoted he’s struggled to get his bat going as he’s hit just .211/.318/.250. He has stolen six bases, giving him 23 on the year.
Cody Adcock split his season with Dayton and Chattanooga. In the first part of his season with the Dragons he pitched in 16 games and had a 3.16 ERA while picking up three saves. Over his 25.2 innings he only allowed 11 hits, but he struggled to throw strikes with consistency and walked 21 batters while hitting three more. Adcock did pick up a bunch of strikeouts along the way, though, fanning 37 of the 111 hitters he faced. In Chattanooga his walks dropped off some as he handed out 20 free passes (and hit three batters) in 37.0 innings to go along with 49 strikeouts, but his ERA did jump up to 4.38.
Victor Diaz has spent time with both Dayton and Chattanooga this season. The reliever has gotten the job done with the Dragons this season and is currently back with the team in the Midwest League playoffs. In the regular season he posted a 3.33 ERA in 31 games with Dayton, picking up five saves and throwing 51.1 innings. He walked 37 and hit two others, but like Adcock he racked up strikeouts along the way – 76 of them against the 229 hitters he faced. Diaz pitched in six games with Chattanooga, but struggled as he allowed 10 earned runs in 9.0 innings.
Trent Hodgdon has spent his entire season with Dayton. He has appeared in 36 games out of the Dragons bullpen and has had 11 saves – second most in the farm system this year. Like the previously mentioned relievers, Hodgdon has struggled to consistently throw strikes as he’s walked 45 batters and hit two others in his 52.0 innings. He’s also struck out a ton of batters, fanning 75 on the season.
Luke Holman was drafted by Cincinnati in the 2nd round of the 2024 draft out of LSU. Since then he’s pitched all of 15.2 innings. This season he threw 6.2 innings of rehab with the Arizona Complex League Reds in the final month of their season, but when that season ended in late July he didn’t join a full-season team. Now he will get some additional innings with Peoria and what may be the longest healthy run he’s had on the mound since college three seasons ago.
Jose Montero saw time with Dayton and Chattanooga this season. He began the season and is ending the season in Dayton. During the regular season with the Dragons he made eight starts and two relief appearances while throwing 46.0 innings with a 3.13 ERA, 22 walks, and 41 strikeouts. During his time with Chattanooga he pitched 14 games in relief and made six starts where he threw 55.1 innings and had a 5.20 ERA to go along with 25 walks and 43 strikeouts.
Last year the entire league had both pitch and hit tracking. There were also plenty of games that you were able to watch live broadcasts of. As we get close to the start of the season the viewing schedule will be updated and when it is I will be sure to write an article about it and share which games can be watched and how to watch them.
Just going to repost my comment from previous article.
If there was going to be one consensus pick this year, it’s Carter Graham. He should get every opportunity to show he can hit higher level pitching that he can.
If Luke Holman is healthy enough to get an AFL spot, that is a bit of good news. And if Montero has a multi-purpose job ahead of him, where his fastball can play up, more reps are good.
I wrote something about Sanchez the other day and wondered if he was going to be getting time at 3B and the OF as well as possibly 2B given the imminent arrival of Lebron at SS in Chattanooga. AZ might offer a clue.
Good for Jay Allen II. Speed. Defense. Arm. And some hitting with more power this year. Being a RH hitting OF sitting at AAA waiting for an opportunity is a plus.
Hodgdon, Diaz and Adcock might have a leg up on some of the other relievers we’ve sent to AZ. Of you watch these guys enough, you can see their ability. They each seem like AA to AAA to who knows what can happen next year.
I guess I will report my reply as well, lol
Yeah, Holman was the one that perked my ears up, it’d be nice if he is healthy enough to pitch.
I think Montero’s future is as a reliever with his fastball/splitter combo.
Graham just needs to keep proving himself at each level. AA second half of this year, AFL this fall, maybe AAA to start next year. Once you are at AAA, you’re just one injury/slump/trade away or a hot streak that can’t be ignored. At 25 next season Graham would be below the median age of the league for the first time in his professional career in AAA.
Graham could make an interesting case study if he proves you can develop later and still have some kind of ML career. There have probably always been guys who don’t break in until later but, after the lost 2020 minor league season, we all made the same type of change in thinking that an older prospect might not necessarily fit that profile, ie AAAA. Blake Dunn might be another example, especially if you throw in time lost to injury. His 2025, age 26 season saw a major reinvention of his hitting. His 2026, age 27 season saw him playing pretty well, for who he is and what he has to work with. It could be similar with Graham is my thought. So, while the chances are still there this is just his one career year, his development could also be real and make us look at an older prospect in a different way. It’d be cool, IMO, as the trend of major league sports is the exact opposite, focusing on and using younger players in primary roles. So it could be like moving in opposite directions at the same time.
And to think, these musings of a troubled mind, all because Graham is going to the AFL.
Hodgdon and Diaz were pretty dominant down the stretch and in playoffs for the Dragons. Hodgdon became the closer thr last month and Diaz became an effective set/up guy. The Reds also gave permission for these guys to pitch back-to-back days during the playoffs. That is a no-no typically for the Dragons.
I really think Jack Moss damaged Graham’s development. They both were first baseman and it seemed Moss was ahead in the pecking order. Moss left the organization early in the season and from that point on Carter took off.
Jose Barrero called up to Baltimore today. Along with Hinds and CES the Orioles are turning into Reds East. Not sure picking up discarded Reds is a great receipt for success building.