The Arizona Fall League kicked off on Monday, October 6th, with several of Major League Baseball’s best prospects set to showcase their skills over six weeks in the desert. Fans of the minor leagues can
check in with young players like Sebastian Walcott, Kevin McGonigle, Josue De Paula, and Aidan Miller as they compete and hope to continue their ascension toward the top of the prospect rankings.
The Yankees opted for a slightly different strategy and chose not to send any of their big-name prospects to Arizona. Instead, their crop is made up of several players who have more left in the tank after suffering injuries during the regular season and missing significant time: Bryce Cunningham, Cade Smith, Brady Kirtner, Coby Morales, Hueston Morrill, Manuel Palencia, Adam Stone, and Emmanuel Tejada. These eight players are currently on the roster for the Mesa Solar Sox, who played their first game on Tuesday night.
Cunningham took the mound as the starting pitcher for the Solar Sox, who took on the Surprise Saguaros. The lineup for Surprise was headlined by Walcott, the top prospect in the Texas Rangers’ farm system, as well as Blake Mitchell from the Royals, Marco Dinges from the Brewers, and Dante Nori from the Phillies. The lineup behind Cunningham included Starlyn Caba and PJ Morlando from the Marlins, Aidan Smith and Brailer Guerrero from the Rays, and Max Muncy and Tommy White from the Athletics.
Cunningham pitched two innings, and the results were not pretty. Carson Roccaforte led off the game with a double, and after striking out Walcott and inducing a fly ball from Mitchell, Cunningham allowed an RBI double to Luke Adams, a two-run homer to Wuilfredo Antunez, a double to Dinges, and an RBI single to Daniel Vasquez. He got Nori to ground out to end the inning, but four runs had already scored before the Solar Sox came to the plate.
The second inning was much cleaner. Cunningham induced a groundball from Juan Benjamin, got Roccaforte to pop out, walked Walcott, and ended the inning by getting Mitchell to fly out. He walked Adams to open the third inning, and then was replaced by Holt Jones out of the bullpen to end his night. Cunningham’s final line ended up being 2 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K. He was the only Yankees prospect to make an appearance in the game.
Cunningham didn’t get the results he hoped for in his Arizona Fall League debut, but in a developmental league he should get another chance before too long to shake it off quickly. He was drafted 53rd overall in the second round of the 2024 MLB draft, and spent all of his first professional season in High-A with the Hudson Valley Renegades. He began the season in the same rotation as Ben Hess, Carlos Lagrange, Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, and Kyle Carr, all of whom were promoted at least to Double-A Somerset by the end of the year, but an arm injury knocked Cunningham out from June 4 to August 13 and prevented him from doing the same.
Regardless, Cunningham had a successful first year as a professional and rewarded the Yankees for drafting him despite less-than-deal numbers in college. After posting a 6.43 ERA in 2023 and 4.36 ERA in 2024, Cunningham was able to lower that number to 2.82 in his first season in the organization by cutting back on the number of walks he was allowing and doing a much better job of keeping the ball in the park. The injury allowed him to continue his season in Arizona, and he will likely open 2026 in the rotation for Double-A Somerset.
The rest of the players the Yankees sent to Arizona will look to make their debuts for the Mesa Solar Sox over the next few days. The Arizona Fall League will run through November 15, and should provide further insights into the development process of some players who missed significant time during the regular season.
