Moises Ballesteros Continues to Terrorize Arizona Fall League, and Cubs Might Have an Arm There, Too

[Matthew Trueblood]

As we hit the three-week mark of the Arizona Fall League season, let’s recap some of the trends we’ve seen from the Chicago Cubs contingent spending their October (and part of November) in Mesa. 

Image courtesy of © Austin Hough / South Bend Trobune / USA TODAY NETWORK

On the position side, Moises Ballesteros has continued to flash much of what made him such an enticing prospect throughout 2024. He’s shown the power, utilizing his work behind the plate to key his development as a hitter. Jonathon Long has showcased the power bat that is one of his hallmarks. Ben Cowles has demonstrated a keen approach, but has struggled to produce hits consistently. Up on the bump, it’s been more of a mixed bag. 

So much of what we saw in Week 3 makes plenty of sense. 

Ballesteros started the week off with an 0-for-5 dud of a performance on Tuesday. But he came back out on Wednesday and went 2-for-4 with a double and homer, his third of each during the fall slate. He added three more hits (including his fourth homer) on Friday to round out the week. He’s now at a .391/.431/.717 line for the fall, with just seven strikeouts against four walks. Suffice to say, his AFL stint has been just about everything we could have hoped for.

Long and Cowles also maintained much of what we’ve seen from them for the Solar Sox. The former knocked in a pair of runs with a hit on Wednesday before slugging his third home run of the fall on Thursday. He drove in another run with a hit on Friday. He’s hitting .317 across 46 plate appearances, with his 13 RBIs pacing Mesa thus far. Cowles was 1-for-7 between Tuesday and Wednesday, before recording three hits in a 14-run Solar Sox outburst on Friday. It’s been uneven, but he has his batting average up to .244 and is maintaining a .354 OBP through 48 trips to the plate, despite a slow start. 

Cubs pitchers were spread quite a bit throughout the week. Vince Reilly kicked off the week for the North Side delegation, as he threw two shutout innings in Tuesday’s loss to Surprise, with a strikeout, walk, and hit recorded throughout. The next day, Mesa turned to Grant Kipp, who turned in a lovely start. He threw three innings and struck out five in what was perhaps the biggest highlight from Chicago pitching for the week—especially given how much of a struggle the end of it turned out to be. Kipp only sits 92-93 MPH and will turn 25 years old next month, but he does have an interesting pair of breaking balls and stands 6-foot-6. It would make a lot of sense to move him to the bullpen next year and see if he can take a forward leap.

Friday was a busy one that saw three Cub arms take the mound, including a start from Luis Rujano. Rujano struggled across his two innings, with three strikeouts, three walks, two hits, and a pair of runs mixed in a busy couple of innings. Shane Marshall appeared later in that game, with a scoreless inning in the midst of a difficult fall season. That appearance dropped his ERA in the AFL to… 20.25. Sam Thoresen appeared in the ninth inning of what was, at that point, a blowout against Peoria. Five walks, a hit, and four unearned runs later, it was a 14-10 Mesa win that required a late save from Athletics prospect Wander Guante. Reilly bookended the week with another inning (and a save) against Glendale on Saturday, despite three walks in his single inning of work.

So this week for the Mesa Solar Sox, as it relates to the Cubs, was much like the first two. Some really nice stuff from the hitters and an extremely mixed bag of outings from the arms. After a day off on Sunday, the Sox will head back out to Surprise ahead of an actual full week of games.

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