The Aces are now the only affiliate in action. Plus, some complex superlatives
5,321 players have appeared in full-season affiliate leagues this year. Most of them have seen their seasons end, as only AAA is still playing regular season games. Spokane won the Northwest League championship, and the rest of the A-ball series will be completed soon. For the Diamondbacks, just 28 players are still playing.
Affiliate Updates
As of today, there is only one affiliate still in action. Amarillo’s season came to an end yesterday, as they struck out 16 times in a shutout loss at home to Frisco. Spencer Giesting did throw four scoreless innings in the loss, a good ending to a very successful season for the left-hander (assuming he isn’t summoned to Reno, which is a slim possibility.) Gino Groover’s stint at AA this year ends with an OPS of 1.000.
Meanwhile, in Sugar Land, Erich Uelmen was forced to start due to the recall of Blake Walston, and he gave up four runs in the first inning. Jake Rice, Chris Rodriguez, Joe Jacques, and Slade Cecconi combined to throw six scoreless innings, and the Aces tied things up behind home runs from Jordan Lawlar, Ronaldo Hernández, and Andy Weber, but Kyle Backhus failed to get an out in the bottom of the ninth, walking two, giving up a bunt single, and then hitting Brice Matthews to seal the loss.
The Aces are still three games ahead of Las Vegas for the second half postseason spot, and are likely to be back in Sugar Land next week. However, if Las Vegas catches them, the Aviators will have the tiebreaker, so the Aces will look to take four of six against Albuquerque this week to handle things themselves.
Complicating matters for the Aces is the pennant race the Diamondbacks are in, which of course takes precedence. At least five key members of the team will need to be ready to go to either Denver or Milwaukee at a moment’s notice. Either Jordan Lawlar or Blaze Alexander would seem a near-lock to be called up at some point, given the struggles at the plate that Luis Guillorme is having. Lawlar, currently with 25 days of service time, can be called up at any point. There are fewer than 20 days remaining in the “championship season” and he’s not going to get 99 at bats in the remaining 13 games, so he’s already certain to still have rookie status in 2025.
There’s the chance of some reinforcements from Amarillo, but it would be a pretty aggressive promotion to send most of the top prospects currently there to Reno. Caleb Roberts will likely get moved to Reno for the final week; since Andrew Knizner was designated for assignment, Reno is a catcher short. Jancarlos Cintron would also seem likely to go back to Reno, since he’s bounced between the two levels this year as it is. Yu-Min Lin is short on innings so far this year, but a fall league placement would probably be more likely for him. Gavin Conticello and Gino Groover have been the two most impressive bats in the system among the top prospects, but they’ve had precious little time at Amarillo. Ivan Melendez or Kristian Robinson might get moved to Reno for some extra at-bats, but it’s probably just going to be Roberts and Cintron among position players.
Apart from Lawlar, players who will almost certainly have rookie status in 2025 are Yilber Diaz (unless he pitches 26 more innings over the remaining 13 games, which is highly unlikely), Blake Walston, Cristian Mena, and Jorge Barrosa. Andrew Saalfrank will also still be a rookie in 2025 if the Diamondbacks keep him when his suspension is complete.
DSL and ACL Superlatives
As the season winds down, with only one team still playing, it might be time to hand out some awards. However, it’s really quite impossible to hand out awards to the Dominican Summer League and Arizona Complex League players, given that it’s impossible to watch 99% of those games. So, rather than name official awards, this will be superlatives.
Best Strike Zone Knowledge: Alfredo Guanchez
Guanchez is a little-known 18-year-old Dominican who played mostly the corner infield spots, but also made six starts in the outfield, at least one at each spot. His 188 plate appearances was tied for seventh among the D-backs in the DSL, but he watched 154 balls go by, 21 more than the player with the second-most. In addition, just 20.4% of the 213 strikes against him were swinging strikes. He’s six feet tall, so he doesn’t have the benefit of a tiny strike zone. And, despite his presence in the corners, he seems to be a bit of a speedster; Guanchez stole 23 bases in 28 attempts, nine more steals than anyone else in the Diamondbacks’ system (although plenty of players stole more.) The walks helped him to a 122 wRC+.
Best Power: Enyervert Perez
Enyervert’s bat was anything but inert. He hit six home runs, which might not sound like a lot, but it’s a short season, and over 10% of his fly balls cleared the fence. His 139 wRC+ led all qualified batters in the Diamondbacks’ system. The Venezuelan will be 19 soon, and should be expected to make a stateside debut soon. Perez primarily played second base and committed just two errors in almost 400 innings in the field.
