Taylor Rabe Photo: Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

I just finished an extended trip to watch instructs and the Arizona Fall League, and I’ve got enough in the notebook for a few posts. We’ll start with some of the looks I got at Royals, Giants, and Padres prospects on the backfields and, in a few cases, during the AFL as well. Let’s hop to it.

Kansas City Royals

Angeibel Gomez, OF

We’ll start with the guy people will ask about first. Gomez is a tapered 6-foot-2. While he isn’t a freaky athlete in the Elly De La Cruz mold, he’s limber and has a fast bat for a kid his age. Facing some of the best stuff of his life, his feel for hitting stood out. Gomez is athletic in the box, and he was able to fight off above-average velo on the hands, turn around 97 above the belt, and flatten the bat and hit a line drive on a hard fastball up, all while holding his own versus spin. He fouled off a couple tough sliders and took one just beneath the zone. He wasn’t perfect — he expanded the zone a few times and chased a curve in the dirt — but it was a really impressive showing in context.

Where does this go from here? To my eye, Gomez doesn’t look like an early-mature guy, but he also isn’t someone who screams “physical projection” in the way that, say, Sebastian Walcott did at his age. Gomez already has average measurable power, and while there’s room for him to grow into more, my projection leans closer to “comfortably plus” than “80.”

Defensively, he’s playing corner outfield, and didn’t look especially fast there or on the bases. Unless he grows into more speed (certainly possible at his age), he’s probably going to be a righty-hitting right fielder, which puts pressure on the bat. Let’s not bury the lede: This is a 17-year-old on our Top 100, and it appears that he can really hit. That said, on the basis of this very short look, Gomez looks more like a very good prospect than a generational one. Just one man’s guess; we’re in uncharted waters here.

Justin Lamkin, LHP

I saw Lamkin start both during instructs and a week later in the AFL. As advertised, he’s a lefty with excellent touch and feel. He has a repeatable delivery where he’s balanced over the rubber, takes a long stride, and finishes clean. It’s a little deceptive too, as his front leg seems to hang in the air for an extra beat, and hitters didn’t pick up his fastball all that well, even though it sits in the low 90s without the kind of movement that usually misses bats.

Lamkin’s secondaries are pretty good, both above average, and the slider played like a plus pitch against AFL hitters. He’s able to execute both that and his fading change reliably, and aggressive lefties in particular struggled with the former. Continued refinement there will be key, as the slider is more tight than sharp, and when he leaves one up, it’s vulnerable — Washington’s Jorgelys Mota annihilated one that didn’t quite get to the back foot. Still, there’s a lot to like here, and in an era where it’s tough to survive as a starter without a big fastball or outlier secondaries, Lamkin’s pitchability gives him a shot to do so.

Hiro Wyatt, RHP

Wyatt followed Lamkin, both on the backfields and in the AFL. He looked more physical than when I’d seen him over the past couple years, which is a nice development for a player I called “slightly undersized” on this past season’s Royals list. It appears that he’s experimenting with slowing down his already quiet delivery. When I mentioned to a scout that this wasn’t what his delivery looked like last year, he responded by saying, “It’s different than what I saw last week.”

After missing most of 2026 with a core injury, Wyatt’s stuff looked normal. In the course of two outings, he sat 93-95 with sink and missed a few bats with a plus sweeping breaking ball. He’s also got a tighter slider that he doesn’t use much, and a change that tends to flutter in harmlessly. Wyatt falls toward first base at the end of his motion, and he tends to pull the ball with him and mostly locate to the glove side. Injuries have limited his opportunities to refine his feel for the other half of the plate, stretch out, and find a weapon for lefties. I’m also concerned that his timeable cadence and slow stroke will give hitters a comfortable look. Taken together, Wyatt is starting to look more like a reliever or once-through guy than a traditional starter.

Taylor Rabe, RHP

The third arm for KC was Rabe, a late first-rounder in this year’s draft. One of the benefits of seeing a pitcher right behind the plate is getting the hitter’s perspective. This is particularly true with someone like Rabe, whose delivery looks significantly more funky behind the backstop than it does on video. His stride forward has a little hitch in it, and between that and a hidden arm stroke, it’s tough to pick up the ball out of the hand.

Rabe is a downhill thrower. He sat 94-96, and his fastball shape was all over the place. He has two low-spin breaking balls that flash above average and also a change, though he barely threw the latter. A couple balls slipped out of his hand and hit the backstop, but he otherwise was around the plate and didn’t get hit much. Rabe’s deception, variable fastball movement, and odd spin traits make for an unusual profile. He’s athletic, projectable, and doesn’t have a lot of high-level baseball under his belt — he threw just 92.1 innings at Ole Miss — all of which makes him an enticing and high-variance arm.

