Red Sox Arizona Fall League Week In Review: Antonio Anderson Catches Fire, Pitchers Get Their Feet Wet

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The first full week of the Arizona Fall League has come to a conclusion as the eight prospects that the Boston Red Sox sent managed to get their first taste of what the AFL is truly like. A developmental league that takes place across six weeks, some teams send prospects they want to get more work in before the winter while others use it to allow players who missed significant time with injury to regain some of that lost time. For the past couple seasons the Red Sox have leaned towards the latter and for the 2026 AFL season that is no different.

Of the eight players chosen this year, all but three missed significant time. The eight players selected this season are as follows:

Position Players:

Antonio Anderson: .273/.373/.453 with 17 doubles, four triples, nine home runs and 46 RBIs across 85 games in High-A.
Mason White: .251/.353/.480 with 18 doubles, four triples, 18 home runs and 55 RBIs across 101 games between High-A and Double-A.
Nazzan Zanetello: .254/.365/.500 with eight doubles, one triple, seven home runs and 19 RBIs across 36 games between Rookie Ball and High-A.

Pitchers:

Harry Blum: 66 innings across 40 games with a 6.41 ERA, 61 walks and 76 strikeouts. 39 of those games were with Low-A and one game with High-A.
Madinson Frias: 31 innings across eight games, six starts, with a 6.68 ERA, 19 walks and 23 strikeouts. All eight appearances were with Low-A.
Nicholas Judice: 12 1/3 innings across eight games with a 9.49 ERA, 15 walks and 13 strikeouts. All eight games were with Low-A.
Trennor O’Donnell: 37 2/3 innings across 15 games, four starts, with a 6.69 ERA, 16 walks and 35 strikeouts. He made three starts with Rookie Ball, made three appearances including one start with Low-A and nine appearances out of the bullpen with High-A.
Caden Vire: 14 2/3 innings across 13 games, one start, with a 11.66 ERA, 25 walks and 20 strikeouts. He made one start for Rookie Ball and 12 appearances for Low-A.

For the second time in three seasons (last year they were part of the Salt River Rafters), the Red Sox are one of five teams that are making up the Mesa Solar Sox. Alongside the Los Angeles Angels, Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs, these five teams have each sent eight players to take part in this learning experience.

Following one week of play, the Solar Sox are sitting fifth in the league with a 2-4-1 record (in the AFL if the score is tied after 10 innings, the game is called as a tie), but it isn’t because of a lack of effort from the members of the Red Sox organization. Now, we’ll break down how each of the eight have fared through the first six games.

Antonio Anderson 1B/3B/DH

Anderson may have fared the best out of every position player on the Solar Sox through the first six games. Appearing in five of them, Anderson saw time at first base and designated hitter and slashed .368/.500/.737 along with a double, two home runs and seven RBIs. Overall, he sported a 1.237 OPS as he’s been a force atop the Mesa lineup. On Friday afternoon against the Scottsdale Scorpions, Anderson stepped to the plate in the top of the ninth with Mesa trailing 9-6 and the bases loaded.

What followed next was a grand slam that flew off his bat at 115 mph and traveled 403 feet. While Mesa would end up losing the game 11-10 on a walk off, Anderson continued his hot hitting into the next game on Saturday afternoon.

Entering the bottom of the sixth having gone 0-for-2, Anderson launched his second home run of the AFL roughly 390 feet (there was not Statcast at the field it took place in). The young slugger looks to continue his hot hitting into the second week of the fall season, and the Red Sox should feel optimistic for the slugger’s future after his play down the stretch of the minor league season and now to begin the AFL.

Mason White 2B/SS

White, who has also appeared in five games, hasn’t gotten off to quite as hot of a start as Anderson. Despite the hits not falling in, though, he has still looked decent at the plate. Hitting just .167/.348/.333, White has one home run and one RBI while also showing an ability to get on base with five walks.

The middle infielder hasn’t looked overmatched while playing close to home (White grew up in Tucson and had friends and family to cheer him on during Saturday’s game that took place there). Defensively, he may not have made any flashy plays, but the young infielder has shown a leadership while on the field whether by communicating with teammates where they should be positioned or making the routine plays (because in the AFL, sometimes the routine play is harder to make than it should be). He has appeared at shortstop four times and second base once.

