Article: Catching Up With Red Sox Prospects In The Arizona Fall League: Week Two

[Randy Holt]

The Boston Red Sox may not have sent the top of their prospect list to the Arizona Fall League, but that doesn’t take away from any intrigue we might’ve seen so far as we hit the midway point of the fall slate. 

Representing the Sox on the Mesa Solar Sox, Boston sent eight players to the AFL. C/1B/DH Brooks Brannon, infielder Max Ferguson, and outfielder Caden Rose are representing them on the positional side, while Cooper Adams, Zach Fogell, Danny Kirwin, Conor Steinbaugh, and Tyler Uberstine stand as the Sox contingent on the mound. 

Because Brannon is actually on MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Boston Red Sox prospects, his involvement does stand as the marquee presence on Mesa’s roster. And he has not disappointed in the slightest. Across 31 plate appearances, his slash includes a .357 average and .419 OBP. Brannon also has a double and homer to his credit, with the latter coming on an opposite-field solo job back on Wednesday evening. He appeared behind the plate once and as Mesa’s DH twice, recording multiple hits in his three starts this week. We haven’t seen too much of him behind the plate, but the bat has played so far. 

Ferguson & Rose have each factored heavily into Mesa’s fall season to this point, though the output hasn’t been quite as loud as Brannon’s for either player.

The versatile Ferguson started twice at shortstop and once in right field this week. He recorded one hit in his Tuesday start and none in his Friday start but went on to walk four times on Saturday. That discipline leaves his .394 OBP through 33 PA, which is no surprise given his penchant for having an approach. 

Rose, meanwhile, hasn’t been entirely dissimilar in his output. He hasn’t had a breakout performance to this point in the AFL from a hits perspective. And he’s hitting only .192 after a handful of 1-for-4 outings this week. But he’s drawing free passes to the point where a .364 OBP is buoying his line. He has seven walks against eight strikeouts across his own 33 PAs. As a glove-first type of prospect, you’re probably not too upset with that type of trend on the approach side, at the very least. 

On the bump, Steinbaugh got the BoSox MeSox representatives off to a solid start on Tuesday as he threw a pair of strong innings. He struck out four against one hit and one walk. It was his only appearance of the week, but he has five strikeouts in just three innings of work this fall. 

Kirwin & Adams combined to start things off for Mesa on Wednesday, with Kirwin tossing 2.2 innings and Adams following up with 2.1 of his own. The former was certainly the stronger of the two, holding Peoria to one run on three hits and a walk. He struck out two. Adams struggled a bit in his outing, surrendering three runs on four hits and a walk. Neither threw for the rest of the week, leaving Kirwin at a 3.18 ERA through 5.2 innings (7 K/0 BB) & Adams at an 8.44 mark through 5.1 (3 K/1 BB). 

Each of Fogell & Uberstine appeared to close out a Mesa loss on Friday vs. Glendale. Fogell struck out one in a clean inning, while Uberstine allowed a single hit in an otherwise quiet outing. The two have thrown a combined six innings in the fall season, and neither has allowed a run up to this point. 

The Arizona Fall League will be off on Monday before Mesa gets back underway on Tuesday. They’ll head out of the Phoenix area to Surprise to get things started. One imagines another Kirwin and/or Adams start should be nigh in the next couple of games, given that they’ve each started one to date.

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