8 stats to remember from the 2024 Arizona Fall League

There’s no denying that the 2024 Arizona Fall League season was historic. There was a little bit of everything in the desert, with record books being rewritten during the 32nd year of prospects putting their skills on display.

It’s always difficult to gauge just how significant six weeks' worth of statistical data is in projecting a player’s future -- was he tired from a long year? Was he champing at the bit after missing time during the regular season?

What we do know is that these eight players put together campaigns that were impressive -- or in some cases, downright funky. It would be tough to extrapolate this out to 162 games, but we can appreciate the work put in to cap official stateside ball for the calendar year.

A Triple Crown fit for a king
Winning a Triple Crown at the Major League level is so difficult, it’s been done just 10 times in AL/NL history since the hypothesis for a nuclear chain reaction was discovered (1933). That makes what Tigers No. 9 prospect Josue Briceño accomplished -- becoming the first batter in Fall League history to hit for the Triple Crown -- all the more impressive, considering it was uncharted territory for the first 31 seasons of league history.

A PCL injury in his right knee kept Briceño out for a good chunk of the summer, but he looked every bit the part of a middle-of-the-order bat in Arizona. More than doubling a majority of the league in total bases (78), Briceño also led the way in average (.433), slugging percentage (.876), homers (10), RBIs (27), OPS (1.376) and hits (39). Maybe unsurprisingly, that demolition of Fall League pitching earned him Joe Black MVP Award honors, making him the first Venezuelan to win since Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2017.

Racing into the record books
Caleb Durbin wanted the Fall League’s single-season stolen-base crown in 2023. He had to wait a year, but he eventually got it with 29 steals in just 24 games for Salt River. Also the circuit’s all-time stolen-base champ (50), Durbin played his way onto the Yankees’ 40-man roster while being caught just once on the basepaths.

Having drawn significant praise from New York skipper Aaron Boone, the 24-year-old appears months away from becoming the first player drafted out of Division III Washington University (St. Louis) to make it to The Show.

📩 SUBSCRIBE TO THE BASEBALL TRAVELER NEWSLETTER

‘Til dingers do us part
Batters love hitting in the Arizona Fall League. But how much did Marlins No. 12 prospect Kemp Alderman want to be in the desert? He squeezed in a stint with Peoria right before his nuptials.

Alderman slugged six homers in nine contests before leaving the circuit to get married and go on his honeymoon. After a broken left hand took a chunk out of his regular season, he made up for lost time by going deep in four straight games to open the season, including a 119.5 mph rocket that clocked in as the league’s hardest-hit ball. It was just 40 plate appearances, but his .528 ISO was a glimpse into the gargantuan power that the 2023 second-rounder possesses.

Big Justice has been served
Any time you go the length of an entire season without allowing a hit, you’re doing something right. Sure, Evan Justice appeared just nine times for Salt River, but he came just one out shy of throwing a combined no-hitter all on his own.

Equipped with a new-look sinker, the Rockies southpaw posted a dazzling .000 average-against, throwing the most innings (8 2/3) of any pitcher who ever finished the circuit without giving up a hit. (His 0.12 WHIP wasn’t too shabby either.) For good measure, Justice closed out the AFL Championship Game with -- you guessed it -- a hitless ninth inning.

Chasing the right kind of numbers game
When the 2024 regular season began, Chase Solesky was pitching for the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars of the independent Atlantic League. Released by the only organization he had known (White Sox), Solesky found new life with the Nationals beginning in June, even if he was striking out batters at a pedestrian 5.5 K/9 rate at Double-A.

That makes his 20:1 K:BB ratio during his time with the Rafters all the more eye-popping. Working primarily with a low-90s heater, upper-80s cutter and mid-80s slider, the righty established his bonafides as one of the more senior hurlers on the circuit by compiling 20 strikeouts in 13 innings while allowing just one free pass. Released at the start of the year, he was a champion at the end of it.

Meyday every time Luis pitched
Coming out of the bullpen pumping triple-digit heat is a surefire way to garner attention. While command hasn't always been Luis Mey's strong suit, he was able to compile a dominant scoreless campaign for Glendale that included the 34 fastest pitches in the league (maxing out at 101.8 mph) en route to being named the league's Reliever of the Year.

Mey went 6-for-6 on save chances, tying him for the second-highest total recorded in a single AFL campaign (one behind the record). The last Fall Leaguer to notch six saves? Carlos Estévez in 2015, who was big league-bound the following year and hasn’t looked back, becoming an All-Star and bullpen stalwart since.

The strongest arm in the West
One of the premier aspects of the Fall League is the fact that two-thirds of the parks where games are regularly played have been equipped with Statcast technology. Arguably, no player benefited from that as much as Antonio Gomez, whose dynamic arm strength was evident on a 90.6 mph throw on an attempted steal, a mark that was bested just four times by MLB catchers during the regular season.

The Yankees prospect was responsible for the six hardest throws from behind the dish and 12 of the top 14. The 23-year-old also recorded the top eight pop times on throws to second base, with his top mark of 1.75 seconds being bested just once in the bigs this season -- by San Francisco’s Patrick Bailey (1.74).

'But what does he do? He gets on base'
While every batter steps into the box with the goal of getting a hit, Ryan Ritter was actually better at getting hit by the pitch rather than connecting with his bat. Getting plunked seven times vs. his six base hits gave rise to one of the odder-looking slash lines in Fall League history: .150/.477/.350.

In addition to his propensity to wear one from the opposition, the Rockies’ No. 12 prospect also drew nearly as many walks (18) as he struck out (19). He missed a stretch of two weeks due to injury, then promptly slugged a walk-off homer in his return. And while the stats won’t officially count, the 24-year-old ended his year with back-to-back multihit games to help Salt River seal its title.