Offensively, White has put together decent at-bats despite the lack of numbers to back that up. While he still struggles at time with movement (of his eight strikeouts, six have been from off-speed or breaking pitches), when given a fastball, he’s been able to put it in play with solid contact.

Entering the second week, the hope is that his batted balls will start to find their way into hits instead of outs.

Nazzan Zanetello 2B/SS/OF/DH

It’s been a rough start to Zanetello/'s professional career. After two seasons where he struggled offensively, the middle infielder missed significant time in 2026. Now playing in the AFL with Mesa, Zanetello has appeared in six games where, much like White, he has played much better than his numbers would show.

So far, the infielder is slashing .200/.385/.450 with a triple, a home run and two RBIs. He’s also walked six times and stolen two bases. Zanetello has also shown some swing and miss in his game, but that was always expected from him. The promising sign is how he’s been handling the pitching. On Friday afternoon, the young infielder made great contact with a fastball up and in, hitting it 105.1 mph off the bat. The ball was a line drive into the left field corner and should have been a double. However, using his speed and baserunning IQ, he managed to turn it into a triple. Going back to October 4, Zanetello launched a slider 106.9 mph off his bat and deposited it 401 feet into left field to tie the game 3-3.

Defensively, he’s appeared at second base three times, in the outfield once, and as the designated hitter twice. Drafted as a shortstop, Zanetello mainly played second base while getting some reps in the outfield while healthy. His time at shortstop may be officially over as the team has drafted multiple middle infielders since he made his debut in 2023. Despite that, the young utility player has yet to make an error through 34 1/3 innings in the field.

Harry Blum

Blum has appeared in two games so far, pitching a total of 2 1/3 innings and allowing one run on three hits. The control issues that he dealt with in the minor-league season have continued as he’s walked three so far, but he's balanced that out with three strikeouts.

His first appearance went very well as he tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings while working around a hit and two walks. His fastball topped out at 96.8 mph and managed to generate six whiffs.

His second outing could have gone better. Entering in the ninth inning of a tied game, Blum was tasked with getting the game to extra innings. Instead, he allowed the winning run to reach base with a one-out double before striking out the next batter and allowing a two-out walk to Kevin Bazzell. Then, he allowed the game-winning hit to Kyle West, giving the Salt River Rafters a 4-3 walk off win.

In that outing, his fastball peaked at 95.3 mph and he managed to generate four whiffs.

Madinson Frias

Frias has appeared in just one game so far, tossing two innings and allowing one run on two hits and two walks. He also struck out two batters. Unfortunately, the outing didn’t start off well for him as a wild pitch to his first batter allowed the Scottsdale Scorpions to take a 4-1 lead.

The right-hander managed to get his fastball to top out at 96.9 mph and generated two whiffs in the outing.

At one point, Frias managed to retire four straight batters before things started to unravel in the fourth inning. He managed to work around a leadoff single by retiring the next two batters, but a two-out walk was followed by an infield single to load the bases and end Frias’ day.

Nicholas Judice

Like Frias, Judice has appeared in just one game where he tossed 2 1/3 perfect innings while striking out four batters. The outing was a great sign, as he struggled at times with his control in his limited showing during 2026. However, in his lone outing in the AFL so far, Judice tossed 31 pitches with 22 of them being strikes.

He topped out at 91.2 mph with his sinker while also getting six whiffs total.

Following the outing, Judice left the team temporarily to attend his wedding on October 9 in Louisiana. He should return to the team at some point in the near future.

Trennor O’Donnell

O’Donnell joins the list of Red Sox pitchers who have made one appearance, having tossed three scoreless innings in his lone outing. In that same outing, he walked one and struck out two. The right-hander tossed 40 pitches with 23 of them going for strikes.

He topped out at 92.1 mph and generated three whiffs. Where he seemed to be more impressive was with his secondary offerings, using them well over 50% of the time.

Caden Vire

Vire is the final member of the Red Sox organization to play in the AFL and is one of the few pitchers to appear in more than one game. Making two appearances, Vire tossed 1 2/3 innings across the first week of the season. He allowed one run on one hit and three walks while striking out one batter.

In his first outing, Vire tossed 2/3 of an inning, walking one batter and striking out one. His fastball topped out at 95.8 mph and he generated two whiffs.

His second outing was a bit of a mixed bag. Tossing one inning, he allowed one run on one hit and two walks, and the outing could have been worse if not for some defensive help

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