The 2025 Arizona Fall League season wrapped up and I regret to inform you that the Surprise Saguaros won the title for the third time in the past four years. But the Mesa Solar Sox almost surprised the Saguaros in the semifinal
before finally succumbing on a walk-off RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Cubs prospect Owen Ayers was honored with the AFL “Breakout Player of the Year” Award. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I assume it means he was the player who surprised everyone the most with his superior play. Ayers had an excellent campaign in the AFL, which was all the more impressive when you realize that Ayers has never played above Low-A Myrtle Beach and that the AFL is traditionally for players in Double-A and above.
Just as a reminder, the Arizona Fall League is a postseason minor league where prospects can get in more work before the winter starts. The Mesa Solar Sox are the team that Cubs prospects play for and the team plays their home games at the Cubs Spring Training home of Sloan Park. The other four teams with players on the Solar Sox this year are the Athletics, Yankees, Marlins and Rays.
For more information, check out the check out the week one, week two, week three, week four and week five updates.
The 2025 AFL season was cut short so in order to finish the season before the torrential rains that are pounding the western third of the country came to Arizona on Saturday night. So that means that the Solar Sox played just two regular season games this week and then two playoff games. They won the first three and, as noted above, gave up a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth in the semifinal.
The Solar Sox finished the regular season 14-14, which put them in third place in the six-team AFL. Here are the two regular season games this past week. The home team is listed second.
Monday, November 10: Solar Sox 2, Glendale Desert Dogs 1
Tuesday, November 11: Peoria Javelinas 3, Solar Sox 5
And here are the two playoff games.
Wednesday, November 12: Salt River Rafters 0, Solar Sox 3
Thursday, November 13: Solar Sox 3, Surprise Saguaros 4
Here’s how the Solar Sox did this past week. I’m adding the regular season games together with the playoff games for the weekly totals, but note that the “season” stats only count the regular season games.
Catcher Owen Ayers: Ayers was the AFL “Breakout Player of the Year” for his strong campaign. As I noted above, it’s impressive considering that Ayers has only played as high as Myrtle Beach.
Ayers played in the final game of the regular season in Tuesday and went 2 for 3 with a walk and two RBI. In Wednesday’s playoff win, he was responsible for all three Mesa runs with a three-run home run in the fifth inning. Then in the semifinal, Ayers went 1 for 2 with two walks and a stolen base. He also had an RBI and a run scored as part of a three-run sixth inning that tied the game up.
So for the week, Ayers was 4 for 9 with a home run, a stolen base and three walks. He drove in six runs and scored two. For the entire AFL regular season, Ayers hit .379/.539/.591 with three home runs. Ayers led the Solar Sox in the three percentage stats and was fourth in the league in batting average, second in on-base percentage and eighth in slugging.
Utility player Ed Howard: Howard played in both of the regular season games for Mesa this past week, but did not play in the two playoff games. He played left field in both games and went 1 for 5 with two walks. He scored once and had one RBI.
For the AFL regular season, Howard hit .222/.354/.259 with four steals. He certainly did better as the season went on after a terrible start to the campaign.
Corner infielder Cole Mathis: Mathis played first base and went 1 for 3 with two walks and an RBI in Monday’s win over Glendale before sitting in the regular season finale. Mathis played first base in both playoff games and went 0 for 6 with a walk. The one walk, however, started that three-run rally in the top of the sixth in Thursday’s game. He scored that one time. So I guess that’s 1 for 9 with three walks over the week.
For the AFL regular season, Mathis hit .280/.439/.400 with two home runs and three steals.
Catcher Logan Poteet: Poteet did not play in the final week of the season. He only played in six games in the regular season, putting up a line of .158/.200/.263 with two doubles.
Right-hander Luis Martinez-Gomez: Martinez-Gomez pitched three innings of scoreless relief in Wednesday’s playoff game and ended up getting the win. So a Cubs pitcher got the win in the playoff game and a Cubs hitter provided all the runs. Martinez-Gomez gave up one hit on Wednesday. He struck out three and walked no one.
For the AFL season, Martinez-Gomez threw seven games and made one start. He finished with a 2-1 record with one save. His ERA was 3.86. Over 9 1/3 innings, he struck out 16 and walked five.
Right-hander Koen Moreno: Moreno pitched three crucial innings of relief in Thursday’s semifinal. He allowed one run, but he kept the game close, which allowed Mesa to tie the game up in the sixth inning. Moreno finished his outing on Thursday allowing one run on one hit over three innings. He walked four and struck out five.
For the regular season, Moreno was 0-1 and also had a 3.86 ERA. Over three starts and two relief appearances, Moreno threw 14 innings. He struck out 18 and walked seven.
Right-hander Mat Peters: Peters pitched the bottom of the ninth in the regular season finale on Tuesday and got the save. He did his best Wild Thing impersonation as he walked three batters and struck out the other three batters he faced.
Peters finished the year throwing nine innings in eight relief appearances. Peters walked 13 batters and struck out five while posting an ERA of 9.00
Right-hander JP Wheat: Wheat did not pitch in the final week of the AFL season. Overall, he went 0-2 with a 23.63 ERA over six relief appearances. That’s probably why he didn’t pitch in the final week. Wheat threw 5.1 innings while striking out five and walking a whopping 16 batters.