Best Control: Jeury Espinal
Espinal, a 17-year-old Dominican, threw more innings than anyone else in the system in the DSL. Yes, that was only 40.1 innings, but still, that was the most, by one out. How did he throw so many innings despite not being 18? Because, out of all pitchers to throw at least 10 innings, he threw the fourth-fewest balls. It took him just 280 pitches to get through 40.1 innings because he threw just 37 balls. Except that he probably threw more balls than that, and pitch data is missing from some games. Still, he walked eight against 58 strikeouts. He walked 4.9% of batters faced, and struck out 35.8% of batters faced, which were the best and second best figures among pitchers who threw at least ten innings.
Luckiest Pitcher: Oscar Echegarreta
Echegarreta will turn 21 next month, making him one of the oldest players in the DSL. But this was his first year of professional ball, and he threw 21.2 innings, with an ERA of 2.49. But that was with a FIP of 5.31 and an xFIP of 5.92. He wasn’t bad, but a little bit of luck sure doesn’t hurt those numbers.
Best Complex League Batter Not Named Demetrio Crisantes: Abdias De La Cruz
There’s really no question who the best batter was, unless you count Alek Thomas’s rehab assignment. But choosing the second-best was a bit more difficult. Jose Alpuria, Alexander Benua, and De La Cruz posted respective wRC+’s of 119, 118, and 117. Alpuria got on base the most, and Benua showed the most power, but I give the nod to De La Cruz because he walked the most and struck out the least. Among batters with 100+ plate appearances at the complex, only Yerald Nin walked at a higher rate, and only Yassel Soler and Crisantes struck out at a lower rate. De La Cruz is an outfielder who might follow in the path of Crisantes by taking a giant leap up prospect boards in 2025; Cristantes, now the #13 prospect in the system on MLB Pipeline, wasn’t ranked. Fangraphs is high on De La Cruz (while still, for some reason, not ranking Crisantes among the top-50 prospects) but no one else has been.
Best Teenaged Pitcher(s) You Should Know: Anderson Cardenas and Junior Sanchez
It’s hard to develop young pitching, and the Diamondbacks have seemed to struggle more than many teams. But two pitchers showed out at the complex this past season, and it was hard to choose between them, so why not both, particularly since most readers will not have heard of either. Of the eight pitchers in the complex who exceeded 30 innings, these were the two youngest, and possibly the two most effective, all things considered. (Eric Dominguez had the best overall numbers and struck out over 30% of batters faced, but he was 21 and his xFIP was closer to Cardenas’s and Sanchez’s than to his 2.20 ERA.)
Happy 19th birthday to Junior Sanchez, who (despite his name) is the older of the two. His case for being the better of the two relies on BABIP luck; he allowed a BABIP of .356, which should portend some regression. He struck out 25.2% of the batters he faced, although he did struggle some with control, walking 12.2% of batters faced.
Cardenas got better results than Sanchez in 1.1 more innings, but also pitched to a .247 BABIP, which indicates there will be some regression in the opposite direction. However, he’s also young. In 2023, he made 13 appearances, the first four as a 16-year-old before his Summer Solstice birthday. In his season in the DSL in 2023, he posted a WHIP of 1.294, struck out 38, and walked 13 in 36.1 innings. Coming stateside as a 17-year-old, he improved; although part of it has to do with BABIP, but he struck out batters at a higher rate and walked them at a lower rate. Will he start the next season in Visalia? Almost certainly not, given his age, but one wouldn’t have expected him to debut in the complex in 2024, so who knows?
Best Unrecognized Prospect at a Position of Poor Depth: Eliesbert Alejos
Third base has been a position of weakness for the Diamondbacks (with a couple of exceptions, including since the All Star break this year) since Matt Williams found his career trending downhill in 2001. Eugenio Suarez was the 17th different opening day starter at the position, tied with catcher for the most. Along with Williams and Suarez, opening day starters at the position have included Lenny Harris, Craig Counsell, Shea Hillenbrand, Troy Glaus, Ryan Roberts, Martin Prado, Aaron Hill, and Melvin Mora. One would be forgiven for forgetting that a couple of these players ever played for the Diamondbacks. Chad Tracy, Mark Reynolds, Jake Lamb, and Drew Ellis are the only home-grown players to start at third on opening day, and they’ve combined for nine starts. (In fairness, second base has also not seen a lot of technically home-grown players, but Ketel Marte got his final polish in the Diamondbacks’ system and is almost entirely known as a Diamondback.)
Hopefully, this will change. While most of the experiments of trying players at third base have proven unsuccessful, Gino Groover is showing the most promise, and Yassel Soler and Ruben Santana are recognized prospects who are much more natural at the position.
It might be time to add Eliesbert Alejos to that list. He struggled in the DSL in 2023, both at the plate and as a second baseman and shortstop, where he committed 15 errors in his 400 innings. This year, he was one of the better hitters, particularly as a contact hitter. He struck out in just 8.9% of his 224 plate appearances (although he only walked in 7.1% of plate appearances) and posted a 111 wRC+. He committed eight more errors at shortstop, but was moved over to third base and played much better there. He should be coming to the complex next year, and is a name to watch to possibly work his way up the prospect rankings.