Your Arizona Fall League Angels
October 5, 2025 - Written by Noah Pohle
Photo Credit: @ryan.costeiu - Instagram
On a personal level, I am glad to see the summer come to an end, as a resident of Tempe, Arizona. The days are getting noticeably shorter,windy days are more frequent, the leaves are falling, and for me, that brings about the end of perpetual 100+ degree days. This time of year also brings about many intriguing storylines to follow as the baseball season nears its climax, and plenty of regular-season games with playoff implications. Unfortunately for those of us who root for the Halos, we were again not involved in many of these dramatics, save for successfully spoiling Houston’s playoff hopes in the final series of the year.
For the majority of minor-league baseball players, the offseason has already begun. However, one more thing also blows in with the autumn wind in the Phoenix area; the Arizona Fall League, where every fall, each team sends eight players to create 6 teams, as a sort of “finishing school”, as Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery called it. They will play games for about a month before a postseason tournament, with an All-Star game and Home Run Derby annually hosted at Sloan Park, within 10 minutes from my residence. I attended both events the last two years and had the chance to watch players like Nick Kurtz, Moisés Ballesteros, and Jac Caglianone, among many other notables. I have come to anticipate the Fall League coming around for the opportunity to get an extra look at prospects I probably wouldn’t be able to view otherwise, Angels or not, and in a more exclusive environment than almost any other viewing experience I have shared, as the majority of the attendees are baseball staffers, families, and college kids like myself, who just want to watch baseball.
Anyways, now let’s get to what I hope you came for, a preview at the 8 prospects the Angels selected to participate in the offseason league:
David Mershon
David Mershon appeared in the Fall League in 2024, just four months after being drafted in the 19th round. He took 38 PA’s (plate appearances) in the Fall League after 130 PA’s in AA following the draft, then appeared again in 2025 for AA Rocket City but lost time due to injury. He made 276 below-average plate appearances, and even had 57 emergency AAA PA’s, but it was a disappointing season overall after an AFL assignment in 2024.
Listed at 5’ 7, 175 lbs, Mershon may never make much of an impact at the plate, but his drive and competitiveness were factors in the Angels keying in on him late in the draft. He has posted solid contact rates, shown above-average plate discipline, is able to play all over the infield and even some center field, runs the bases well and can steal, which is a lot of secondary traits to fit into one sentence. He could be a solid utility player, and is looking for more reps after an injury-shortened season.
Raudi Rodriguez
The Angels’ 19th round pick in 2023, Raudi Rodriguez, was seen as a loud prep bat who was relatively unpolished, yet he has come through on his upside with a breakout season in his full-season debut. In 560 PA’s he was 30% better than league average by wRC+ at the level while playing some center field, firmly placing himself on the prospect map.
Listed at 6’ 0, 190, Rodriguez runs well and was solid in both right field, where he spent the majority of his time, and center, where he racked up 239.1 innings of duty. He used his speed to rack up a ton of extra bases, but he did put 14 over the fence as well. The Angels are testing Rodriguez here, but a nice showing in the AFL would go a long way towards proving this breakout is real.
Juan Flores
Juan Flores is a Venezuelan catcher who signed for a modest bonus during the 2023 international amateur signing period. After spending his first professional season in the DSL, he was another recipient of the Angels’ quick-rising prospect strategy. Flores made his stateside debut at the Low-A level, forgoing the Arizona Complex League, and was even promoted to High-A before the 2024 season ended, and before Flores’ 19th birthday.
He has, at most, shown league-average for his level with the bat, and his listing is 5’ 10, 215, but he is so young that his results must be taken with some grain of salt. The reason he is being pushed quickly, anyways, is his glove and not his bat. He has been lauded for his glovework behind the dish in all facets; his blocking and throwing may be ahead of his receiving, but he was the Angels’ third catcher through 2025 Spring Training. Getting opportunities like the AFL through his defense could lead to his offense eventually improving.
Brandon Dufault
Dufault is another repeat customer, as he participated in the Fall League in 2024. He threw 5.1 AFL innings for his first games of the 2024 season; he was a 16th round draft pick out of Northeastern in 2021 and slowly climbed the ladder to reach AA in 2023, before he blew out and missed most of that season and all of the 2024 Minor League season. He was Rule 5 Draft eligible last season, and will be again this season. After pitching in the AFL last season, he topped out in 2025 at the Angels’ Low-A affiliate, where he started 14 games and worked 60 innings.
