Red Sox Arizona Fall League In Review: How Did Luis Perales, Brandon Neely and Other Prospects Perform?

[Nick John]

The Arizona Fall League has officially come to a close as the Surprise Saguaros defeated the Peoria Javelinas 9-4 in the championship game. For fans of the Boston Red Sox, no one really cares about that if we're being honest. The prospects from the organization finished playing on November 12.

Three games were played in the final week by the Salt River Rafters as the prospects got their final game action until spring training. Across the week, the Rafters went 2-1, with Red Sox prospects getting some limited action.

From a pitching standpoint, only two pitchers from the Red Sox saw any action. Jay Allmer pitched in one game, throwing 1/3 of an inning where he tossed 11 pitches. In that 1/3 of an inning, Allmer faced two batters, walking one and striking out the other. The lone strikeout was on a 79.4 mph slider. For his efforts, Allmer was credited with the win after the Rafters took the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Allmer finished his fall league season with a 10.80 ERA in seven games. In that span, he won one game and allowed six earned runs across five innings on four hits and nine walks. He also struck out three.

The only other pitcher to see action was Brandon Neely, who struggled in his final appearance. Tossing one inning, Neely allowed three runs to score on two walks and a hit. That lone hit was a home run. He also struck out one batter. Neely entered the game in the fifth inning and immediately walked his first batter. To his benefit, he managed to get the next two batters out on a fly ball to center field and then a strikeout where he managed to get Cole Mathis to chase a slider down in the dirt. It would fall apart after that, as the second walk of the inning was followed by a double steal before Owen Ayers took a 2-2 curveball and deposited it 426 feet deep into right-center. Neely got out of the inning thanks to a groundout, but the damage was already done. Neely finished his fall league season appearing in five games and making one start. He tossed 10 innings and allowed 12 earned runs on 16 hits and eight walks. He also managed to strike out 11 batters.

Luis Perales did not pitch this week, bringing his season to a close with six starts where he threw a combined 11 1/3 innings. In that span, he allowed 14 runs, 13 earned, on 16 hits and 11 walks. However, despite the inconsistency, Perales flashed potential as he generated several whiffs on his way to 19 strikeouts thanks in part to a fastball he managed to throw over 100 mph. Perales’ season culminated in a Fall-Star selection.

Jojo Ingrassia was another pitcher who finished his season in the previous week, pitching in five games and making two starts. The left-hander tossed 10 innings and allowed 11 runs, 10 earned on 14 hits and nine walks. He also managed to strike out 13 batters as he worked to make up for a very short minor league season this year. Prior to his time in Arizona, Ingrassia only tossed 17 innings for Greenville.

Isaac Stebens is the final pitcher on the River Rafters from the organization, and he also did not get any game action this week. His season concluded with eight appearances where he threw just seven innings. After a dominating year with Greenville, Stebens may have put together the most consistent fall season as he allowed just five runs, three earned, on eight hits and six walks. While his WHIP of 2.00 could have been lower, Stebens showed an ability to limit runners on base from scoring against him.

[Editor's Note: None of the pitchers had particularly "great" fall seasons, but the AFL is an offense-first league. More pitchers had an ERA above 7.00 than those that had a sub-3.00 ERA this year.]

Offensively, all three position players got into games during the shortened week.

Nelly Taylor played the least, appearing in just one game in the last week when he played center field. The seldom-used outfielder would go 0-for-3 in his lone appearance, striking out twice. The performance brought his fall league season to an end as he appeared in 13 games, hitting just .139/.289/.139 with two RBIs and seven stolen bases.

Johanfran Garcia played in all three games, suiting up at catcher just once as he was the team’s designated hitter for the other two. Across the three games Garcia went 2-for-9 with a double, one RBI, and two strikeouts. Overall, it was a good fall season for the 20-year-old catcher, as he continued to get regular reps. Despite a stat line of just .224/.350/.388, Garcia put up an OPS of .738 thanks in part to his 12 walks, five doubles and two home runs. He also drove in 10 runs across his 19 games played. Defensively, he caught 84 innings behind the plate without committing a single error. He did, however, allow two passed balls and only threw out 18% of base stealers, allowing 27 successful steals.

Finally, Stanley Tucker appeared in all three games at second base and went 2-for-9 with one strikeout. Tucker also stole one base to bring his final total up to 13 steals. Tucker was the most consistent prospect sent by the Red Sox and played well throughout his stay in Arizona, shown by the fact he appeared in 24 games for the Rafters. Across the season, he ended up hitting .278/.374/.316 but had an OPS of just .690 due to a lack of slugging; he hit just three doubles while the remainder of his hits were all singles. Despite that, he managed to drive in 15 runs and, as previously mentioned, stole 13 bases. Due to his stellar play, Tucker was a Fall-Star.

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The 2025 Arizona Fall League is officially over. While the season may not have gone perfectly for every Red Sox prospect, it gave these players a chance to make up for lost time and continue their development with live game action. Now, they’ll have to take the lessons they learned and use them to improve even further as players in 2026 and beyond.

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[mvp 78]

On 11/20/2025 at 10:35 AM, Nick John said:

[Editor's Note: None of the pitchers had particularly "great" fall seasons, but the AFL is an offense-first league. More pitchers had an ERA above 7.00 than those that had a sub-3.00 ERA this year.]

 

 

Each field plays very small as if every game is played like it's at Coors. The other problem is that pitchers have less control of their pitches in AZ this time of the year. Pitches with break with go right back into the zone. For guys coming of the IL (Perales and Neely), it's a tall task to just get through an inning at times.

Stanley Tucker had a nice stretch. Perales looked good at times. Wish I had seen more out of Garcia. I think that's my only take away TBH. 

Neely pitches with a lot of fire and should be fun to watch next season.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

23 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Each field plays very small as if every game is played like it's at Coors.

That's Arizona. Having played tournaments in most of the Fall League ballparks myself, I can attest that hits just carry there (at least in the Fall).

When I first saw some of the fences at about 350 feet down the lines, I expected more pitchers' duels... until the games began. Then I got a good workout chasing down gappers all week.