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While there was only one Instructional League game in the Valley on Monday, Tuesday had three options: Los Naranjeros de Hermosillo (a Mexican Pacific League team from Sonora, the Mexican State immediately south of Arizona) was at the Athletics’ facility in Mesa, while the Royals (hosting the Reds) and the Rangers (hosting the Padres) would have simultaneous games at their shared complex in Surprise. I carpooled with Baseball America contributor and photographer, Bill Mitchell, to the northwest end of the metro for those games, with two cameras in tow.

Within minutes of getting to Surprise, I learned that Joe Musgrove and Lucas Giolito were making rehab appearances for the Padres, and that the Royals-Reds game was slated for 11 innings. About 10 minutes before first pitch, I set up a camera at the Royals’ field and began to make my way over to the Rangers’ side to watch Giolito and Musgrove in real time. While anxiously daydreaming about arriving just a tad late to the other field, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings and was nearly hit by an errant Steven Zobac long-toss throw, which whizzed past my shins. Halfway across the parking lot, I was relieved when I heard music coming from the Rangers’ field — they were still getting loose. I made it in time.

Upon arrival, I saw that there were many more scouts (Baltimore, San Diego, Seattle, Colorado, St. Louis) at this field than at Royals-Reds, then took a peek toward the bullpen. It was Giolito warming up to start (and Musgrove just hanging out) as the Rangers defense took the field. Enrique Segura, acquired from the Phillies a couple seasons ago, got the ball for the Rangers. He’s a long-levered 6-foot-3 righty who generates seven feet of extension from a funky low slot aaaaaand… he’s vomiting. Segura faced two batters, politely asked for time, and then proceeded to upchuck behind the mound. The Rangers rolled the inning to tend to him. Content warning for the sympathy pukers out there:

This is, unfortunately, a thing you see from time to time in Arizona; the heat gets to players and/or fans, and they hurl or faint. Twelve months ago, I watched Emiliano Teodo puke on the back of this very mound, and in March a lady standing near the bottom of the press box staircase at Camelback Ranch wilted in the middle of a Dodgers-Giants Cactus League game. I’ve lived here since 2014, but I dress in cooler clothes, find shade whenever I can, and am about as used to the heat as I’ll ever be. We’re finally experiencing a downshift in temps as the summer ends, but it’s crazy that I felt comfortable when it was “only” 94 degrees at first pitch that day. But for someone who doesn’t live here who’s dressed in a polyester blend jersey on a sun-soaked field, I bet it sucks.

All we know is that Segura puked. It could have been a g.i. bug, or food poisoning, or nerves, or any number of things unrelated to the heat. I did not follow up with anyone from Texas afterward to learn of the precise cause. He took a break during the bottom of the first and returned to pitch two more incident-free innings, which he was obviously cleared to do by the RangersÆ staff. He seemed fine to me. Within an hour of feeling initial worry for Segura, Arizona State published the results of an internal investigation into the outdoor workout that caused a hockey player, who is now on life support, to have a heat stroke.

Giolito took the mound in the bottom of the first as I unsuccessfully tried to remember the last time I saw him pitch in person. (It was 2017.) He hasn’t really been healthy or effective since 2023 and has missed most of the last three years with various elbow issues. Though he doesn’t have the physicality or explosiveness of peak Giolito, his size and the quality of his delivery still stand out on a field of minor leaguers. Giolito warmed up with fastballs in the mid-80s and sat 88-90 during his three innings of work. It’s possible he was just coasting, it was an 11 a.m. start in 95-degree heat after all, but this is three or four ticks below where his fastball has been the last several years. I overheard one Padres staffer telling another that Giolito was up to 93 in his previous outing.

Giolito’s changeup is still nasty, and has enough tailing action to miss big league bats, sometimes even when it’s not located well. His curveball (77-78 mph here) has great bite and depth, and at the 5:10 mark, it fools both Rashawn Pinder and the umpire. There are times when you can pick up Giolito’s grip right as his hands break and others when he does a better job of guarding the ball with his body. This was only something that became evident upon review of the video, and is probably easier to see from the batter’s box than from my camera’s point of view, particularly his changeup and curveball grips. Especially if there’s a bit more velo in the tank, Giolito could conceivably spam his secondary stuff and throw the occasional elevated fastball in a bulk low-leverage relief role throughout a season. Is that enough to make the Padres’ playoff roster? Probably not unless they suffer injuries. He’s at the point where each outing he gets in front of scouts is something of a tryout for his next deal.

With Musgrove, though, there is no doubt. If he and the Padres can successfully find a way for him to deal with the trouble he’s had recovering after outings during his Tommy John rehab, he is going to play a meaningful role on their playoff pitching staff. In relief of Giolito’s three innings, Musgrove worked to five batters with 95-96 mph four-seamers, 92-93 mph cutters, and a wipeout low-80s curveball. By my count he spiked one changeup and also dropped down to throw more of a sweeping breaking ball at 84 later on. He overwhelmed the Rangers’ youngsters and faced five batters because, slated to go one inning, Musgrove got three outs too quickly and the inning was extended to give him more reps.

This is special breaking stuff, plus velocity, and plus pitch execution insofar as you can grade that kind of thing in just one inning. The way he gets off the mound and fields his position is exceptional, he’s in phenomenal shape. It wouldn’t shock me if he were the third- or fourth-best reliever in an absolutely stacked Padres bullpen throughout the next six weeks.

Because I am friends with some of the scouts at this field and anticipated that my camera battery over at the Royals’ side would die soon, I went back across the lot to see the final four innings of play over there, knowing that if something notable happened at Padres-Rangers while I was gone, I would hear about it and be able to review film later. It was the seventh inning when I arrived back at Royals-Reds, and Trey Faltine was on the mound. Once a two-way high school prospect whom I preferred on the mound, Faltine played the infield at Texas and in pro ball until now. He worked a third of an inning during the regular season. He can still really spin a breaking ball (one of his has 20 inches of horizontal movement on this day), but his fastball came out the gate sitting about 92. He’s a name to file away for next spring just in case he somehow adds a few ticks during the offseason.

There were a number of interesting position players on the field that I saw for an at-bat or two during the final few innings; then I watched the rest of their swings on tape later. Reds infielders Hansel Jimenez and Tyson Lewis (who played center field on this day), as well as Royals catcher Ricson Gonzalez and outfielder Angeibel Gomez, stand out right away because of either their physicality and projection or both. Gomez is a hyped, high-bonus 2026 signee who had an incredible debut season in the DSL and is now in Arizona for a month-long challenge against select competition. He has enormous shoulders and is remarkably strong for his age, but not the most graceful or fluid athlete. He grounded out in the first at-bat I saw and then homered just to the right of center field in his second, 103 mph off the bat. My camera battery had died, but I whipped out my phone in time to get the swing on tape:

He didn’t even get all of it and still it went out. Half a game of oggling and subsequent tape review of Gomez’s first several at-bats reveals a pretty stuff-bodied athlete with an odd running gait, but undeniable strength, a flexible and powerful lower body throughout his swing, and inoffensive feel for center field. As of publication, the Royals have three more instructional league games left before their work concludes. Seeing at least two of those is likely on the docket for me this week to refine our sense of Gomez’s true ability. He had an incredible season on paper (.361/.467/.653, 10% strikeout rate, 92% zone-contact rate, 50% hard-hit rate) and deciding how much of that we’re willing to take at face value will inform how we line Gomez up on the Top 100 list this offseason.