Brandon Dufault has had velocity since his college days, but he has seemingly had difficulty rounding out the rest of his arsenal. He throws a slider and a changeup to complement his fastball, but might be lacking even average movement. He will turn 27 during the AFL, and walked exactly as many batters as he struck out here in 2025. The Angels are hoping he has more rust to shake off from his long injury layoff.
Ryan Costeiu
Another 2021 draft pick (7th round) who sustained a major injury only to bounce back and make starts, Ryan Costeiu blew out in 2022 before returning in 2024 to dominate batters at the High-A level to the tune of a .162 BAA (batting average against) through 74.1 innings. He was then unprotected and unselected in the Rule 5 Draft. Repeating the level in 2025, the bottom-line results backed up a bit, but Costeiu was never going to sustain such a low BAA, and he actually traded 2% worth of walks for strikeouts, factors that led FIP to estimate the 24-year-old (25 this offseason) drew some bad luck throughout his 118.2 innings.
His mid-90’s fastball at Arkansas backed up into the low-90’s in the Angels’ organization, though his changeup has made notable progression. He also offers a slow curveball that helps him get through lineups in the low levels, but doesn’t seem like it would fool many big league hitters. His solid fastball shape and increasingly consistent changeup are a good start, but he ended his season by debuting at the AA level and making four appearances out of the bullpen, after one start. This AFL stint is likely an opportunity for Costeiu to gain familiarity with a new role, and if he shows enough growth with a breaking ball, he could perhaps still regain trust for a MiLB rotation role in 2026.
Fulton Lockhart
Fulton Lockhart joined the Angels out of College of Central Florida as a 13th rounder in the 2024 draft. He has all of 40 professional innings to his name, but he has shown standout stuff from a small-school draft pick. His fastball has reached 101, and he gets consistent shape on a curveball while also throwing a changeup and slider with less consistency, both in location and movement. Lockhart has shown improved ability to get distinctive movement on different pitches since joining the Angels’ system.
Locating the baseball, much less command, will be the biggest obstacle here, as he has 48 walks in those 40 professional relief innings. There is high-leverage stuff here, but he needs to get it in-zone to earn that trust. What’s a good way to figure out where your pitches are going? The Angels are telling Lockhart to keep throwing them this year, and the 21-year-old (22 this winter) will try to take a step forward with his control in the AFL.
Najer Victor
Najer Victor was a 2024 draftee, a senior sign out of University of Central Florida (different from Lockhart’s school) taken in the 14th round. A pure reliever, he has only worked 48.1 professional innings so far in his young career, with 10 innings thrown in Low-A last season, 20 more at the same level here in 2025, and then 20 High-A innings after a midseason promotion. He has improved at each stop along his career so far while carrying a strikeout rate above 30% at each level he has appeared, though while he has been incrementally improving his walk rate, he still has some strides to make in the command department.
Repertoire-wise, Victor has improved a tick on his fastball with the Angels that has topped out at 99, and breaks a two-plane slider off of that, which consistently moves well but lacks present feel, as he was able to live off of mainly his fastball in college. The 23-year-old (24 this winter) could have a quick rise through the Angels’ farm if he is able to better harness his two plus pitches via more reps in the AFL.
Will Gervase
The sole Halos left-handed pitcher selected to participate this fall, Will Gervase was selected out of Wake Forest in the 16th round of the 2024 draft. He stands out for his 6’ 9 stature, and throws from a true sidearm slot. Common for throwers of his size, he has struggled to get the ball in the zone enough to be effective since his college days, but for such a tall guy, his throwing motion looks comfortable enough to foresee improvement.
He sits in the mid-90s with his fastball even with the sidearm look, and any 6’ 9 lefty would make any hitter feel uncomfortable in the batters’ box. He works with a tight, horizontal slider that might be more of a slow cutter in its current state. If he can work on his secondary pitches and find the zone, he is such a rare look out of a bullpen that giving him these reps in the AFL is a worthwhile venture.
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