The Arizona Fall League came to an end on Saturday night. The Peoria Javelinas defeated the Surprise Saguaros 8-3 in the championship game. Four Cincinnati Reds prospects played in the game and all played a role in the victory.
No one played a bigger role in the win, though, than pitcher Luke Holman. Cincinnati’s 2nd round pick in the 2024 draft is coming back from Tommy John surgery that cost him most of 2025 and much of 2026 (he threw just 15.2 innings between those two seasons) but he’s been making up for lost time out in the Arizona Fall League this year.
The game didn’t start out well for Holman as he walked two of the first three batters that he faced. But after that he locked in and fired off 5.0 shutout innings. The righty only walked one more batter on the night and he struck out six. By the time he exited the game Peoria was up 8-0 and the game was all but decided. Following the victory he was named as the Player of the Game.
The start capped off a strong showing for Luke Holman in the greater Phoenix area in October and November. Including his start in the championship game he pitched in six games and allowed one earned run in 18.0 innings. That’s an ERA of 0.50 in a league that had an ERA of 6.14 during the regular season. Holman did walk 10 batters in that time but also struck out 26 while giving up just nine hits.
Carter Graham, the RedsMinorLeagues.com 2026 Player of the Year, started the game at first base and was batting third in the lineup for Peoria. He drove in a run in the 1st inning with an opposite field single. He would later add another single and a walk, finishing the night 2-4.
Yerlin Confidan, who won the AFL’s Fall Stars game MVP award last weekend made a push for it in this game, too, before ultimately losing out to his organizational mate in Holman. Confidan was the designated hitter in this game and went 3-4 with a double, stolen base, run, and an RBI. The two hardest hit balls of the game came via the bat of Confidan. He singled on a grounder at 117 MPH and he doubled at 110 MPH.
Carlos Sanchez started the game at shortstop and was hitting cleanup. He went 0-5 but he did score a run. He also helped out Holman in the 5th inning by starting an inning-ending double play that prevented a run from scoring.