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KANSAS CITY – While the best of the best compete in the World Series beginning Friday night, the best of the best in the prospect world is competing in the Arizona Fall League this month. The Royals have several Minor Leaguers playing for the Surprise Saguaros, a roster of prospects from the Milwaukee, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Texas organizations. “There are so many different people from different teams who come in; you just get to see a different perspective,” reliever L.P. Langevin said. “For a first-year guy, it’s pretty cool to experience that.” Here’s a quick roundup of how those Royals are doing in the AFL: RHP A.J. Causey 2024 Draft, Round 5, University of Tennessee Causey thrives with a fastball that hovers around 90 mph, but that’s because he has a funky sidearm delivery that helps him get crazy movement and deception with his arsenal. Causey excelled in his first full pro season, posting a 1.72 ERA across High-A Quad Cities and Double-A Northwest Arkansas. He’s a fast mover with a different look that could add to the Royals’ bullpen in the coming years. The AFL has been a little more inconsistent, with Causey allowing seven runs in 4 2/3 innings, but he also has struck out eight in his four appearances. Causey began the year with a sinker, changeup and sweeper, but he added a four-seam fastball this season to help him at the top of the zone. After years of working on adding a cutter, Causey finally found something that works with the four-seamer. “Everything I have pretty much goes down,” Causey said. “So this kind of just opens up the top of the zone, which is really huge with my other pitches.” |
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RHP Dennis Colleran 2024 Draft, Round 7, Northeastern University Colleran saw three levels in 2025, ending the year with a scoreless inning in Double-A. The righty reliever finished the regular season with a 2.85 ERA across 66 1/3 innings. That success has only continued in Arizona, with three scoreless innings, four strikeouts and two walks across three games. Colleran has an electric fastball that sits 98-100 mph. He has a chance to be a late-inning arm if he can get his walks under control. |
RHP L.P. Langevin 2024 Draft, Round 4, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Langevin was an intriguing Draft pick last summer, and he remains an intriguing prospect, even after a right lat strain kept him sidelined until late July this year. The reason for intrigue? Langevin’s fastball. It’s funky and baffles hitters with ride and run. Two games is a small sample, even in the AFL, but Langevin hasn’t allowed a hit yet. He has walked three with three strikeouts and allowed an unearned run. His last outing was pushed back because of a cut on his finger, but overall, he’s starting to feel like himself. “I was all over the place this season because of the injury,” Langevin said. “First time being injured in my career, and being a year-plus removed from competitive baseball. By [fall] instructs this year, I finally felt like I had felt in college compared to this last year in pro ball. And the goal is just to continue that in the Fall League. “The high intensity, not [caring] who the hitter is and just trying to strike everybody else, basically. That’s how I perform best.” Getting on the mound this fall allows Langevin to get a few more innings before going into the offseason healthy, along with showing the Royals and everyone else what he can do when he does get on that mound. RHP Logan Martin 2023 Draft, Round 12, University of Kentucky Martin made 22 starts with High-A this season, posting a 3.45 ERA across 91 1/3 innings. In two starts this fall, he has allowed four runs (three earned) in 5 2/3 innings, with four walks and one strikeout. It has been a slower development for Martin, but he has been fairly durable the past two years. He has limited hits, but he doesn’t miss a lot of bats. The AFL is a chance for him to showcase his stuff against different prospects in a different setting. |
LHP Hunter Owen (No. 26) 2023 Draft, Round 4, Vanderbilt University Owen spent the 2025 season at Double-A and posted a 3.80 ERA across 22 games (19 starts). He dealt with left shoulder tenderness off and on all season, missing a few weeks in July because of it, but otherwise recorded 94 2/3 innings and struck out 107 batters. Owen has made two appearances in the AFL spanning 4 1/3 innings, allowing six runs on 11 hits and one walk with four strikeouts. At 6-foot-6 and 260 pounds, Owen projects still as a workhorse rotation guy, but the Royals might get more out of him in the bullpen, hoping the stuff plays up. That might be in play as he gets closer to the big leagues in the coming years. |
C Blake Mitchell (No. 2) 2023 Draft, Round 1, Sinton (Texas) High School Mitchell had right hamate bone surgery in Spring Training and didn’t get back to an affiliate until July. He logged 49 games with High-A, posting a .207/.372/.296 slash line and just one home run. Hamate injuries can often mess with a hitter long after the surgery, so Mitchell might have been dealing with the effects as he got back on the field. It was a no-brainer to have Mitchell head to the AFL for more at-bats this year. Through his first nine games in the desert, he posted a .167/.405/.167 line, with the average and power struggling to keep up with Mitchell’s on-base percentage, including 12 walks. But Thursday night showed what Mitchell had been missing all year: A three-run home run that came off Mitchell’s bat at 116.5 mph. Mitchell’s defense behind the plate hasn’t seemed to take a step back, and it’s not time to worry about his power yet following the injury. Thursday night showed why. That homerun was exactly what makes Mitchell such a promising prospect. “I've been working on it for a couple of weeks now,” Mitchell told MLB Pipeline’s Sam Dykstra. “Being out earlier in the year with that injury definitely messed up my timing a little bit for sure. Getting so many ABs, getting back into the swing of things definitely helped. Cage work, machine work, being in there and just focused on going early definitely helped.”
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SS Daniel Vazquez (No. 16) 2021 international free agent, Dominican Republic Vazquez has been the best hitter of this group, with a .357/.449/.476 slash line, 11 RBIs and five stolen bases in 11 games. The 21-year-old missed some time this year, so it made sense for him to go back to the AFL. Vazquez has been a slowly developing hitter across his five years with the organization. He finally graduated after three years of Single-A Columbia to High-A this season, where he posted a .685 OPS. |
OF Carson Roccaforte (No. 20) 2023 Draft, Round 2, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Roccaforte is an elite defender in center field and has won back-to-back Frank White Defensive Player of the Year organizational awards. But he has to hit to get that defense to the big leagues, and it’s starting to look better. Roccaforte posted an .862 OPS when he got to Double-A this season, and he has a .294/.432/.441 slash line in nine games in the AFL. The strikeouts are elevated (11), but he has also walked eight times and stolen five bases. Roccaforte doesn’t have a ton of power, but his defense can help carry him if he can continue this sort of offensive performance. |
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