Childhood buddies Ray and Rose battle for bragging rights in the Fall League

MESA, Ariz. -- Put yourself in the shoes of Caden Rose and Dylan Ray. Best friends since childhood growing up in North Alabama, they dreamed of being professional ballplayers. Now they're beginning to see those dreams materialize.

Invited to the Arizona Fall League, they've finally gotten to spend time together in the same place for an extended period, something not afforded by the Minor League season. But there has been one caveat: they have to face each other.

Salt River’s 13-11 win over Mesa on Tuesday night at Sloan Park featured 31 hits, 19 strikeouts and 401 pitches in total -- but it was one six-pitch at-bat in the bottom of the second inning that stood out for both of them.

After sitting around 91-94 mph through the first few batters of the contest, Ray, the D-backs’ No. 16 prospect, knew it was time to take things up a few notches as Rose, a member of the Red Sox system, strode toward the batter’s box. He pumped 96 and 97 mph fastballs by him for strikes one and two.

“I'm gonna be honest: I was trying to go yard,” a laughing Rose said postgame. “He gave me the high heaters. I was amped up.”

For all of the adrenaline, Rose was able to work the count back into his favor, laying off three straight offerings out of the zone. But Ray went back to the fastball on the inner third for the strikeout.

“I'll just say he's gotten me plenty of times in the past and is probably up in the series against [me],” Ray said. “So that was just one out of the many times we faced each other growing up.

“It was a fun thing to do, we've been looking forward to it. We've been talking in all our friend group chats about it. So I was just gonna challenge him; if he got it, he got it. And whatever happened, happened.”

By the end of the night, Ray had compiled seven strikeouts across 2 2/3 frames. Rose got to go yard after all, and it was a grand slam, just against Twins left-hander Kade Bragg in the seventh. Ray got the mano a mano bragging rights, but both got a chance to shine on the prospect stage.

The Fall League is a far distance and half a lifetime away from Huntsville, Ala., in 2011. But it’s also a reminder of how far the duo has come. Having met at 10 years old on a travel ball club, the two had their athletic journeys -- and lives -- intertwined for the next decade. They both starred on the gridiron in high school before staying close to home for college, choosing to attend the University of Alabama.

“I just remember him rolling up and he's bigger than everybody else at the time,” Rose said of his first impression of Ray. “We played from the time we were 10 years old through high school, went to Alabama together and then now here. It's been awesome.”

In that time frame, the two faced off countless times on back fields and in intrasquads as well as in backyards and on dirt lots. A veritable one-two tandem that both hit and pitched at Bob Jones High School in Madison, Ala., they branched off into their respective fields of expertise upon arriving on campus in Tuscaloosa: Ray, the mound; Rose, the batter’s box.

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Bob Jones has produced two big leaguers -- Grant Dayton and Trey Wingenter. But aside from that, the school had been mum on the pro ball front until Ray, Rose and teammate Mitchell Daly (who signed as an undrafted free agent with the Angels in July) joined the ranks. Ray was a fourth-round choice of the D-backs in 2022, Rose a seventh-rounder of the Red Sox a year later. Their Minor League careers have not yet crossed paths but that hasn’t stopped them from thinking about when they could eventually meet on the biggest stage possible: The Show.

“It's the dream. This is what we've worked our whole life for,” Rose said. “We had a really good group of friends growing up that all worked hard and this was our goal. And now it’s started to pay off for us.”