Wednesday's top AFL prospect performers

Here are the top eight performers from Wednesday, Oct. 13 in the Arizona Fall League.

Mets: Brett Baty 3B (MLB No. 45); Carlos Cortes, 2B/OF (No. 10) Peoria Javelinas
A pair of Mets prospects had stellar starts to their 2021 AFL season. Facing MLB’s No. 4 left-handed prospect MacKenzie Gore, Baty was hit by a pitch and singled twice, scoring from first on top Tigers prospect Spencer Torkelson’s game-tying double in the fifth. The Mets’ No. 2 prospect ended his day 3-for-3 -- all singles -- with two runs scored, a walk and a hit by pitch in his Fall League debut. One of Baty's base hits registered an exit velocity of 108.7 while another was clocked at 106.5, giving him two of the four hardest hit balls in the game.

Batting out of the leadoff spot, Cortes smacked the very first pitch he saw from Gore for a single and later torched a 102.1 mph triple off a 97 mph fastball en route to a 3-for-4 performance at the dish. Cortes only tallied three three-hit games and just one triple in 79 games with Double-A Binghamton. The 24-year-old also walked and scored a run in Salt Rivers’ 6-5 win over Peoria.

Cubs: Nelson Velazquez, OF (No. 29), Mesa Solar Sox
Velazquez collected three of Mesa’s four hits, including a pair of doubles. Velazquez was the only player to record a hit off Surprise starter Asa Lacy when he smacked a single to lead off the second inning. In 103 games across two levels in the regular season, he tallied 45 extra-base hits (23 doubles) and never doubled twice in a game. He closed out the final month of the year with his first taste of Double-A, finishing with a .270 average and a .829 OPS.

Mariners: Zach DeLoach, OF (No. 6), Peoria Javelinas
In his Arizona Fall League debut, DeLoach only tallied one hit, but he sure made it counted. The Texas A&M product clobbered a 429-foot home run to break a 2-2 tie for Peoria in the sixth inning. A second-rounder in the 2020 Draft, DeLoach hit 14 homers in his professional debut in 107 games across two levels in 2021. The 23-year-old struggled in Double-A after hitting at a .313 clip in High-A, but the dinger, which came on a 2-2 pitch, was an encouraging sign for the slugger as he kicks off his fall league campaign.

Royals: Asa Lacy, LHP (MLB No. 66), Surprise Saguaros
Coming off an up-and-down campaign in his first professional season, Lacy turned it up a notch as he fanned four batters across two scoreless innings in his Arizona Fall League debut with Surprise. In his first inning of work, the Royals’ No. 3 prospect struck out the first two batters on six pitches and needed only seven pitches to retire the side. The 22-year-old allowed one hit and one walk as he looks to bounce back from his 5.19 ERA in 52 innings with High-A Quad Cities. More »

Nationals: Cole Henry, RHP (No. 7), Surprise Saguaros
Henry was unhittable in his Arizona Fall League debut. The 22-year-old tossed 2 2/3 hitless innings, the longest outing for a Surprise pitcher as part of the Saguaros’ 5-0 blanking of Mesa. Henry struck out six of the nine batters he faced and allowed a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh to end his outing. The 6-foot-4 righty hurled 25 of his 36 pitches for strikes and fanned four of his six strikeout victims on just three pitches. Henry’s outing was par for the course, as he posted a 2.30 ERA in 47 innings across two levels in his first professional season, and he’s coming off a September in which he allowed just one earned run in three starts.

Phillies: Bryson Stott, SS (MLB No. 97), Peoria Javelinas
Stott drew 65 walks in 112 games across three levels in 2021, and he showed off his keen eye in the first game of the 2021 Arizona Fall League season by drawing three walks, collecting two hits, scoring twice and stealing a base. The Phillies’ No. 2 prospect rose all the way from High-A to Triple-A in his second Minor League season, and for good reason. He slashed a clean .299/.390/.486 in the regular season with 71 hits (44 of them going for extra bases) and 10 steals, batting no lower than .288 in any of his three stops.

Cardinals: Nolan Gorman, 2B/3B (MLB No. 24), Glendale Desert Dogs
Facing Red Sox prospect Connor Seabold in a 1-1 game with two men on, Gorman parked a 1-1 pitch over the wall for a three-run dinger to break the tie in the third inning and ultimately seal Glendale’s 4-3 Opening Day win. The Cards’ top prospect showed off his 60-grade power in 2021, setting new career-highs in both homers (25) and RBIs (75) in the regular season. He’s off to a good start in this six-week season, finishing his day 1-for-2 with a walk. More »

Red Sox: Triston Casas, 1B (MLB No. 18), Scottsdale Scorpions
Casas got the scoring started for Scottsdale in the last of three Opening Day games, crushing a solo homer in his first at-bat to even up the score in the second inning. The second-ranked Red Sox prospect went 2-for-4 and drove in two of the Scorpions’ three runs on the day. Casas earned a promotion to Triple-A after slashing a torrid .366/.519/.878 for Double-A Portland in September, playing his final nine games of the regular season in Worcester. He clubbed 14 homers and drove in 59 runs in 86 games.