Article: Red Sox Arizona Fall League Week In Review: Luis Perales Throws Heat

[Nick John]

Despite the 2025 season having ended for the Red Sox, there are still players within the organization who are spending time getting into games and working on improving. Last week, on October 7, the players selected from the Red Sox to play in the Arizona Fall League began their fall season as the Salt River Rafters played against the Glendale Desert Dogs.

Within the first week of play, the Rafters played four games, going 1-3 as their games on Saturday and Sunday were cancelled. The stats found here are eligible through those first games (other games have been played since, but we'll recap those in a future—and more timely [editor's fault]—week in review).

As we’ve discussed previously, the Red Sox sent eight players to the AFL this season, with a late switch being that Jonathan Brand was replaced on the roster with Jay Allmer. Allmer, a 23-year-old undrafted free agent who signed with Boston in April of 2025, appeared in 29 games between Salem and Greenville where he went a combined 6-1 with a 2.85 ERA in 53 2/3 innings.

Now to check in on how the Red Sox prospects did in their first week:

Red Sox top prospect Luis Perales got the nod in the season opener for the Rafters but was still pitching on a pitch count. Tossing 1 1/3 innings on 33 pitches, Perales showed that he was still lacking command just like in his final Triple-A appearance of the season. Of those 33 pitches, Perales threw just 17 strikes and allowed a hit to go along with three walks. On the positive side, Perales struck out two batters and managed to hit over 100 mph on his fastball in the outing. The pitcher stated before the start that he would like to get up to four innings in an outing before the end of the AFL season.

The Red Sox saw two more pitchers throw in the opener, as 2024 third-round pick Brandon Neely made his professional debut, tossing three innings. Neely looked comfortable on the mound, tossing a clean 1-2-3 inning to open his outing. His second inning saw him work around trouble as a leadoff single and a one-out hit by pitch led to him facing former Sox prospect Cutter Coffey with two on. Neely managed to get Coffey to ground into a double play with a curveball low in the zone. It was his third inning of work that went off the rails, due to poor defense behind Neely. An error opened the inning, but the runner would be erased on a fielder’s choice before a single put two runners on. A second fielder’s choice placed runners on the corners with two outs, but Neely couldn’t get out unscathed as a stolen base by Sam Antonacci had two in scoring position for a Jim Jarvis single to make it a 3-2 game. Neely did buckle down and got the next batter to fly out to center field to end the inning. In total, Neely tossed 42 pitches, 27 strikes, across three innings where he allowed three hits and two unearned runs while striking out a batter. He managed to hit 96 mph during the outing.

The final pitcher in the opener was Allmer, tossing one inning and allowing one hit while striking out a batter. In total, the inning took just 14 pitches to complete. Allmer would pitch in a second game in that first week, though the outing wasn't as clean; he allowed three earned runs in just 1 1/3 innings. In that time, he allowed just one hit but walked four batters. He tossed 38 pitches in his second outing, just 17 of them for strikes.

In the second game of the season, the Rafters sent Red Sox prospect Jojo Ingrassia to the mound to open the game. Unlike Perales, Ingrassia did not make it through his outing unscathed. Instead, the left-handed pitcher would be lifted in the second inning after tossing 47 pitches, 23 of them for strikes. Ingrassia had an interesting first inning where he managed to work around runners on base to get out of it scoreless. A one-out double by Seaver King was followed by a wild pitch that now had Ingrassia dealing with a runner on third with just one out. A walk followed that before Ingrassia got a swinging strikeout with an 84.8 mph slider down and out of the zone. A second walk followed that before Ingrassia got his second strikeout of the game with another slider that was even further out of the zone. Having been given the lead after the Rafters scored in the top of the second, Ingrassia could not hold on, as a single followed by a fielder’s choice and Ingrassia’s second wild pitch had him dealing with another runner in scoring position. A hit by pitch followed that up before Ingrassia allowed an RBI single to Joseph Sullivan that tied the game and placed runners on the corners. Facing his final batter, Ingrassia got King to strike out on a slider extremely down in the zone. Overall, he threw 1 2/3 innings and allowed three hits, one earned run, two walks and three strikeouts.

The Red Sox saw their fifth and final pitcher get into a game during the Rafters’ third game of the season, as Isaac Stebens would pitch the sixth inning in a 10-9 loss to the Mesa Solar Sox. After a strong season with High-A Greenville, Stebens threw a scoreless inning. In his lone inning he allowed one walk and one strikeout, tossing 16 pitches with nine of them going for strikes. However, Stebens didn’t have as clean an inning as his stat line shows. He hit the first batter he faced, who promptly stole second base. Then, he walked his second batter as they attempted a double steal. Coby Morales was thrown out trying to steal third base as part of it before Stebens got PJ Morlando to line out for the second out. He ended the inning with a strikeout on a 93.1 mph fastball up in the zone.

Offensively, the Red Sox have seen production from their position players as well; both Johanfran Garcai and Stanley Tucker performed well in the first week, while Nelly Taylor only got into two games.

In his first week playing, Garcia appeared in three games, getting 12 at-bats and getting four hits in that span. All four of his hits were singles, and he drove in one run. He also walked once and struck out twice. Defensively, Garcia struggled in his first game, as the opposing team stole three bases on him during his five innings behind the plate. He also allowed two passed balls in that same span. Besides catching, Garcia has also seen time spent as the team’s designated hitter.

Stanley Tucker has been a welcome surprise with his production in the AFL so far. Having missed all of the 2025 minor league season due to injury, Tucker got off on the right foot in his first game. In his first at-bat of the entire season, Tucker delivered with two on and two outs, swinging on the first pitch to go opposite field and hit a 95.3 mph ground ball into right field to drive in both runners. Tucker would finish the game 2-for-3 with a walk to go along with his two RBIs. Tucker would go on to play in all four games of the first week, playing second base in each game. He hit a collective 5-for-15 with all of his hits being singles. He would also drive in six runs in that span and walk twice while striking out three times.

The final player sent by the Red Sox, Taylor, didn't play much, going a combined 1-for-8 in his two appearances, with his lone hit being a single. In those eight at-bats, he struck out five times and walked only once. While on defense, Taylor has spent his time in center field.

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