Today the initial rosters for the 2025 Arizona Fall League were released and the Atlanta Braves are presently sending eight prospects to play for the Glendale Desert Dogs, alongside prospects from the Blue Jays, Cardinals, Dodgers, and White Sox.
The AFL is scheduled to run from October 6th to November 15th, and this is a chance for these prospects to gain some additional playing time as well as test themselves against other top prospect competition. The AFL gives these prospects an opportunity to springboard
themselves into a better position heading into the 2026 season.
These are the Braves prospects set to head to the desert this year: Nacho Alvarez, Patrick Clohisy, Drue Hackenberg, Jim Jarvis, Jacob Kroeger, LJ McDonough, Luke Sinnard, and Cory Wall.
For guys like Alvarez and Hackenberg as well as Sinnard, this represents a chance to gain some playing time that they lost due to injuries during the 2025 season. For someone like Kroeger it gives him a chance to test himself against a higher level of competition than he has presently faced. Guys like Clohisy and Jarvis will be trying to build on their strong finishes to the season before heading into their offseason work. Finally for guys like McDonough and Wall, this gives them a chance to try to make a name for themselves.
Sinnard is the most interesting of the bunch, as the Braves third round pick last year missed all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery, then missed some time this year while throwing 72.1 innings split between Augusta and Rome. This will not only help build his innings back up, but lets him face a higher level of competition than he has faced yet in his career.
Alvarez is another key guy to watch, as injuries destroyed his season. Combined between Atlanta and the minors he has been limited to just 240 plate appearances as of this writing. Injuries have also limited Hackenberg to 70 innings this year, and his stuff has gone backwards because of them. The hope for him is that a little time off could help him look closer to the guy we saw in 2024.