San Francisco Giants

Carson Bolemon, LHP

Bolemon looked great in his brief outing, where he mostly pitched to the scouting report. At 6-foot-4 and every bit of the 215 pounds he’s listed at, he’s a physical lefty, particularly for his age. He has great body control and a loose, hidden arm stroke that helps his low-90s fastball play a little ahead of the number. His command is advanced for a high schooler, and with his delivery and frame, it could be plus at maturity. Both his low-80s curve and mid-80s change flashed plus, and he also worked in a mid-80s slider once or twice (I went down the line for a few at-bats and didn’t get a great look at that last pitch). It’s the foundation of a mid-rotation pitching prospect, particularly if the Giants can coax an extra tick or two out of him.

Henry Lalane, LHP

Lalane only threw one inning, but he flashed three above-average or better pitches. The fastball — 95-97, unremarkable traits — was the least interesting pitch in the holster. His upper-80s change sinks and fades late, and it missed a couple bats, including that of Angels’ third-rounder Gavin Grahovac. And while he doesn’t have a great raw spin rate, Lalane’s mid-80s slider is sharp and also flashed. The only ding is that Lalane isn’t especially loose. One scout who has seen him over several years remarked that he “looks stiffer” than he did back when he was in the FCL with the Yankees. Still, he throws strikes and can hit the box with all three pitches, which gives him both a chance to start and a lot of upside in relief if he winds up in the bullpen.

Beau Bryans, LHP

Even though Bryans was a seventh-rounder this year, I’m already penciling him in for the main section of the next Giants list. He’s a low-slot lefty with a big crossfire and, in my looks at least, unusually good feel for moving the ball around for a player his age and with his delivery. He sits 94-95 with a flat release angle, and complements it with a slider that’s clearly plus right now, a sweeping, upper-80s bender with late depth. Across two quick outings, it missed a bunch of bats and lefties had no chance. While he wasn’t wild in college, his walk rates from school suggest a future in relief. He could move very quickly in that role if he’s able to hit the box like he did on the backfields.

Drake George, RHP

George was an unheralded 13th-round pick out of Lewis-Clark State in 2024, and he looked like a sleeper starting prospect in 2025 before he tore his UCL. He missed all of the 2026 regular season, and so this outing on the backfields was the first I’d seen from him all year. His velo was down a little in this outing, more 91-94 than the 93-96 he sat at in 2025, and it fell a little over the course of his work. His breaking ball also looked a little slurvier than it did last summer. Still, he threw plenty of strikes and worked with all three of his offerings (he also has a fading change). TJ returners deserve a lot of grace as they work their way back to full strength, so for now, the big conclusion here is that George is healthy, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he looks in longer stretches next spring.

Alberto Laroche, RHP

Laroche is another pitcher back on the bump after missing the 2026 regular season. He’s a loose righty with an easy delivery. He came out throwing 92-94 early in both appearances I saw, and in each case, he warmed up and bumped a couple of 96’s later in the outing. He also worked with an average slider and change. All told, it was a return to form for one of the best arms in the DSL back in 2025.

Alex Solis, RHP

Solis was San Francisco’s 14th-round pick this July. There’s an old axiom about how the hitters will tell you how good a pitch is, and based on how they reacted to Solis’ changeup, his might be a 70. It’s a low-80s split sold with good arm speed, and it had just about every ACL Rockie way out in front en route to missing half a dozen bats in a short outing. The rest of the package — fair athleticism, average arm strength — was less notable. At that point in the draft, though, teams are often just searching for guys with an outlier trait. Solis appears to have one.

San Diego Padres

Jhoan De La Cruz, SS

De La Cruz can really pick it at short. He was rangy in both directions, with a quick release and enough arm for the left side. He still looks very small, though, and after a miserable year at the plate in the ACL, he’ll need to repeat the level.

Tyler Pitzer, RHP

Even though Pitzer had two more years of college eligibility, he signed with San Diego as an undrafted free agent this summer. It looks like a good flier. Pitzer sits in the mid-90s with good carry out of a high slot. His two-plane slider is sharp, upper 80s with good spin. He’s rough around the edges, as he has a deep stroke and a busy delivery that is tricky to line up, but the righty has traits to stay with.

Ty Brachbill, RHP

Brachbill, San Diego’s 14th-rounder this July, is a different kind of lotto ticket. Drafted out of a small Division I school, Brachbill can pitch. He messes with timing, throws strikes, and can add and subtract off of his slider. He was generating about 2800 rpm on his breaking ball, up a few hundred rpm from when he was in school the spring. He doesn’t have much arm strength, and his low-90s fastball doesn’t have great shape, either. Still, the Padres could have something here if a pro strength and conditioning program can help him develop more velocity.